The Player

I mean, that doesn't even- Yeah ... exist anymore.

They played it before The Player.

But what also happens is- And this is like, like when Showtime was, like, th- they, they were kind of the new kids on the block too, right? Yeah.

Like, yeah.

They were- So but The Player- Yeah ... had just came out.

Yeah.

So my movie- Oh, yeah, yeah ... my short was a bunch of people- Yeah ... pitching bad movie ideas.

Including me.

Hello and welcome to Smell That Movie, a Haloscope podcast.

This is the podcast where I sit down with the folks from the worlds of comedy, culture, film, fashion, beauty, and fragrance to ask the question on everyone's mind, what movie do you want to smell like? I'm your host, Carly Silverman, a comedy and sometimes culture and perfume writer, and most importantly, a film and fragrance lover.

Through this show, I want to know what films are lighting up and inspiring the senses of my esteemed guests and chat about some scents.

Now I'm going to bring in our guest.

That's so true.

There is always a wall of shame portion of the show, and that's definitely made an appearance on the games.

They just have, like, 50 surface-mounted light fixtures in the restaurant, and it's just kind of... boggles the mind i'd love to know sometimes you say something and it makes you go huh

thanks

He's just...

he he does things that are not good and the world is coming apart and he's very frustrated with life and well i don't want to spoil it either but just if you haven't seen that uh ties in tim robbins and paul newman in the same movie what do you what more do you want it's a it's a good good film um really evil movie uh the player which is it's it's a comedy basically it's a comedy drama dramedy And the player really gives you a view of what a studio head is like.

And he reminds me – he's like an evil version of – well, I don't know if there's a good version of Les Grossman from Tropic Thunder.

But he's just a bad guy who solves problems by killing somebody.

Yeah.

and uh trying to get trying to get away with it so uh again i don't want to i don't want to go into too much detail if you haven't seen the player you're missing out on a great film good writing and solid performances all around definitely definitely need to see that and i think this is probably number one on everybody's tim robbins rob you could probably guess what it is but uh Playing the character of Nuke in Bull Durham, that was his ultimate.

And he got to play with his wife on screen.

No,

It's kind of like a band that plays similar music per album, and then they're like, "Oh, I like that." And it's like his stuff, he can do range and, and his, his range is all over the place.

Even something that's more straightforward like his role in The Player is great.

There's so much good stuff throughout his entire career

His directorial debut, not his...

Weirdly enough, by the way, Christopher Nolan recently did a Criterion Closet video.

He picked The Player as one of his movies.

He thinks that's Robert Altman's best film.

I was a little shocked by that.

So because that-

I am too

... movies now more than ever comes from The Player.

Ooh.

And so when Players and Shortcuts came out, that was like a big moment in my life.

I really remember like all the hype around the player, especially the geniuses back then.

And I really felt that.

That movie's always been really personal to me because, you know, the genius is back, let alone like all the stuff that makes that movie so great, especially the ending.

Wow, okay.

Listen to this list of movies he did title design for.

He designed Haxe Driver, Nightmare on Elm Street, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Exorcist, Airplane, Blood Simple, the later version of Suspiria, The Player, American Gigolo, Sorcerer, Officer and Gentleman, Norma Rae, Bull Durham, it goes on and on.

All the President's Men, There Will Be Blood.

Thinking about the production style, I think political satire works really well with comedy, but also I think production-wise, there is something to be said for the way that Iannucci did this where everybody had their own mics, right? They all had little radio mics that they were all wearing.

It feels very much like Robert Altman doing The Player.

Yes.

And I think that's a fascinating element that we're seeing here in the structure of a story with so many people, so many talking parts, so much interaction between all these different people trying to find a way...