Subscribe to
Popcorn Talk Network's
YouTube Channel @
http://youtube.com/popcorntalknetwork
Check out all the shows' playlists here: https://www.youtube.com/user/popcorntalknetwork/playlists
Popcorn Talk proudly presents
Profiles with
Malone and Mantz! In this vodcast series hosts
Alicia Malone and
Scott "
Movie" Mantz break down and focus on some of the most prolific
Hollywood directors, writers and actors in the entertainment industry - past & present.
This episode of PROFILES is all about the work of stylish filmmaker
Paul Thomas Anderson.
Anderson was born in
1970. He was one of the first of the "video store" generation of film-makers. His father was the first man on his block to own a
V.C.R., and from a very early age Anderson had an infinite number of titles available to him. While film-makers like
Spielberg cut their teeth making high-8 films, Anderson cut his teeth shooting films on video and editing them from V.C.R. to V.C.R.
Part of Anderson's artistic
D.N.A. comes from his father, who hosted a late night horror show in
Cleveland. His father knew a number of oddball celebrities such as
Robert Ridgely, an actor who often appeared in
Mel Brooks' films and would later play "
The Colonel" in Anderson's
Boogie Nights (
1997). Anderson was also very much shaped by growing up in "
The Valley", specifically the suburban
San Fernando Valley of greater
Los Angeles. The Valley may have been immortalized in the
1980s for its mall-hopping "
Valley Girls", but for Anderson it was a slightly seedy part of suburban
America. You were close to Hollywood, yet you weren't there. Would-bes and burn-outs populated the area. Anderson's experiences growing up in "The Valley" have no doubt shaped his artistic self, especially since three of his four theatrical features are set in the
Valley.
Anderson got into film-making at a young age. His most significant amateur film was
The Dirk Diggler Story (
1988), a sort of mock-documentary a la
This Is Spinal Tap (
1984), about a once-great pornography star named
Dirk Diggler. After enrolling in
N.Y.U.'s film program for two days, Anderson got his tuition back and made his own short film,
Cigarettes & Coffee (
1993). He also worked as a production assistant on numerous commercials and music videos before he got the chance to make his first feature, something he liked to call
Hard Eight (
1996), but would later become known to the public as "Hard Eight". The film was developed and financed through The
Sundance Lab, not unlike Quentin Tarantino's
Reservoir Dogs (
1992). Anderson cast three actors whom he would continue working with in the future:
Altman veteran
Philip Baker Hall, the husky and lovable
John C. Reilly and, in a small part,
Philip Seymour Hoffman, who so far has been featured in all four of Anderson's films. The film deals with a guardian angel type (played by
Hall) who takes down-on-his-luck Reilly under his wing. The deliberately paced film featured a number of Anderson trademarks: wonderful use of source light, long takes and top-notch acting. Yet the film was reedited (and retitled) by
Rysher Entertainment against Anderson's wishes. It was admired by critics, but didn't catch on at the box office. Still, it was enough for Anderson to eventually get his next movie financed. "Boogie Nights" was, in a sense, a remake of "The Dirk Diggler Story", but Anderson threw away the satirical approach and instead painted a broad canvas about a makeshift family of pornographers. The film was often joyous in its look at the
1970s and the days when pornography was still shot on film, still shown in theatres, and its actors could at least delude themselves into believing that they were movie stars. Yet "Boogie Nights" did not flinch at the dark side, showing a murder and suicide, literally in one (almost) uninterrupted shot, and also showing the lives of these people deteriorate, while also showing how their lives recovered.
Visit our website: http://popcorntalknetwork.com
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thepopcorntalk
Check out http://schmoesknow.com for all your movie news!
Shopping on
Amazon?
Click through our Amazon affiliate program at http://www.amazon.com//ref=as_sl_pd_tf_lc?&tag;=aftcom-20&camp;=15345&creative;=493161&linkCode;=ur1&adid;=1DB5P6Z81DTMQXSNPN4T&&ref-refURL;=http%3A%2F%2Frcm.amazon.com%2Fe%2Fcm%3Ft%3Daftcom-20%26o%
3D1%26p%3D9%26l%3Dur1%26category%3Dhome%26banner%3D1GKQW904419X3K3XEKR2%26f%3Difr
- published: 18 Dec 2014
- views: 9437