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Thread: Paul Thomas Anderson

  1. #11
    Senior Member Diamond Hubber kid-glove's Avatar
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    Tarantino on TWBB
    ...an artist without an art.

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  3. #12
    Senior Member Veteran Hubber Bala (Karthik)'s Avatar
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    Courtesy: app_engine

    http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/03/...3001267492501/

    LAJAMANU, Australia, March 1 (UPI) -- Weather experts said the fish that fell on a remote Australian town for two days had likely been sucked up by a thunderstorm before falling to the ground.

    Residents of Lajamanu said hundreds of small white fish, believed to be common spangled perch, fell from the sky during the weekend despite the town's location 326 miles from the nearest river, The Sun reported Monday. Locals said many of the fish were still alive when they hit the ground.

    Mark Kersemakers, a senior forecaster with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, said the fish could have been transported by a storm system.

    "It could have scooped the fish up 40,000 to 50,000 feet in the air," he said. "Once they get up into the system they are pretty much frozen. After some period they are released."

    Locals said it has rained fish in the town twice before, in 1974 and 2004.
    "Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man"

  4. #13
    Senior Member Diamond Hubber kid-glove's Avatar
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    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.
    ...an artist without an art.

  5. #14
    Senior Member Diamond Hubber kid-glove's Avatar
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    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,
    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,
    All of this stuff, including faith, motivational dogma, conspiracy theories, and paranormal explanations become desperate rationalizations for some people. Such easy answers are nonsense. The raining frogs do not resolve anything. They do not make someone good. They do not create love or fix damaged relationships. They do not cure cancer.
    But rather, as I had said, this particular author opts this way to uplift the children, even if temporarily, like a fantasy Even if, the word "fantasy" is problematic.
    ...an artist without an art.

  6. #15
    Senior Member Diamond Hubber kid-glove's Avatar
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    Magnolia Extras: Jason Robards on his own cancer experience, coming to fore...



    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:

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  7. #16
    Senior Member Diamond Hubber kid-glove's Avatar
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    Sticking to Robards, a very interesting character actor. After Melvin and Howard, He went to TV, and gone off radar for a while. His best days were gone for a while, until films like Philadelphia, Magnolia (that was his last film, and he died of cancer ) happened in 90's.

    I suppose, it would have turned out different, had he done Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, but that's certainly Kinski territory. Look at this, Robards and Jagger's take was so dreadful. Kinski, on the other hand, was born to play the role!
    ...an artist without an art.

  8. #17
    Senior Member Diamond Hubber kid-glove's Avatar
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    Charlie Kaufman's mock-interview as a foreward to shooting script of Human nature, parodying PT Anderson's foreward to his published script for Magnolia. Especially PTA's usage of profanity..
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  9. #18
    Senior Member Diamond Hubber kid-glove's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kaufman
    Of all things, why frogs?
    Oh, the frogs falling from the sky! The question of the ages! [Laughs] Well, I just liked the idea. I read about it. It really happens! So that was the initial reason; it just seemed cool, but then as I thought about it, I realized how to fit it into my story. Because it’s like, if it’s raining frogs, then there’s no sense to anything. Nothing you believed to be true holds. And I wanted to look at that and, more importantly, force the audience to sit with that thought: that there is an irrationality to all of our lives and until something so out of the norm happens, we can’t see that. I want people to see it and think about it. And frogs are green, which is the color of nature. So in a way frogs represent the natural world and I’m saying, “Look, the natural world is falling the fuck on top of you. Look up, gaddamn it, and take notice.”

    What made you decide to use sequences of weird historical coincidences as a framing device for the film?
    It’s a promise. A promise to my audience. I’m saying, look at these stories. They’re all weird and bizarre and maybe true or maybe not, but, hey, if you give me four hours, I will give you a story just as weird and wonderful and amazing as these stories, because this stuff does happen in the world. Y’know? The world is bigger than we think.

    Is the end of the film cathartic or unresolved? Is there some hope at the end of the day? Or will the sadness just go on and on?
    For me it’s totally cathartic! It’s hope and wonderful and I cry whenever I see the movie for that reason. But of course it’s sad, too. And I cry about that as well. For Mercedes and me it’s important to look at the whole spectrum of feelings that any situation creates. Love is great, but it’s also hard as shit. It’s a lot of work and sweaty and embarrassing. But the surrender to it is so beautiful. What else is there, really?

    The problem with traditional movies is they usually have to have it one way or the other: happy or sad. For those people who need it, we have a happy ending, but for people who want to look deeper, the movie is saying, yes, love is real, but the road to it is complicated and you’re going to make terrible messes along the way and you need to go on anyway.

    My goal in my work is to show that motherfucking paradox, because I believe that it is in this paradix that you find life. That is what my work, at least at this point, is really all about. It’s complicated, y’know? Life is fucking complicated. Too many filmmakers don’t want to deal with that. They want to dumb down their vision for mass consumption. Listen, I don’t think it’s an accident that film is an art form that utilizes a lens. Filmmakers are the eyes of a society. We see and we reflect. We need to show what is wrong and painful. But a true lens is all encompassing; it also shows all the motherfucking hope and beauty in the world.


    ...an artist without an art.

  10. #19
    Moderator Platinum Hubber P_R's Avatar
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    Read your review of TWBB.

    Quote Originally Posted by kid_glove
    "There will be blood" paints a polemical subtext on Oil and Religion, Capitalism and Evangelism - the fraudulence of it all. Or maybe the moral shortcomings of the two main protagonist. As failed human beings.
    True. Just that I found the film extremely boring.

    But I kinda see there is perhaps no other way this story could have been told (having decided that it would have to be told!)

    Quote Originally Posted by [url=http://www.imdb.com/user/ur22480757/comments
    kid_glove[/url]]A film theorist once said films are moving pictures with accompanying sound. The story and themes are excuses to entice & indulge the audience.
    yaar andha theorist ?
    மூவா? முதல்வா! இனியெம்மைச் சோரேலே

  11. #20
    Moderator Platinum Hubber P_R's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kid_glove
    Every possible way of ending the multiple story lines (all connected by Parent-children thematics) is to be seen as a manipulation anway.
    Yeah. But - to use an exaggerated expression - it kinda violates the contract you have with the audience about reality. And if that is supposed to be the very point then I'll have to say it didn't work for me. In fact it pretty much ruined whatever I liked about the film till then.

    I see the links about how it is physically possible for such a phenomenon. That is not the point. To portray an abnormal event on screen and say 'wierd stuff happens you know' is quite unacceptable.

    (varisaiyA varEn, yet to read Ebert revee ling)
    மூவா? முதல்வா! இனியெம்மைச் சோரேலே

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