Another film class favorite, the nearly 8-minute shot in The Player is meant to encapsulate a movie that is entirely about the movies, referencing both Touch of Evil and Rope in the dialogue all while offering a tribute to those classics in its formal use of a long take to open the movie. It’s takes the fact that if a single shot continues for long enough it becomes distracting and harnesses that distraction to direct the audience’s attention to the shot itself. That in turn gives the references to the other single take sequences from classic movies a greater punch, as well as the undermining touch that these executives aren’t even aware of less publicized movies that use the same devices to perhaps an even greater effect.
The shot itself is really a logistical marvel, following various movie industry types through parts of a studio lot as they pitch film ideas and extol the virtues of Hollywood’s Golden Age, with apparently much of the dialogue being improvised, amazingly enough. It combines absurd and satirical humor with technical mastery to create one of the most impressive openings shots of all time, which is precisely what it is self-consciously trying to achieve to make a point.
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