The Player
Encyclopedia
The Player is a 1992 American satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 film directed by Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...

 from a screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

 by Michael Tolkin
Michael Tolkin
Michael L. Tolkin is an American filmmaker and novelist. He has written numerous screenplays, including The Player , which he adapted from his 1988 book by the same name, and for which he received the 1993 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay...

 based on his own 1988 novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 of the same name.
It is the story of Hollywood studio
Movie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...

 executive Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...

) who murders an aspiring screenwriter he believed was sending him death threats.

The film is loaded with film references and Hollywood insider jokes and functions as a critique of a movie business that treats artists poorly and sacrifices quality for commercial success. It may seem surprising that around sixty Hollywood celebrities agreed to play themselves
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 in the film, but Altman himself insisted, "It is a very mild satire," offending no one.

Plot

Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...

) is a studio executive dating story editor Bonnie Sherow (Cynthia Stevenson
Cynthia Stevenson
Cynthia Stevenson is an American actress.Stevenson was born in Oakland, California, the daughter of Gayle, an editor, and Al Stevenson, an upholstery warehouse owner. She grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia....

). He hears story pitches from screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

s and decides which have the potential to be made into films, green-lighting only 12 out of 50,000 submissions every year. His job is endangered when up-and-coming story executive Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher
Peter Gallagher
Peter Killian Gallagher is an American actor, musician and writer. Since 1980, Gallagher has played many roles in numerous Hollywood films. He starred as Sandy Cohen in the television drama series The O.C. from 2003 to 2007...

) begins working at the studio. Mill has also been receiving threatening postcards, assumed to be from a screenwriter whose pitch he rejected.

Mill surmises that the disgruntled writer is David Kahane (Vincent D’Onofrio). Mill lurks around Kahane's home and is told by Kahane's girlfriend, June Gudmundsdottir (Greta Scacchi
Greta Scacchi
Greta Scacchi is an Italian-Australian actor.-Early life:Scacchi was born Greta Gracco in Milan, Italy, on 18 February 1960, the daughter of Luca Scacchi Gracco, an Italian art dealer and painter, and Pamela Carsaniga, an English dancer and antiques dealer...

), whom he watches while talking to her on the phone, that Kahane is at a showing of The Bicycle Thief
Bicycle Thieves
Bicycle Thieves , also known as The Bicycle Thief, is a 1948 Italian neorealist film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of a poor man searching the streets of Rome for his stolen bicycle, which he needs to be able to work. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Luigi...

. Mill goes to the theater, pretending to recognize Kahane after the film and offering him a scriptwriting deal, hoping this will stop the threats. The two go to a nearby bar and have some drinks. Kahane gets intoxicated and rebuffs Mill’s offer; he calls Mill a liar, pointing out that Mill only saw the last five minutes of The Bicycle Thief, and denying responsibility for sending Mill postcards. Kahane continues goading Mill about his job security at the studio. In the bar's parking lot the two men fight and Mill kills Kahane in a rage, making the death look like a robbery gone wrong.

The next day, Mill receives another postcard. Mill attends Kahane’s funeral and gets along with June; she knows none of the other mourners. Studio chief of security Walter Stuckel (Fred Ward
Fred Ward
Freddie Joe "Fred" Ward is an American actor. He began his career in 1979 alongside Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz. He is best known for his starring roles in the motion pictures Remo Williams, Tremors, Henry & June, Short Cuts, The Right Stuff and Exit Speed...

) confronts Mill about the murder and says that the police know Mill was the last one to see Kahane alive. Detectives Avery (Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...

) and DeLongpre (Lyle Lovett
Lyle Lovett
Lyle Pearce Lovett is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded thirteen albums and released 21 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man"...

) suspect Mill is guilty of murder. They question him and DeLongpre keeps an eye on him. Mill receives a postcard from the writer suggesting they meet at a club. While Mill is waiting, he is cornered by two screenwriters who pitch Habeas Corpus, a film featuring no major stars and with a depressing ending. Leaving the club, Mill receives a fax from the stalking writer in his Range Rover
Range Rover
The Range Rover is a large luxury four-wheel drive sport utility vehicle produced by British car maker Land Rover. The model, launched in 1970, is now in its third generation...

, advising him to look under his raincoat, where he discovers a live rattlesnake
Rattlesnake
Rattlesnakes are a group of venomous snakes of the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus of the subfamily Crotalinae . There are 32 known species of rattlesnake, with between 65-70 subspecies, all native to the Americas, ranging from southern Alberta and southern British Columbia in Canada to Central...

.

The near-death experience makes Griffin realize he has feelings for June. Having persuaded Bonnie to leave for New York on studio business, Griffin takes June to a Hollywood awards banquet and their relationship blossoms. Apprehensive that Levy continues encroaching on his job, Mill phones Levy and invites the two writers to pitch Habeas Corpus. Mill convinces Levy that the scenario is good and the movie will be an Oscar contender. Mill plans to let Levy shepherd the film through production and have it flop. Mill will step in at the last moment, suggesting some changes to salvage the film’s box office, letting him reclaim his position at the studio.

Mill asks June to go away with him to Acapulco, and Bonnie confronts him about his relationship with June. At the airport, Griffin discovers DeLongpre with police officers patrolling the terminal. He pretends to have left his passport at home and suggests a change of plans to June, and the pair head for an isolated desert resort and spa. During their weekend, Griffin and June consummate their relationship. Mill receives a call from his attorney, who informs him that studio head Joel Levison (Brion James
Brion James
Brion Howard James was an American character actor. Known for playing the character of Leon Kowalski in the movie Blade Runner, James portrayed a variety of colorful roles in well-known films such as 48 Hrs., Another 48 Hours, Tango & Cash, Silverado, Red Heat, The Player and The Fifth Element...

) has been fired, and the police want Mill to participate in a lineup. An eyewitness has come forward who claims to have seen the murder and can identify the assailant. Mill gains a reprieve when the witness identifies DeLongpre, who was placed in the lineup with the other suspects.

One year later, studio power players are watching the end of Habeas Corpus with its tacked-on upbeat ending. Mill's plan to "save" the movie worked and he is head of the studio. June is now Griffin's wife and pregnant with his child. Bonnie objects to the changes and is fired, a decision Griffin does not overrule; he rebuffs Bonnie when she appeals her termination to him. Mill receives a pitch over the phone from a man who reveals himself as the postcard writer. The man pitches an idea about a studio executive who kills a writer and gets away with murder. Mill recognizes the pitch as blackmail and gives the writer a deal. The writer’s title for the film is The Player.

Cast

  • Tim Robbins
    Tim Robbins
    Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...

     as Griffin Mill
  • Greta Scacchi
    Greta Scacchi
    Greta Scacchi is an Italian-Australian actor.-Early life:Scacchi was born Greta Gracco in Milan, Italy, on 18 February 1960, the daughter of Luca Scacchi Gracco, an Italian art dealer and painter, and Pamela Carsaniga, an English dancer and antiques dealer...

     as June Gudmundsdottir
  • Fred Ward
    Fred Ward
    Freddie Joe "Fred" Ward is an American actor. He began his career in 1979 alongside Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz. He is best known for his starring roles in the motion pictures Remo Williams, Tremors, Henry & June, Short Cuts, The Right Stuff and Exit Speed...

     as Walter Stuckel
  • Whoopi Goldberg
    Whoopi Goldberg
    Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...

     as Detective Avery
  • Peter Gallagher
    Peter Gallagher
    Peter Killian Gallagher is an American actor, musician and writer. Since 1980, Gallagher has played many roles in numerous Hollywood films. He starred as Sandy Cohen in the television drama series The O.C. from 2003 to 2007...

     as Larry Levy
  • Brion James
    Brion James
    Brion Howard James was an American character actor. Known for playing the character of Leon Kowalski in the movie Blade Runner, James portrayed a variety of colorful roles in well-known films such as 48 Hrs., Another 48 Hours, Tango & Cash, Silverado, Red Heat, The Player and The Fifth Element...

     as Joel Levison
  • Cynthia Stevenson
    Cynthia Stevenson
    Cynthia Stevenson is an American actress.Stevenson was born in Oakland, California, the daughter of Gayle, an editor, and Al Stevenson, an upholstery warehouse owner. She grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia....

     as Bonnie Sherow
  • Vincent D'Onofrio
    Vincent D'Onofrio
    Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname of "Human Chameleon"...

     as David Kahane
  • Dean Stockwell
    Dean Stockwell
    Dean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...

     as Andy Civella
  • Richard E. Grant
    Richard E. Grant
    Richard E. Grant is a Swaziland-born British actor, screenwriter and director. His most notable role came in the film Withnail and I. He holds dual British and Swazi citizenship.-Early life:...

     as Tom Oakley
  • Sydney Pollack
    Sydney Pollack
    Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...

     as Dick Mellon
  • Lyle Lovett
    Lyle Lovett
    Lyle Pearce Lovett is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded thirteen albums and released 21 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man"...

     as Detective DeLongpre
  • Dina Merrill
    Dina Merrill
    -Early life:Merrill was born Nedenia Marjorie Hutton in New York City, New York, the only child of Post Cereals heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and her second husband, Wall Street stockbroker Edward Francis Hutton...

     as Celia

Cameos

Most of the notable Hollywood actors who appeared as themselves in the film received no payment for their cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

s.

  • Steve Allen
    Steve Allen (comedian)
    Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen was an American television personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent...

  • Richard Anderson
    Richard Anderson
    Richard Norman Anderson is an American actor in film and television, known to TV audiences as Steve Austin's and Jaime Sommers' boss, Oscar Goldman, in both The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman TV series and their three subsequent TV movies: The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar Man...

  • Rene Auberjonois
    Rene Auberjonois
    René Murat Auberjonois is an American actor, known for portraying Father Mulcahy in the movie version of M*A*S*H and for creating a number of characters in long-running television series, including Clayton Endicott III on Benson , Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Chef Louis in The Little...

     
  • Harry Belafonte
    Harry Belafonte
    Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...

  • Shari Belafonte
    Shari Belafonte
    Shari Belafonte is an American actress, model, writer and singer. The daughter of singer Harry Belafonte, she is known for her role as Julie Gilette on the 1980s television series Hotel and as a spokesperson for the diet supplement Slim-Fast during the 1990s.-Personal life:Shari Lynn Belafonte was...

  • Karen Black
    Karen Black
    Karen Black is an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She is noted for appearing in such films as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Great Gatsby, Rhinoceros, The Day of the Locust, Nashville, Airport 1975, and Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot...

  • Michael Bowen
    Michael Bowen (actor)
    Michael Bowen is an American actor. Films he has appeared in include Jackie Brown, Magnolia, and Less Than Zero. Bowen also had a recurring role as Danny Pickett on the ABC television series, Lost....

  • Gary Busey
    Gary Busey
    William Gary Busey , best known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in a large variety of films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage...

  • Robert Carradine
    Robert Carradine
    Robert Reed Carradine is an American actor. The youngest of the Carradine family of actors, he made his first appearances on television western series such as Bonanza and his older brother David's Kung Fu. Carradine's first film role was in the 1972 film The Cowboys opposite Roscoe Lee Browne and...

  • Charles Champlin
  • Cher
    Cher
    Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...


  • James Coburn
    James Coburn
    James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...

  • Cathy Lee Crosby
    Cathy Lee Crosby
    Cathy Lee Crosby is an American actress. She achieved TV and film success in the 1980s and was a co-host of the television series That's Incredible!. -Personal life:...

     
  • John Cusack
    John Cusack
    John Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...

  • Brad Davis
    Brad Davis (actor)
    Robert Creel "Brad" Davis was an American actor, known for starring in the 1978 film Midnight Express.-Early life:...

  • Paul Dooley
    Paul Dooley
    -Personal life:Dooley was born Paul Dooley Brown in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the son of Ruth Irene , a homemaker, and Peter James Brown, a factory worker. Dooley was a cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. He joined the Navy before discovering acting while at...

  • Peter Falk
    Peter Falk
    Peter Michael Falk was an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo...

  • Felicia Farr
    Felicia Farr
    Felicia Farr is a former American actress and model.-Biography:Felicia Farr appeared in several modeling photo shoots and advertisements throughout the 1950s and 1960s...

  • Katarzyna Figura
    Katarzyna Figura
    Katarzyna Figura is a Polish actress. She is sometimes billed as "Kasia Figura", as in Prêt-à-Porter , Robert Altman's 1994 film.- Career :...

  • Louise Fletcher
    Louise Fletcher
    Louise Fletcher is an American actress best known for her role as Nurse Ratched in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and as Kai Winn Adami in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She also guest starred on the science fiction television series Heroes...

  • Dennis Franz
    Dennis Franz
    Dennis Franz is an American actor best known for his role as Andy Sipowicz, a hard-boiled police detective in the television series NYPD Blue. He previously appeared as Lt...


  • Teri Garr
    Teri Garr
    -Early life:Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1947. Her father, Eddie Garr , was a vaudeville performer, comedian and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road...

  • Leeza Gibbons
    Leeza Gibbons
    Leeza Kim Gibbons is an American talk show host. Gibbons is the host of her own radio show, Hollywood Confidential, part of the United Stations radio syndication company.-Early life:...

  • Scott Glenn
    Scott Glenn
    Theodore Scott Glenn is an American actor. His roles have included Wes Hightower in Urban Cowboy , astronaut Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff ,Emmett in Silverado , Commander Bart Mancuso in The Hunt for Red October , Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs and The Wise Man in Sucker Punch -Early...

  • Jeff Goldblum
    Jeff Goldblum
    Jeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum is an American actor. His career began in the mid-1970s and he has appeared in major box-office successes including The Fly, Jurassic Park and its sequel Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and Independence Day...

  • Elliott Gould
    Elliott Gould
    Elliott Gould is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s, and has remained prolific ever since. Some of his most notable films include M*A*S*H and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, for which he received an Oscar nomination...

  • Joel Grey
    Joel Grey
    Joel Grey is an American stage and screen actor, singer, and dancer, best known for his role as the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film adaptation of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. He has won the Academy Award, Tony Award and Golden Globe Award...

  • David Alan Grier
    David Alan Grier
    David Alan Grier , also known as "D.A.G." , is an American actor and comedian known for his work on the sketch comedy television show In Living Color.-Early life:...

     
  • Buck Henry
    Buck Henry
    Henry Zuckerman, better known as Buck Henry , is an American actor, writer, film director, and television director.-Early life:...

  • Anjelica Huston
    Anjelica Huston
    Anjelica Huston is an American actress. Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Academy Award, for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her father, director John Huston, and grandfather, actor Walter Huston. She later was nominated in 1989 and 1990 for her acting in...

  • Kathy Ireland
    Kathy Ireland
    Kathleen Marie "Kathy" Ireland is an American former model, actress, and entrepreneur. She is the CEO and designer of her eponymous brand product marketing company, Kathy Ireland Worldwide.-Life and career:...


  • Steve James
    Steve James (actor)
    Steve James was an American actor, stuntman and martial artist. He starred mostly in action films such as the American Ninja series, The Delta Force , The Exterminator , and Enter the Game of Death...

  • Sally Kellerman
    Sally Kellerman
    Sally Clare Kellerman is an American actress and singer known for her role as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in the film MASH , for which she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.-Early life:...

  • Sally Kirkland
    Sally Kirkland
    Sally Kirkland is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Kirkland was named after her mother, fashion editor Sally Kirkland, who was a fashion editor at Vogue and LIFE magazines, and was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father, Frederic McMichael Kirkland, worked in the scrap...

  • Jack Lemmon
    Jack Lemmon
    John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...

  • Marlee Matlin
    Marlee Matlin
    Marlee Bethany Matlin is an American actress. She is the only deaf actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, which she won for Children of a Lesser God. Her work in film and television has resulted in a Golden Globe award, with two additional nominations, and four Emmy...

  • Andie MacDowell
    Andie MacDowell
    Rosalie Anderson "Andie" MacDowell is an American model and actress. She has received the Golden Camera and an Honorary César.-Early life:...

  • Malcolm McDowell
    Malcolm McDowell
    Malcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...

     
  • Jayne Meadows
    Jayne Meadows
    -Early life:Jayne Meadows was born as Jayne Cotter in Wu-ch'ang, in Heilongjiang, China, to Episcopal missionary parents, the Rev. Francis James Meadows Cotter and his wife, the former Ida Miller Taylor, who had married in 1915. Meadows is the older sister of the late actress Audrey Meadows. She...

  • Martin Mull
    Martin Mull
    Martin Mull is an American actor who has starred in his own television sitcom and acted in prominent films. He is also a comedian, painter, and recording artist...

  • Nick Nolte
    Nick Nolte
    Nicholas King "Nick" Nolte is an American actor whose career has spanned over five decades, peaking in the 1990s when his commercial success made him one of the most popular celebrities of that decade.-Early life:...


  • Alexandra Powers
    Alexandra Powers
    -Early life:Powers was born in New York City. She grew up in an artsy, liberal environment on both coasts with her divorced parents. Her father teaches acting. She said in an interview that her parents, "encouraged me to find my own truth". Commenting on her faith, she stated, "I pray whenever I...

     
  • Bert Remsen
    Bert Remsen
    Herbert Birchell "Bert" Remsen was an American actor.-Life and career:Remsen was born in Glen Cove, New York, on Long Island, the son of Helen and Winfred Herbert Remsen. He played character roles in numerous films directed by Robert Altman, including: Brewster McCloud , McCabe & Mrs...

  • Burt Reynolds
    Burt Reynolds
    Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...

  • Jack Riley
  • Julia Roberts
    Julia Roberts
    Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...

  • Mimi Rogers
    Mimi Rogers
    Mimi Rogers is an American movie actress and competitive poker player.-Early life:Rogers was born Miriam Spickler in Coral Gables, Florida, the daughter of Philip C...

  • Annie Ross
    Annie Ross
    Annie Ross is an English jazz singer, and actress, best known as a member of the trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.-Early years:...

  • Alan Rudolph
  • Scott Shaw
    Scott Shaw
    Scott Shaw is an American actor, author, journalist, film director, film producer, musician, professor and martial artist.-Early life:...

  • Jill St. John
    Jill St. John
    Jill St. John is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Tiffany Case, the lead Bond girl in Diamonds Are Forever.-Early life:...


  • Susan Sarandon
    Susan Sarandon
    Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...

  • Adam Simon
    Adam Simon
    Adam Simon is an American screenwriter and film director.-Writer:*The Haunting in Connecticut *Bones *The American Nightmare *The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera...

  • Rod Steiger
    Rod Steiger
    Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...

  • Patrick Swayze
    Patrick Swayze
    Patrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter. He was best known for his tough-guy roles, as romantic leading men in the hit films Dirty Dancing and Ghost, and as Orry Main in the North and South television miniseries. He was named by People magazine as its "Sexiest...

  • Joan Tewkesbury
    Joan Tewkesbury
    Joan Tewkesbury is an American film and television director, screenwriter, producer and actress. She had a long association with Robert Altman, writing two of his most acclaimed films, Nashville and Thieves Like Us...

  • Brian Tochi
    Brian Tochi
    Brian Keith Tochihara , better known as Brian Tochi, is a U.S. actor, screen-writer, movie director and producer. He was widely recognized as the most popular East Asian child actor working in U.S. television during the late 1960s through much of the 1970s having appeared in various T.V. series and...

  • Lily Tomlin
    Lily Tomlin
    Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...

  • Robert Wagner
    Robert Wagner
    Robert John Wagner is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.A veteran of many films in the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three decades: It Takes a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart...

  • Ray Walston
    Ray Walston
    Ray Walston was an American stage, television and film actor best known as the title character on the 1960s situation comedy My Favorite Martian. In addition, he is also remembered for his roles as Luther Billis in South Pacific , Mr. Applegate in Damn Yankees , J.J...

  • Bruce Willis
    Bruce Willis
    Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...

  • Marvin Young
    Young MC
    Marvin Young , better known by his stage name Young MC, is an English-born American singer and actor. He is best known for his 1989 hit "Bust a Move"...



Production

Altman had troubles with the Hollywood studio system in the 1970s after a number of studio films (McCabe & Mrs. Miller
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a 1971 American Western film starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, and directed by Robert Altman. The screenplay is by Altman and Brian McKay from the novel McCabe by Edmund Naughton. The cinematography is by Vilmos Zsigmond and the soundtrack includes three songs by...

, The Long Goodbye
The Long Goodbye (film)
The Long Goodbye is a 1973 neo noir, directed by Robert Altman and based on Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Leigh Brackett, who co-wrote the screenplay for The Big Sleep in 1946...

) lost money or had trouble finding audiences despite the critical praise and cult adulation they received. Altman continued to work outside the studios in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, often doing small-budget projects or filmed plays to keep his career alive. The Player was a comeback to making films in Hollywood, although it was distributed by Fine Line Features
Fine Line Features
Fine Line Features was the speciality films division of New Line Cinema. It produced, purchased, distributed and marketed films of a more "indie" flavor than its parent company...

 rather than a major studio (though FLF in itself was a division of New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...

, Fine Line was reorganized into Picturehouse in 2005). It ushered in a new period of filmmaking for Altman, who continued on to an epic adaptation of Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....

's short stories, Short Cuts
Short Cuts
Short Cuts is a 1993 American drama film directed by Robert Altman. Filmed from a screenplay by Robert Altman and Frank Barhydt, it is inspired by nine short stories and a poem by Raymond Carver...

(1993).

Opening sequence shot

The opening sequence shot
Long take
A long take is an uninterrupted shot in a film which lasts much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general, usually lasting several minutes. It can be used for dramatic and narrative effect if done properly, and in moving shots is often accomplished...

 lasts 7 minutes and 47 seconds without a single camera break. Fifteen takes were required to shoot this scene, which pays homage to Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...

' Touch of Evil
Touch of Evil
Touch of Evil is a 1958 American crime thriller film, written, directed by, and co-starring Orson Welles. The screenplay was loosely based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson...

and Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...

's Rope
Rope (film)
Rope is a 1948 American thriller film based on the play Rope by Patrick Hamilton and adapted by Hume Cronyn and Arthur Laurents, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by Sidney Bernstein and Hitchcock as the first of their Transatlantic Pictures productions...

(which are both mentioned during the scene).

Reception

The film received critical acclaim; Altman won a number of European best-director awards (the BAFTA, Best Director
Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival)
The Best Director Award is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of movies at the festival. It was first awarded in 1946....

 at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival
1992 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Gérard Depardieu *John Boorman *Carlo Di Palma *Jamie Lee Curtis *Joële Van Effenterre *Lester James Peries *Nana Djordjadze *Pedro Almodóvar *René Cleitman...

) and he was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe as best director (the film won the Golden Globe for best "comedy or musical"). Tolkin was nominated for a Screenwriting Academy Award
Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay
The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...

, and he received an Edgar Award
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...

 for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. Geraldine Peroni
Geraldine Peroni
Geraldine Peroni was an American film editor who was best known for working with Robert Altman.-Life and career:...

 was nominated for the Academy Award for Film Editing. Tim Robbins also won the Golden Globe for "best actor in a comedy or musical" and the Best Actor
Best Actor Award (Cannes Film Festival)
The Best Actor Award is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of movies at the festival. It was first awarded in 1946.- Award Winners :-External links:* * ....

at the Cannes Film Festival.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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