大玩家

Robert Altman’s inside-Hollywood meta-comedy THE PLAYER is shot with a shoe-string budget but reverberates with sardonic, rapier-like kicks, and affixed with a chilling frisson that defies ethics and our expectation thanks to Michael Tolkin’s trenchant script which brings Tinseltown's treacherous attributes to the forefront.

Altman’s much eulogized opening gambit, a nearly 8-minute long-take in the lot of a Hollywood studio, vocally pays tribute to Orson Welles’ counterpart in TOUCH OF EVIL (1958), is a coup de maître to be rewound and repeatedly viewed for its sheer coordination of the ensemble and the camera’s agility in motion. Taking the center stage is Griffin Hill (Robbins), a young producer whose job is to listen to screenwriter’s pitches of their ideas and to assess whether they are marketable enough to merit a go, and this producer-writer correlation is put under scrutiny as Griffin is dogged by anonymous, invective-scribed postcards, which he receives on a daily base, and after combing through telephone records, he gets the idea it is sent from David Kahane (D’Onofrio, bristling with ire and contempt), a bitter writer who might be rankled for receiving the short shrift. But gauging from Griffin’s quotidian workload and the ratio of pitches he must disregard (the studio has a yearly quota of 12 to green-light), we don’t get why Griffin is so sure it is David.

Trying to bury the hatchet by renewing his interest in David’s script set in Japan (Sofia Coppola’s LOST IN TRANSLATION arrives a decade later in 2003), Griffin seeks him out and "accidentally" kills him when verbal vitriol escalating into physical violence, here Altman shrewdly predates the occurrence with Griffin calling David’s home, and getting instantly bewitched by the latter’s girlfriend June Gudmundsdottir (Scacchi), an Icelandic painter, under a voyeuristic spell. So whether the subsequent accident is a homicide or manslaughter, the answer is quite out there.

The rest of story is against all odds, how Griffin gets away with the killing and lives happily ever after with June, does it sound like a joke? Yes, but the engagé Altman is in no fickle mood of maxing out Griffin’s quagmire before the anti-climatic reveal: his current post is in a perilous state of being superseded by the new blood Larry Levy (Gallagher), a diligent detective (Lovett) breathes down his neck closely and the relationship with his colleague-cum-girlfriend Bonnie (Stevenson) turns sour as he courts June with tenacious guilt stuck in his throat, in the end of the day, he gets what he wants not what he deserves, and the final turnabout of the fictive movie starring Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis is such a slap in the face of those who harbor an airy-fairy ideology of retaining a writer's integrity in this rotten industry, only tempered by Altman’s tongue-in-cheek mordancy that tactfully keep both industry insiders and outsiders entertained but not miffed, not to mention its effervescent star-spotingg game of umpteen celebrity cameos.

Tom Robbins is the recipient of Cannes’ BEST ACTOR award but unjustly fails to nab an Oscar nomination (the film per se is a 3-times nominee including a well-earned BEST DIRECTOR bid for Altman), who takes us through quite a rollercoaster ride with his portrait of Griffin par excellent, smirky, craven, vulnerable, besotted and careworn, all these facets are contributory to such degree of ambiguity that viewers are inwardly battling against their own conscience in terms of his denouement.Greta Scacchi is given a sizable role to send up the ostensibly exotic, free-spirited type (she might not even hail from Iceland) who just cannot say no to an opportunity of comfort and wealth like anyone else, and whose inner state is tellingly belied in their torrid love-making/confession-denial sequences, a fine achievement. Among the peripheral players, no one stands out significantly in the fray, except for awisecracking Whoopi Goldberg, who duly earns her stripes with tart and hilariouscomedy chops.

In retrospect, THE PLAYER is a thrilling return-to-the-game comeback for Altman after his nadir in the 80s, and is among the most phenomenal works tackling the Hollywood hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness by lending an honest-to-goodness spin salted with tacit irony.

referential points: Altman’s 3 WOMEN (1977, 8.2/10), COOKIE’S FORTUNE (1999, 7.9/10), GOSFORD PARK (2001, 9.1/10).

九零年代诞生的这部《大玩家》更能证明好莱坞的强大体系，电影尽可能包含了：悬疑、笑料、暴力、希望、爱心、裸露、性以及快乐的结局的诸多元素。这些元素经电影主角格里芬之口说出，也道出了好莱坞电影的结局为何如此千篇一律的原因。格里芬是负责审核一个剧本是否有潜力要对其立项的人，也就是说一部电影是否进入拍摄计划得获得他的许可才行，也因此如果剧本缺乏以上的这些元素，他都有理由将其无情地刷掉。故事在格里芬接连收到神秘卡片时开始走向失控，他找到一位曾经被他婉拒的编剧，他确信这就是不断寄恐吓信件的人。然后意外发生了，格里芬失手杀死了他。作为一部有“爱心”的电影，当然要安排一次救赎，在格里芬被凶杀案所困扰的时候遇到了两位编剧，他们说了一个故事：一位检察官在调查一桩命案时怀疑凶手是死者的妻子，随着调查的深入他与该女子陷入了爱河，但无奈所有证据都指向了她，在他痛苦万分地将该女子送进毒气室处决的时候，他发现那位丈夫并没有死，可惜为时已晚他已亲手杀死了这位爱人。那两位编剧再三强调“坚决不用大明星”与“一定要以悲剧结尾”，格里芬也鬼使神差地头一次认可了这一非“快乐结局”的剧本。他把剧本推荐给了拉瑞，一位刚从福克斯跳槽来的制片人，拉瑞觉得这个剧本很有前途，并承诺绝对不用大明星也绝不修改结局。这里还有个很有趣的场景与之后的剧情形成对应：一位秘书告诉拉瑞这是她所听过的最棒的剧本……一年后，制片厂相关人员们正在看那部检察官杀错人的戏的毛片，我们看到扮演那位妻子的是朱莉娅·罗伯茨，当她走进毒气室时、当毒气被打开时，似乎一切都在按照最初的剧本走，但是这时扮演检察官的布鲁斯·威利斯出现了！敲碎了毒气室的玻璃救出了爱人，字幕打出，电影完。这个反转不仅让戏里负责改编剧本的邦妮惊讶也让作为观众的我惊讶，看着之前一直以求真正直的形象出现的拉瑞露出狡黠满意的笑容，看着那位秘书说的“你拍了部了不起的电影，拉瑞”，看着那位始终坚持“不用大明星”“悲剧结尾”的编剧得意的眼神，这才恍然大悟，一个精妙至极的结尾，这才是好莱坞。最后的最后，电影给出了这样一种可能性：格里芬开这车来到自己的豪宅，接到了一个探讨剧本的电话，这回他听到了一个与他的经历一模一样的故事，为了自己今后的幸福生活不受打扰他希望这个故事有个快乐的结局……如果你从这个角度看，就能体会制片人的苦衷，或许能够理解如此多的快乐结局的来由了。整部电影就成了替好莱坞制片人们的一次极具讽刺意味的“申辩”，而作为“正面形象”的格里芬得以逃脱法律制裁，显然也是一个标准的好莱坞式结局。不知道《大玩家》是不是第一部这样拍的电影，但这部电影的出现一定又一次丰富了好莱坞的拍片公式表。

格里芬·米尔是一家电影公司的制片人，每天要从很多个剧本中挑选出极少的几部拍成电影。早上来到制片厂他收到了一张恐吓明信片，两周内一共收到了七张，加上福克斯制片厂拉里·李维和他之间的竞争，他变得忐忑不安。格里芬来见自己的老板，老板希望他能和李维成为一个团队。回到办公室后他又收到一张扬言要杀死他的明信片。他便开始调查，发现一个六个月前被他拒绝的编剧大卫·卡恩于是给他打电话，但接电话的是大卫的女朋友琼，格里芬得知大卫去看电影后便来到电影院找大卫，找到大卫后，大卫激怒了格里芬，格里芬杀死了大卫。第二天格里芬上班后发现李维成为了自己的同事，制片厂的安保负责人因为格里芬和大卫的死有关系和他发生了争吵。随后格里芬去参加大卫的葬礼被琼发现了，格里芬送琼回家后回到制片厂，警察向他询问了他和大卫的一些事。格里芬和老板一起观影时接到一通电话，他按照电话的指示来到约定地点，但突然出现了两个编剧给他讲剧本，最后那个人没有出现，格里芬开车离开，却在车上发现了一条蛇。格里芬打死蛇后来到琼的家中并向她表白。上班后格里芬把昨晚听到的剧本推给了李维。晚上他带着琼参加影片捐赠会，警察也一直在监视着他，格里芬送琼回家后邀请她下周一起去墨西哥。第二天一早，警察把格里芬带到了警局。格里芬从警局回到制片厂，安保负责人建议他不要去墨西哥，但格里芬不听。格里芬在机场发现了警察，于是改变计划带琼去沙漠温泉，格里芬在沙漠温泉接到律师迪克的电话，要他去警局参加目击证人指认，由于证人指认错误，格里芬侥幸逃脱。

一年后，格里芬在下班的路上接到李维电话，听取了李维推荐的编剧介绍的剧本《大玩家》，回到了家中。

中国的《醒世恒言》中有句谚语：君子报仇，直待三年（或已不念旧恶），小人报仇，只在眼前。对于曾经被「好莱坞」驱逐，现在又被其邀请进《高斯福庄园》的「新贵」奥特曼来说，九十年代似乎正是他「报仇雪恨」的黄金年代。当然了，这与艺术家将「只待三年」理解为「十年不晚」有很大关系。

群英荟萃的「好莱坞」显然是一个令「人」又爱（爽）又恨（凡）的地方。启用一个「电影明星」两次，导演想要提醒我们的是，展现「娱乐圈乱象」的《银色·性·男女》与披露「名流心态」的《大玩家》是需要「连连看」的姊妹篇。依照暗示不难发现，这里的「制片人」与那边的「警察」是同一个人。

这种「同构性」似乎也为手握权柄而能以《蜘蛛的策略》网络资本（贤）和技术（士）的「总编剧」藐视神圣日常，甚至践踏神圣人性的行为树立了「合法性」解释：既然整个行业不把人当人看，作为这个权力结构里的「高层网管」也只能按照这一「潜规则」办事。

事实上，这位男性导演已经通过作品多次强调「贵圈」的「蓄水池」形态。而女性导演则用更加危险的《沼泽》来形容它。主动抑或被动落入「圈套」的「追星男女」部分被这一具有「造星」功能的「子宫」孕育、生产和操纵，部分则自我异化成了这一弱肉强食世界里的冷血动物——从这角度看，这部以《偷自行车的人》为「行业标杆」来影射「职业道德」危机和「艺术与商业」之争的心理惊悚作品还真有一种「奥特曼打小怪兽（希胖）」的即视感。

从唤醒自己的角度看，导演的「头脑风暴」成功了——那部与「现实性」呈现出「断舍离」倾向的转型期作品获得「意大利新现实主义」勋章，从引导「吃瓜群众」和启蒙「从业者」的角度讲，他的「地震」似乎也不好说失败——毕竟，口碑与票房双丰收。

俗话说，酒乱性，色迷人。

以艺术家之手导商业之作的《大玩家》这次不是「落网」了，而是「退网」了。