Paul Thomas Anderson
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Watch: Paul Thomas Anderson’s New Radiohead Video, Daydreaming
Auteur Paul Thomas Anderson, for whom Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood scored his There Will Be Blood, has directed the band’s new video, which has dropped just days after their stop-motion animated clip for debut single Burn the Witch. Check out Dreaming above.
by Scott Macaulay on May 6, 2016 -
Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson Talk 70mm on Christmas Eve
One of the nice things about a Weinstein Company Christmas Day release of a film by Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight) is that the accompanying marketing material is necessarily cinephilic. Take this yuletide chat between Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson, shot in Tarantino’s home theater and moderated by Deadline’s Pete Hammond. Over forty minutes long, it deals with topics like the lifespan of the celluloid format (Tarantino says it has experienced “a reprieve”) as well why both he and Anderson like using the format for shooting films largely set in interiors. Check it out above.
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 25, 2015 -
NYFF Critics’ Notebook: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Junun
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to speculate that any director, following his second ambitious, divisive high-profile theatrical underperformer/probable money-loser (or anyone fresh off a recently completed production, really), might generally welcome a chance to get out of town. It’s unclear how far in advance Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood planned to go to Rajasthan to collaborate on an album with Israeli-born, Indian-residing Sufi convert Shye Ben Tzur, or whether Paul Thomas Anderson initially committed to tagging along; regardless, it seems to have been restorative fun. Junun is a 54-minute music doc in which Anderson shoots whatever he wants, however he wants to. There are five credited camera operators, including Anderson […]
by Vadim Rizov on Oct 8, 2015 -
Watch: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Extreme Close-Ups
Here’s a thorough, succinct look at the rather particular use of extreme close-ups in the films of Paul Thomas Anderson. Note how they are almost never routine inserts or signifiers — there’s always a motion to the shot, either within the frame or as the camera pushes in toward its subject. Check it out above.
by Sarah Salovaara on Aug 13, 2015 -
Watch: A New P.T. Anderson Music Video for Joanna Newsom
Paul Thomas Anderson’s music video for Joanna Newsom’s new single is very much in the loose handheld mode of Inherent Vice. Newsom wanders Manhattan while reeling off some typically complicated lyrics and the camera follows in her wake. Her new album, Divers, is out on October 23.
by Filmmaker Staff on Aug 10, 2015 -
Watch: Long Shots and Adrift Characters in the Films of Paul Thomas Anderson
Not to go overboard with the Paul Thomas Anderson supercuts (but to go a little overboard with the Paul Thomas Anderson supercuts), here is a nice essay from Jacob T. Swinney that strings together a selection of long shots from the director’s first six films — a nice contrast to his application of close-ups in Boogie Nights. Emphasizing the unmoored nature of Anderson’s characters both psychologically and contextually, Swinney notes that “We are often presented with characters lost within the frame, and therefore have trouble connecting with said characters–we become isolated ourselves.”
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 27, 2015 -
Watch: Objects and Close-Ups in Boogie Nights
This one’s zippy: a two-minute supercut of close-ups of objects and gestures in Boogie Nights, mostly the former. Taken out of context, a formidable amount of art direction and fetishistically shiny framing comes to the forefront. Entitled “Boogie Nights — Close-ups, Objects etc.,” this is the first video uploaded to the Vimeo channel of Justin Barham, who notes, plaintively, “If I knew people were going to actually see it I’d have given it a cool title.”
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 24, 2015 -
“The Only Thing I Ever Really Look at in Movies is the Actors”: Paul Thomas Anderson on Inherent Vice
How do you interview the filmmaker whose work has meant more to you than any others’? Paul Thomas Anderson is, for me, the best and most important director of his generation, the only person I know of who not only invites but actually earns comparison with Martin Scorsese. Like Scorsese, Anderson is a voracious film scholar whose movies both honor traditions and shatter them; also like Scorsese, he’s a committed chronicler of 20th-century American history whose perspective is consistently deeper, broader, and more original than just about anyone else’s. He’s also the best director of actors since Elia Kazan – […]
by Jim Hemphill on Dec 11, 2014 -
Watch: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Use of Steadicam
On the almost eve of Inherent Vice‘s release, here is a Kevin B. Lee video essay from the archives that analyzes Paul Thomas Anderson’s varied use of steadicam. Whether it’s enhancing the subjectivity of his principal character’s experience in Sydney/Hard Eight, juggling multiple entries through the guise of spectacle in Boogie Nights, or exploring relationships through space in Punch Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood, Anderson continually pushes the camera technique to new applications.
by Sarah Salovaara on Dec 10, 2014 -
Watch: Paul Thomas Anderson Talks to Mike Figgis about Boogie Nights, 1998
This 1998 interview with Paul Thomas Anderson has been online for a while; credit to The Seventh Art for finally bringing it to my attention. Talking with fellow director Mike Figgis after only two features under his belt, a supremely unfazed Anderson eats pizza while holding forth on Boogie Nights‘ origins as a short film equally inspired by Zelig and This is Spinal Tap, shares a lot of opinions about inadequate porn performances, discusses a written-but-never-filmed sex scene for Don Cheadle’s character, and generally shows almost no self-consciousness about saying whatever he wants. Emblematic of the era sentence: “I was actually with Quentin Tarantino the other […]
by Vadim Rizov on Nov 25, 2014
