Paul Thomas Anderson

[kid-glove]

The filmmaker who Altman considered his successor.
Fans consider the closest successor to Kubrick.

Lynch, Scorsese and Woody Allen have all admitted PTA to be their favorite auteur working today.

Tarantino considers PTA to be Montgomery Clift for his Brando or vice versa. And he always bandies PTA to be a contemporary, who pushes him to do better. Like a competition for him.

PTA, however, had made it clear through Daniel Plainview,
"I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed."

On that note, I might have to pitch in my first review, that I transferred to Imdb only recently. On "There will be blood". I might have to post a revised review, sometime later. But it's a short glimpse to my personal flirtations with his films, in view of American film history and its placing (specifically TWBB) within last century or so.

Discuss his films here.
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[kid-glove]

Tarantino comparing the relationship/competition with PTA to De Palma-Scorsese

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvgxyHmVsRU

De Palma-Scorsese :: Tarantino-PTAnderson

About fair, I think. DePalma's favorite is QT, and Scorsese's is PT Anderson. Hope they give us damn good movies, that's all that matters.

Btw, it's about the Raging bull opening credits shot that De Palma first saw (he thought Blowout was going to be his best film, and he went to see RAging bull, and after the opening, he went "F--k!, no matter what you do, there's always f-ing Scorsese". I guess that's how QT reacted to TWBB, at least I'd like to believe ).
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[salaam_chennai]

I saw "Punch Drunk Love" last week and i liked it. After seeing this thread, I browsed imdb to see PTA's filmography and found that Punch Drunk Love is his movie. The movie is worth the watch. It was good to see Adam Sandler in a serious role.

[kid-glove]

"Punch-drunk love", in his words, is "to f-up the rom-com genre a little bit." Haanesty
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[Sid_316]

Loved all of his works.. havent seen there will be blood though.. magnolia tops the list.. brilliant brilliant film. Punch drunk love is brilliant in its own way.Liked sidney eight and boogie nights.
But magnolia stands apart.

P.S : i still didnt get the ending though with the exodus reference... Thilak i remember u explaining the ending to bala once.. but aana ur english sathiyama purila could u explain it in simple words pls

[Sid_316]

Any idea about his next film?

[kid-glove]

Sid,

I never sought out to explain that ending in context of "Exodus" and/or biblical references.

P_R once posted an article in this vein, but I think it doesn't comply with its author/auteur, because...

Watching the extras in DVD, and reading few articles on PTA, he seemed to have got the "Exodus" reference only later. The "Frog" rain was planned and could have done without the exodus 8:2 reference, if it hadn't been brought to his notice much later. So he just used it as an in-joke and a sleight of hand (the only thing that I agree about, in that article), in using it symbolically and as a numerical reference for production design. Staying off it, I think the idea was to show some singular happening that would shape and conclude the problems of the characters. One possible way to do it is through natural calamity/disaster, that alters the characters' lives and bring about a conclusion. Every possible way of ending the multiple story lines (all connected by Parent-children thematics) is to be seen as a manipulation anway. Especially the idea of connecting/affecting 'em. Doing it the Altman way, "Earthquake" seems no less artificial (although they do function metaphorically as a disaster to the American dream), and paradoxical, because as much as a natural disaster it is, it brings about its own manipulative storytelling. PTA opts for something more theatrical and opulent, and exposing the director's wand through an absurd ridiculous event, the frog rain. I thought it was a brilliant juxtaposition to seemingly realistic believable set of stories, the special-effects seemed out of Dinosaur or Godzilla movie. That (and the song "wise up") is unashamedly claiming itself as a work of fiction (and that's how it should be). In any fiction of interlinked stories, deux-es-machina, is within the narrator's realm. The characters and the painting within the movie, remind themselves, "it did happen". We are conditioned to ask why it did, but why should it necessarily be any other way?! There are other ways to do hyperlink cinema which are connected by (oil - Syriana, drug trafficking - Traffic , Earthquake - shortcut, butterfly effect - ditto, Gun - Babel, Place - Gomorrah, etc), but this particular author opts this way to uplift the children, even if temporarily, like a fantasy. According to him, coincidences and strange happenings are possible. The absurdity was foreshadowed with interconnected short stories (all too strange and yet seemingly "Realistic", not farcical) in beginning of the film.

About Exodus again, PTA had said he'd have rained cats and dogs if it were possible. when pressed for a possible explanation.

The religious reference is one possible interpretation, but in view of his filmography, and especially after "TWBB", it is unlikely. And In fact, his next film is titled "The Master" tentatively, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, is about a man who invents a religion. I expect it to be largely polemical, the spiritual fraudulence, in make of O'Connor's "Wise Blood" (one of PTA's hero, John Huston, had adapted it) and Scientology, and not supportive of religion, ala "The Apostle".

After doing Upton Sinclair's Oil!, PTA could do a take on the other Sinclair, Lewis's book "Elmar Gantry" which came out the very year of Oil!, 1927. That's possible !
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[Sid_316]

Thanks thilak

[kid-glove]

Btw, it's not necessarily deemed "fantasy", but purely Fortean phenomenon. More examples:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/17/japan-rain-tadpoles

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5491846/Sky-rains-tadpoles-over-Japan.html
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[ajithfederer]

Haven't seen any of his films.

Couldn't muster up my patience to watch There will be Blood. I just cannot sit through how DDL talks in that film. Puts me to sleep quite easily or makes me change channels

Will definitely see Magnolia in the near future.

[kid-glove]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rp5NjLRRyw

Tarantino on TWBB
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[Bala (Karthik)]

Courtesy: app_engine

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/03/01/Fish-rain-on-Australian-town/UPI-83001267492501/

[kid-glove]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcthPJ88h8k

Interesting, what Ebert made of it.

The film is very conscious, in its construction of the interlinked story lines. There are some unfavorable connections to manipulative and contriving films, notably Kevin smith who found it to be "Cinematic root canal" and preference of"Shortcut", which ties the rug closely (somehow, I feel, this very quality masks a lack of talent. This excessive and forbearing need to "round" off the plot) and dissembles with its natural disaster, even if symbolically, the American dream. "Magnolia" works on a higher level, despite the lack of political allegory.
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[kid-glove]

An excellent analysis (quite rightly dismissive of reading in biblical terms) to offer credulity to deliberate fortean themes implanted in Magnolia. Even if it is enough for PT Anderson's admission in dvd extras and interviews, it's interesting to look into the work. The deliberate ploy to implant biblical references happened much later after final shooting draft. It doesn't mask the actual intention and the interesting (fortean) forethought before lending the device (exodus 8:2), as a sleight of hand. Hell, the film is a bag of tricks.

Summary from the link,

Quote:

Paul Thomas Anderson presents Magnolia as a sort of Fortean tale. It is a story full of wonder. For some, wonder is provided by the supernatural. For others, it is provided by nature. The credulous among us will believe that “this is something that happens” and be content to leave it at that. Their credulity will inspire awe and provide a basis for hope. But, the skeptics among us will look at the film as sheer entertainment crafted quite masterfully. We will be inspired simply by excellent storytelling and a common human experience. For all of us, Magnolia can be a wondrous experience, nonsense and all.

Agree with this. Btw, the analysis doesn't curtail the final epilogue to the frog rain, the gun, returned back to officer Jim. In eyes of some people, A token award to the benevolence and forgivingness he'd bestow towards Donnie (and his kindess to the girl who does drugs and had been a victim of incest), and the strings are so explicitly pulled. Well within the realm of the world of magnolia, by PTA. Officer Jim could be instantly seen as the model hero (and Christian evangelicals could even concede that's the whole point of the film), forgetting the incompetence and his failings that follows him everywhere, unless given a hand by the creator. As are the other characters. But as the analysis (in the link) aptly identifies,

[kid-glove]

Magnolia Extras: Jason Robards on his own cancer experience, coming to fore...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tnPnMmO7As

Another trivia: PT Anderson, being a Robardian like mentor J. Demme, was inspired by their work in "Melvin and Howard", would inspire young PTA, and lot of the father-son thematics (notably Hard Eight, or Sydney) are inspired by this film.

Interestingly enough, there are some influences of Peckinpah's "Ballad of Cable Hogue" in "There will be blood". Some visuals, random lines, and certain characters. On that note, an anecdote by Robards on "Ballad of Cable Hogue" in Magnolia extras:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZS3LnwO32c
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Dreams and the Internet are similar in that the repressed conscious mind vents.