The Company

Ry is a young dancer for the Jeoffrey Ballet that has just lucked out and been given a chance to become a principle dancer. As she works hard with choreographers and in classes Mr. Antonelli works to complete the season for the Joeffrey and oversees every project they have. As the season moves on the company prepares for new ballets and Ry gets a new boyfriend and balances life with dance.

The Company was one of Robert Altman’s last films and a challenge for him as this is a dance film unlike any I’ve ever seen. What makes The Company so different is the way it is told. More often than not dance film follow almost the same formula as sports films; the young dancer catches someone’s eye, gets a big break and works harder than everyone else until the finale with the giant show that impresses everyone, applause, applause & curtain drop. Instead, The Company is made great because Robert Altman brings Robert Altman to the dance movie formula and makes the film something else entirely.

What Robert Altman does is something I have never seen anyone else successfully do. Altman fully immerses the viewer in the world of his films. He begins his film when the story is already started; there are people, locations and events that we as a viewer don’t know but Altman feels no need to explain them to us. Instead, he drops the audience in as an observer and an active participant; we must pay attention to any and all details in order to get up to speed with where the characters are at in their journey and that mystery in itself is what creates the drawing power of an Altman film. You can’t look away because if you stop paying attention the characters lives will go on without you. This Altman technique is used to beautiful effect in The Company and helps to uncover the elegance, fights, bruises and layers that exists within a dance company.

The Company is also special because of Neve Campbell’s involvement. What most people didn’t know until The Company is that Campbell was a dancer long before she was an actress. As such she actually helped come up with the story for the film, produced the film and starred. Campbell did not need a double for the dance sequences. She trained with the Jeoffrey and every dance her character is in Campbell is dancing herself. It’s a wonderful thing to not have to cut the dance sequences constantly in order to hide the identity of your dancer and it gave Altman the opportunity to make the dances much more organic and realistic so they feel like live sequences that are truly unfolding before you.

This may have been on of Altman’s final films, yet somehow I think this may be one of my favorites. Altman manages to find a sense of realism and grace in chaos that is sorely lacking in most dance films and The Company is better for it.

Director: Robert Altman
Writer: Barbara Turner
Ry: Neve Campbell
Alberto Antonelli: Malcom McDowell
Josh: James Franco

The Player

Robert Altman made phenomenal, biting, slice-of-life films in a way that no one else can make them; Altman drops you into his characters world, introduces a conflict and before the entire world makes too much sense he pulls you back out again, but Altman’s worlds change you forever.

In The Player Griffin Mill is a high powered executive at a movie studio, he is a man that hold the dreams of writers and directors in his hands as he has the power to give projects the go ahead; however, as most executives in the industry he doesn’t feel he has the time to “be nice” which sometimes means he leaves the people that pitch him hanging and never responds. This is all par for the course for Griffin until one writer won’t take it anymore and begins to stalk Griffin and threaten to kill him. As if this weren’t enough Griffin is also facing what he thinks is a premeditated murder of his career as the studio head brings in Larry Levy to be another Vice President.

I know that if you are familiar with film history I am about to beat a dead horse, but I cannot discuss The Player without discussing the first shot of the film – the shot that lasts eight minutes of the film. If you are a film newbie or have never made your own movie you really have no idea how hard setting up a shot is; you have to think about where to place your lights so that the camera won’t see them, where the actors are going to move, where sound can be – there are hundreds of minute details that need to be in place in order to capture a shot – and that is for a static shot. Altman did his first shot of The Player as a moving shot so he had to stage people, cars and bikes crossing the frame on queue, the camera, actors and props had to be in the right place at the same time all the while those not on camera had too keep moving and doing what they were doing because at any moment the camera would move back to where they are to continue the scene. The work and time Altman, cast and crew had to put into that one shot had to be absolutely insane.

I do love Altman’s take on the world and I am very glad that all of his films are incredibly diverse. I do have to say that The Player would probably be on my list of favorite Altman films.

Director: Robert Altman
Writer: Michael Tolkin
Griffin Mill: Tim Robbins
June Gudmundsdottir: Greta Scacchi
Det. Avery: Whoopi Goldberg
Larry Levy: Peter Gallagher
Bonnie Sherow: Cynthia Stevenson
David Kahane: Vincent D’Onofrio

Griffin Mill: It lacked certain elements that we need to market a film successfully.
June: What elements?
Griffin Mill: Suspense, laughter, violence. Hope, heart, nudity, sex. Happy endings. Mainly happy endings.