Paul Thomas Anderson
After last week’s Stanley Kubrick advice, we can now hear the thoughts of the director with the next greatest hit-for-shit ratio.
Considering how long he’s been working, Paul Thomas Anderson has made very few films. But then they are Hard Eight (the only one of his I’m not keen on), Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood.
So that’s pretty good, really.
As you’ll see in this interview, he’s a lot more like motormouth Tarantino than taciturn hermit Kubrick, but there are some interesting lessons here, particularly about his reaction to having his first film messed with by the financiers. Instead of deciding that the business wasn’t for him and flouncing off in a huff, he said the only thing that made him able to cope was to start making a new film (Boogie Nights). That is the attitude that makes you one of the greats instead of one of the also rans.
There are also many insights into his perspective on the porn business and a clear demonstration on how a huge chunk of pizza can always be made to fit inside a mouth (by the way, I found this via Graham Linehan’s Twitter feed. He’s well worth following):
And just for good measure, here’s Tarantino talking about There Will Be Blood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmWNJl0wCzc
Best filmmaker working today. No question. Punch Drunk Love is a complete one off. His next one, about the rise of a cult after WW2 (Scientology) starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman should be great too.
Going back to Kubrick. I watched that boxes documentary last night, and while it’s a fascinating insight into a brilliant director (and borderline lunatic), it also left me wondering about the wiggle room that so many other directors talk about in their edit. Leave the camera rolling, do some random pick up shots, shoot from a the hip, and you can capture these little gems that could never be written into a film. He would presumably also miss out on improvisation as the script would be (in his mind) word perfect. Kubrick’s meticulousness meant he created near flawless pieces of work, but there was no room for this magic to creep in.
Take the Coens for example (my favourites). On the set of Fargo, William H Macy said that they would do a scene, then leave the camera rolling until the improvised dialogue had dried up. Then they would roll about with laughter, and just say ‘do it again’. No direction, no notes, nothing. Just ‘do it again – just like that’.
Also, Robert De Niro’s ‘are you talking to me’ speech was totally improvised.
Kubrick could only ever shoot what he had planned, and never anything more. Admittedly, that was usually pretty fucking special though.
And while I’m ranting – Magnolia is overrated.
Kubrick improvised heavily. His scripts were mere springboards.