The Paul Thomas Anderson appreciation thread.

Filmography:



Hard Eight







Boogie Nights





Magnolia









Punch Drunk Love







There Will be Blood







The Master







and, coming soon, to a 70mm theater hopefully near you

















PTA Trivia:

• Film School is a “complete con”. Paul Thomas Anderson never went to film school and learned the craft by watching films, reading books and magazines, and watching films accompanied by director’s audio commentary. He visited New York University for two days. The future director decided it was not the right place for him after a professor stated students wishing to make the next ‘Terminator’ were not welcome.

• For the brief time he was at NYU film school he handed in some of Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet's work as his own. When he got it back with a "C" grade he decided to leave.

• While doing press for 'Magnolia', the most frequent question asked was, 'What did the frogs mean?' Paul, after answering one too many of these questions, shot back at one interviewer, and I'm paraphrasing, 'It doesn't mean anything. The frogs don't have any significance. Only the fact that they fell has significance. If I had the budget, they would have been cats and dogs.'

• Paul can only write four hours a day, due to his habit of chain smoking while at the computer.

Quotes:

Quote:

My dad was one of the first guys on the block to have a VCR. So along with all the videotapes that I would rummage through, I would find porno movies. Not that it twisted me into some maniac or anything. I was watching porno from age 10 to 17. I had an interest in it.

Quote:

I really subscribe to that old adage that you should never let the audience get ahead of you for a second. So if the film's abrasive and wrongfoots people then, y'know, that's great. But I hope it involves an audience. If not, that's my ****-up.

Quote:

Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out.

Quote:

We're all children of Kubrick, aren't we? Is there anything you can do that he hasn't done?