Paul Thomas Anderson
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“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 -
Trailer Watch: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice
Paisley, mutton chops and “It’s a Wonderful World” — here’s the brand new trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s eagerly awaited Inherent Vice, adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s novel. Joaquin Phoenix, Benicio del Toro, Katherine Waterston, Owen Wilson and Reese Witherspoon all star in PTA/Pynchon’s woozy comedy about the end of the ’60s.
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 29, 2014 -
Watch: A Video Analysis of Punch-Drunk Love as Superman-Inspired
As Spinal Tap observed, there’s a fine line between clever and stupid, and there’s a similarly thin divider between convincing argument and tenuous grasping. Is this 12-minute analysis of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love, which argues that it refers heavily to the 1978 Superman, reaching too far when claiming e.g. that the harmonium leading Adam Sandler to Emily Watson could be a stand-in for the Fortress of Solitude? Probably, but it’s an enjoyably go-for-broke interpretation regardless. In this formulation, Sandler’s Barry is Clark Kent — meek and mild at some times, superhumanly strong and violent at others — and Emily […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jul 10, 2014 -
Music Video: Fiona Apple’s Hot Knife, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
For his first music video in 11 years, Paul Thomas Anderson reunites with his ex, Fiona Apple, for “Hot Knife,” from the singer/songwriter’s The Idler Wheel…. Mixing black-and-white and color, split screen and tight close-ups, the video was, Apple said in an earlier interview, developed with Anderson prior to his shooting of The Master. It’s just been released today; check it out above.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 24, 2013 -
Writer/Director Paul Thomas Anderson on The Master
What master do you worship? Does your master have a name — God, Yahweh, Allah, Vishnu, Great Spirit, Creator, Father, Mother — or remain nameless? Is He/She/It an abstraction — love, light, power — or have you met? Has your master sat across a table from you and asked you to account for your transgressions? Did you stare your master in the eyes without blinking? The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson’s sixth feature film, is an epic, 70mm story of tiny details that plays out viscerally on the most complicated expanse imaginable: The human face. Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a snarling, […]
by James Ponsoldt on Sep 14, 2012 -
TRAILER WATCH: “THE MASTER”
The Master is Paul Thomas Anderson’s follow-up to There Will be Blood, my favorite film of that year. After this trailer I’m even more psyched.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 19, 2012 -
MORE OF “THE MASTER”
Here’s the second bit of footage released from Paul Thomas Anderson’s forthcoming The Master, this time featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman (who plays the title character), as well as Joaquin Phoenix. As with the previous one, this is really a teaser/clip rather than an actual trailer, giving us a sense of only a small aspect of the film — rather than taking the usual trailer tactic of telling us 90% of the plot and compacting every notable or high-energy moment from the film into 90 seconds. As someone who likes to be surprised by movies, I hope that this refreshingly different […]
by Nick Dawson on Jun 19, 2012 -
FIRST CLIP FROM PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON’S “THE MASTER”
We featured Paul Thomas Anderson in conversation with Robert Downey Sr. last week on the blog, and now we’re pleased to share the first clip from Anderson’s upcoming The Master. The 1950s-set drama about a religion not dissimilar to Scientology will be released by the Weinstein Company on October 12 and is bound to be a major player come awards season. Just from this sneak peak alone, it looks like this might be a career-defining role for Joaquin Phoenix…
by Nick Dawson on May 21, 2012
