The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

[baby doll]

Personally I'm not convinced that Anderson needs a recognizable style. Trying something different each time and adapting his style accordingly seems to be working just fine for him.

[Boner M]

I was around the corner from Film Forum on Saturday and later found out a surprise screening was announced. Ffffffff

[Watashi]

You're in New York, boner?

When u come 2 LA?

[Boner M]

When u come 2 LA?

Meet me in the airport on my return home.

[Qrazy]

altman is undeniably indebted to renoir (and kurosawa, and others i'm sure) but he put enough of a spin on those influences to create a style that is uniquely his own. the difference with anderson is, for two or three films his influences were at the forefront of his style and it was hard to dig underneath and find what was uniquely anderson about the films. this is in contrast to wes anderson and even tarantino, both artists that steal frequently but established recognizable styles pretty early on. i don't think pta's uniqueness really emerges until punch-drunk love, which is unlike anything i've seen. this carries through to there will be blood, which is more recognizable, but no less a distinct product of pta.

in the interest of fairness, since that seems to be the issue here, i'm sure altman's industrial documentaries didn't have a distinct signature either. but we're talking about anderson.

Boogie Nights does not feel like a Scorsese film to me at all. I see plenty of Anderson-esque touches throughout. Nor does Magnolia feel like an Altman film except for the approach of many different characters in overlapping stories which many directors have employed.

[Melville]

Boogie Nights does not feel like a Scorsese film to me at all. I see plenty of Anderson-esque touches throughout. Nor does Magnolia feel like an Altman film except for the approach of many different characters in overlapping stories which many directors have employed.

Yeah, I don't think you need to dig underneath anything. Boogie Nights, and Magnolia even more so, is very distinctively PTA. I think that's actually borne out by the fact that Magnolia is so drastically different from Short Cuts despite the similarity of their bare plots (interconnected stories of group of characters in California, climaxing in a natural disaster). I can't imagine that same storm of frogs in a Scorsese or Altman movie, for one thing.

[DavidSeven]

Agree with Melville and Qrazy.

I always thought Altman and Scorsese's perceived influence on Anderson was overstated. Magnolia is very, very different from Short Cuts both stylistically and in its approach to drama. And while Anderson's early work featured a fluid camera reminiscent of Scorsese's, the two couldn't be further apart in terms of the general tone of their films. In my opinion, Anderson crafted a very distinctive and singular voice during his Hard Eight-Punch Drunk Love period. (Let's call this his exuberant cinema period.) He appears to have reinvented himself post-PDL and entered a new phase with yet another distinctive and singular vision.

Dude's at the top of the game right now. Very excited for this film, whether success or failure.

[Boner M]

Nobody's mentioned Demme yet? I don't see it as much as PTA would clearly like me too, but his first and latest (in the trailer, at least) films have direct quotes of Melvin & Howard, for one.

It's harder finding films that feel indebted to PTA - the recent (and great) Brazilian film Neighboring Sounds is probably the one that most consistently evokes the free-floating anxiety and formal anti-rigor that I associate with his films, but it's still not explicit.

[Qrazy]

Nobody's mentioned Demme yet? I don't see it as much as PTA would clearly like me too, but his first and latest (in the trailer, at least) films have direct quotes of Melvin & Howard, for one.

It's harder finding films that feel indebted to PTA - the recent (and great) Brazilian film Neighboring Sounds is probably the one that most consistently evokes the free-floating anxiety and formal anti-rigor that I associate with his films, but it's still not explicit.

What the hell is formal anti-rigor?

[Irish]

What the hell is formal anti-rigor?

Don't old people take anti-rigor to help with constipation? Pretty sure I've seen a bottle of the stuff in my grandmother's bathroom.

[Boner M]

What the hell is formal anti-rigor?

What Irish said.

Basically meant that his stylistic approach is fairly all-over-the-map (albeit in a strangely cohesive way).

[Pop Trash]

Seeing this tomorrow. Be totes jelly ya'll.

[MadMan]

I'm too lazy to check and see if its been mentioned already, but based on the preview for The Master I'm oddly reminded of Kubrick for some reason. I can't put my finger on it, and I'm probably wrong, but still....

[Ezee E]

I'm too lazy to check and see if its been mentioned already, but based on the preview for The Master I'm oddly reminded of Kubrick for some reason. I can't put my finger on it, and I'm probably wrong, but still....

The office scene is framed almost exactly like the one in The Shining where Torrance interviews for the job.

[MadMan]

The office scene is framed almost exactly like the one in The Shining where Torrance interviews for the job.

Ah, good catch.

Oh and if I'm looking to finally see a PTA film, where should I start? I was thinking of going with Hard Eight first, but I don't think I'll be able to get my hands on that one without going back to DVDs in the mail from Netflix.

[Ezee E]

Ah, good catch.

Oh and if I'm looking to finally see a PTA film, where should I start? I was thinking of going with Hard Eight first, but I don't think I'll be able to get my hands on that one without going back to DVDs in the mail from Netflix.

They are all pretty different from each other. Hard Eight and Boogie Nights may have the most in common.

[Pop Trash]

They are all pretty different from each other. Hard Eight and Boogie Nights may have the most in common.

True, although put together (at least from Boogie Nights on, I think Hard Eight mostly took place in Vegas, but its been too long) they do present a nice mosaic of eccentric outsiders of California.

[Ezee E]

True, although put together (at least from Boogie Nights on, I think Hard Eight mostly took place in Vegas, but its been too long) they do present a nice mosaic of eccentric outsiders of California.

Nice catch.

[Qrazy]

Ah, good catch.

Oh and if I'm looking to finally see a PTA film, where should I start? I was thinking of going with Hard Eight first, but I don't think I'll be able to get my hands on that one without going back to DVDs in the mail from Netflix.

Watch Hard Eight last, it's his only mediocre film.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Phillip Baker Hall is appropriately Baker Hall-y, though. I dunno, I really like the reveal midway through, and certain scenes have a deftness and vitality to them (when he notices the blood on his shirt cuff, the dialogue had with Paltrow at the diner interrupted by the patron), but yeah. It definitely screams derivative, at times.

[Robby P]

I prefer the crisp simplicity of Hard Eight to something more ambitious but messy like Magnolia. It's still a good movie even though it seems like a lesser work in hindsight.

[Qrazy]

Madman watches one movie a year. Do you guys really want to convince him to watch Hard Eight out of all of PTA's efforts?

[Ezee E]

I'd probably recommend Boogie Nights or Magnolia if you could only watch one PTA film.

[Ezee E]

Surprised this clip hasn't been posted:

[youtube]XuNLAZxSk2g[/youtube]

[MadMan]

Madman watches one movie a year. Do you guys really want to convince him to watch Hard Eight out of all of PTA's efforts?

I'm currently at 85 films on the year, asshole :P