The Films and Career of Paul Thomas Anderson (Part 2)

Brandon Thompson
Mar 22, 2016
9 min read

THE UPRISING OF THE WUNDERKIND

After Paul Thomas Anderson's disappointment of Hard Eight, which only made $222 559 at the box office of its $3 million budget, Anderson moved on to developing Boogie Nights while Rysher Entertainment were cutting their own version of the film. Anderson reportedly saw Hard Eight at cinema where it was projected on Fuji film which is considered a lower standard to Kodak's film stock.

Boogie Nights

Boogie Nights is Anderson's first ensemble film and is the film where Anderson truly got to show off his talent and skill as a director. Boogie Night's main character is played by Mark Wahlberg who was formerly known for his career as rapper. Wahlberg plays Eddie Adams a high school dropout and a busboy at a nightclub who is enlisted into the porn industry by Jack Horner a porno director played Burt Reynolds based on his apparent length of his penis, good looks and charisma. Eddie Adams would go on later to change his name to Dirk Diggler, a name so sharp that the neon lights with the name blows up because it's so powerful.

Other main cast members include Julianne Moore fellow porn star and wife of Jack Horner, John C Rilley, another porn star and best friend, Don Cheadle, Heather Graham, Thomas Jane and Luis Guzmán are all fellow porn stars. Philip Seymour Hoffman and William H Macy play production assistants. Alfred Molina, Robert Downey Sr (whose films Anderson was fond of), Michael Penn (the film's composer) along with Philip Baker Hall.

All actors in the film bring in great performances and for some their career highs. However Burt Reynolds didn't get along with Anderson during filming and even firing his agent for suggesting the movie to him afterwards. He would later go on to win a Golden Globe and get nominated for an Oscar for his performance.

The Dirk Diggler story highlighted the influence pornos had on Anderson and Boogie Nights, of which is just an expansion of The Dirk Diggler Story (the same way for Coffee and Cigarettes and Hard Eight). This tells us that Anderson had love for this story otherwise he wouldn't have expanded into a feature film.

Other major story plot points include Diggler and John C Reilly's character Reed Rothchild have the idea of doing a porno series were the fundamental element is the inclusion of story with characters. The series is a take off of a John Holmes (who Dirk Diggler is based off) series about a detective named Johnny Ward but in Boogie Nights, Brock Lander is the main character of the series. Another major story device in the movie is the transition of film to video of which Jack Horner is highly against. The film is set in San Fernando Valley which can be considered the porn capital of the world, a location that would later be revisited in several other of Anderson's movies.

VHS were of an abundance when Anderson grew up and that included pornos. Even with the bad stories he claims that he 'got off' on them. He believes that pornos were on their way to becoming a serious genre of film before video came into the picture. Film vs video is an important subplot for the movie and it holds up today as a metaphor for film vs digital.

Anderson re-teams with Robert Elswit for Boogie Nights but the film has a different aesthetic. Were as Hard Eight was more of a low key neo-noir, Boogie Nights is more of neon lit sprawling environment. One of Anderson's key traits is his long takes. In the post production of Hard Eight the producers cut during some of Anderson's long takes on the negative and when he wanted to add them back into he couldn't. Easily the movies signature shot is the first one of the movie. It opens on a neon sign of the movies name and then the camera lowers to follow at car to the entrance of a night club. The camera goes in the nightclub all while we meet about 90% of the important characters for the movie, all of which homages Robert Altman's 'The Player' which was released a couple of years earlier.

Boogie Nights also makes use of whip pans in montages, the camera moves towards a character then quickly turns around 180 degrees and do the same thing. It's an effective way of hiding a cut and moving the story around quicker. This time Elswit and Anderson were able to shoot with proper anamorphic lenses instead of doing a conversion in post production.

Boogie Nights is one of Anderson's most extensive films in terms of scale but he never spends time where it isn't needed. This is in part due to Dylan Tichenor's editing, he shows great skill in pacing scenes and showing their importance especially as it's his first feature film as an editor. The movie, which is almost three hours in length, feels shorter than it's run-time thanks to Tichenor.

The movie would go on to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September of 1997 and it received widespread critical acclaim with most critics hailing Anderson's writing and directing along with performances from Wahlberg, Reynolds and Moore. Reynolds and Moore would go on to receive an Oscar nomination but neither ended up winning (Reynolds lost to Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting and Julianne Moore lost to Kim Basinger for LA Confidential). The film also got Anderson his first (of six) Oscar nominations for the best original screenplay category.

MAGNOLIA

To follow up on his breakout hit Anderson chose to do another ensemble film. This time instead of stemming off previous work of his own, Anderson looked to Robert Altman's 'Short Cuts'. Both movies are set in the state of California and is about the connecting lives of several characters. However each movie is respectively an 'Altman' film and an 'Anderson' film.

Anderson started to develop the idea of the film during the editing of Boogie Nights and after the success of Boogie Nights, New Line Cinema told Anderson that he could do what ever he wants. Knowing that he will never get an opportunity like this again, Anderson wanted to do a small intimate piece. However as Anderson was writing the movie he fleshed it out into a sprawling story about the connecting events around Magnolia Blvd in San Fernando Valley.

Anderson opens the movie with several stories about chance and coincidences. From there he introduces each character in the film. Anderson once again turns to his repertoire of actors as well as recruiting some fresh faces. Some connections between characters are based through family, some are revealed through out the films plot and several of them are tied together by a quiz show. Anderson describes the movie as "the all time great San Fernando Valley film"

Actors include Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, John C Reilly, Philip Baker Hall, Jeremy Blackman, Melinda Dillon, Luis Guzman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Alfred Molina, Melora Walters and Jason Robards. Like Boogie Nights, Anderson's actors all bring a great performance and for actors like Cruise a career best.

Anderson for the third time hired Robert Elswit to do the cinematography for the film and once again they shoot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The use dolly, crane, Steadicam, and handheld camerawork help create a large environment and at times the camera work is used to change from one story to another. Textbook Anderson is on show here with several long takes being used. Elswit and Anderson also used the opportunity to use older cameras and film stock in the chance or fate opening sequence.

If writing and directing a three hour long ensemble film with no central story-line is hard editing must be even harder. Dylan Tichenor returns from his work on Boogie Nights to execute the interconnecting stories with ease. He moves between stories without a jarring feel. Sergei Eisenstein's montage theory plays out here on a large scale that hasn't been seen this way before and since.

Anderson's thematic expression of family and sexual dysfunction is clearly evident here with many characters being connected by blood as well as characters being driven by their sexual dysfunctions. This is most noticeable with Cruise's character who lectures men on how to 'seduce and destroy' women of which is most likely a result of his weak relationship with his father.

The film also includes over 100 reference to Exodus 8:2. The ending is based of Exodus 8:2 and serves as one of the most unique film moments in recent film history.

When Magnolia come out people didn't know what to think as like any other ambitious film ahead of its time. The movie only just made its money back but the movie gained three Oscar nominations. One for Tom Cruise, Anderson's writing and best original song by Aimee Mann. Anderson also picked up the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his film. Also of note Ingmar Bergman (director of Seventh Seal and Fanny and Alexander) showed his love for his film along with Soderbergh's 'Traffic' and Mendes's 'American Beauty'.

Punch Drunk Love

After the success of Magnolia, Anderson decided to do short movie after making a three hour movie. During the promotion of Magnolia, Anderson was asked which actors he would like to work with. He answered Daniel Day Lewis and Adam Sandler. Most people thought he was joking as they are two vastly different actors but imagine their surprise when he not only worked with Sandler but with Lewis in the following film (more on that film later).

Punch Drunk Love is about a man (played by Adam Sandler) who is novelty supplier and his developing relationship with a lady his sister introduced to him. Along the way he is being extorted for money by sex line phone worker who works for crooked mattress salesman and exploiting a flight reward system by buying pudding, a lot of pudding.

This is one the most experimental films for Anderson and it pays off. He gives Sandler his career best performance and one that would be hailed as one of the best of the year (which is coming from a six time razzie award winner). Sandler's performance is darker then what he had done before and even since. His character is a lonely figure mainly because he drowns himself in his work. His character is complicated, he has his desires and wants but with his seven sisters from childhood they've had an effect on him by suppressing who could be.

Emily Watson is the love interest for Sandler's character. From the beginning of the film we clearly see that both Watson and Sandler's characters have an interest in their own ways. The characters work in a Ying-Yang manner and Watson brings it to screen with grace.

Of the reservoir of actors Anderson had built up in the last three films only two return; Philip Seymour Hoffman as the mattress salesman and Luis Guzman as Sandler's sales assistant.

Anderson claims the movie is an "art house Adam Sandler film" and he directs it as such. The humor is present while other basic tropes of a Sandler film like a love interest is present but it sways towards more of an Anderson style of film making than Sandler's.

Robert Elswit returns to do the cinematography and it brings a continuity between this film and Anderson's previous ones. Again short in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This time however Anderson doesn't use whip pans but rather goes for the subtle cranes and dollies. They also make use of harsh highlights, silhouettes and animated water colours from video artist Jeremy Blake.

One important factor in the movie is Anderson's use of colours. Most of Sandler's surroundings are white walls expressing a meaningless existence. However when he wears the blue suit it's suggesting that he's opening up. Emily Watson is primarily in red dress even further showing how they belong together in a Ying-Yang manner.

Music in this film is different of Anderson's previous three films and it represents a change of Anderson's aesthetics as a film maker. Unlike the juke box soundtrack of Boogie Nights and to an extent for Magnolia, Anderson only makes use of one song. 'He Needs Me', written by Harry Nilsson and performed by Shelley Duvall. This film also marks the last collaboration with Jon Brion. He would be replaced by Johnny Greenwood, mainly because Brion's music simply wasn't what Anderson would be looking for in his later films.

The film carries over themes of family and sexual dysfunction from Anderson's previous films but Anderson takes a different angle on them this time bringing a freshness to his work.

The film opened to acclaim from critics but it failed to make its budget back. However Anderson won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival (losing to Roman Polanski's The Pianist). The film only received one nomination at the Golden Globes for Sandler's performance but he failed to pick up an Oscar nomination too.

By this time in Anderson's career he was only 32 but had achieved what so little film makers ever do. He had made himself a household name among the film community and he was already being hailed as the new Robert Altman or Martin Scorsese. With two large ensemble films and smaller character study, Anderson's career had been full of gambles but with each one he took it seemed to only work in his favor. Judd Apatow and Lee Unkrich have both expressed their love this film.

This is the second entrance for my Paul Thomas Anderson study. Next time I will do There Will Be Blood and The Master.

Sources

Wikipedia Pages