Movie of the Week – Magnolia

Movie of the week: Magnolia (1999).

The ensemble drama focuses on a group of people living in the San Fernando Valley.

Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson went to a different level with his filmmaking with his third film Magnolia (expanding on the ensemble idea crafted and grown in Hard Eight and Boogie Nights). The style of Anderson’s directing and his fantastic writing give the film so much emotional depth and resonance. It is an experience all cinema fans should have. Anderson has made six films to date, and while There Will Be Blood and The Master (his two latest) might be is best, Magnolia is his first great film.

Anderson worked with many of his frequent collaborators on the film, including composer Jon Brion (three Anderson films), cinematographer Robert Elswit (five Anderson films) and production designers William Arnold (two Anderson films) and Mark Bridges (all six Anderson films).

The great and diverse cast features Anderson frequents Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Philip Baker Hall, Alfred Molina, Melora Walters, Luis Guzman, Ricky Jay, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, as well as stars like Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, and Felicity Huffman. Also, look out for cameos from Patton Oswalt, Thomas Jane, Clark Gregg, and Jim Beaver.

The 1990s featured a few brilliant ensemble films that changed filmmaking (The Player, The Thin Red Line, Boogie Nights, Glengarry Glen Ross, Heat, and Reservoir Dogs), but two stand out above the rest: Pulp Fiction and Magnolia. The film was nominated for three Oscars including Best Supporting Actor (for Tom Cruise) and Best Writing. It is among the films that are mandatory viewing for those looking to have a strong working knowledge of film history/aesthetics, auteur filmmakers and the great films of the 1990s.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray, DVD and Streaming

Paul Thomas Anderson – Movies Spotlight – September 2012

Paul Thomas Anderson, 42, is among the great generation of auteurs to emerge out of the 1990s (filmmakers like: Wes Anderson, David Fincher, Danny Boyle, Alfonso Cuaron, Peter Jackson, Kar Wai Wong, and Quentin Tarantino). This month, his new film The Master is set for release. It is has played to high praise and acclaim among most critics (though, some are calling it too experimental), and is among the Oscar frontrunners. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman (a frequent Anderson collaborator, appearing in five of Anderson’s six films) and Amy Adams, the film is about Freddie Quell, a Naval veteran who arrives home disillusioned and uncertain about his future. That is, until he finds a place in The Cause, drawn in by its charismatic leader. Check out the trailer.

Early Career:

Anderson briefly attended Emerson College and New York University before diving into his career, taking a job as a production assistant working on whatever he could – be it television movies, music videos or game shows in LA and New York. Instead of film school, Anderson pooled his money (which amounted to $10,000 set aside for college by his parents, some money he won gambling and his girlfriend’s credit card) and set out to make a short film calling it his college experience. The film was Cigarettes & Coffee (costing $20,000), a short following multiple storylines involving a twenty-dollar bill (something that would become prevalent in Anderson’s early features). He screened the film at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival and was invited to the 1994 Sundance filmmaker’s lab. At the lab, his mentor was Michael Caton-Jones (who was in the prime of his career, just off Memphis Belle and This Boy’s Life and about to direct Rob Roy). Jones saw a lot of talent in Anderson, but not a lot of hands on experience and thus focused his mentorship in that direction. Anderson decided to adapt his short into a feature titled Sydney, signing a deal with Rysher Entertainment. In 1996, he wrote and directed the film, but Rysher executives decided to re-edit it. However, Anderson still had a print of his original cut and submitted it to the Cannes Film Festival where it was screened, receiving acclaim. Anderson was then able to get his version released but he had to retitle it Hard Eight and had to come up with $200,000 to finish it (which was funded by himself and the film’s stars Gwyneth Paltrow and John C. Reilly). Rysher did nothing to promote the film, but even so it was noticed by critics and launched Anderson’s career.

Breakthrough and Creative Control:

During Anderson’s issues with Hard Eight, he began writing a new script in the summer of 1995 based on an early short film he had made called The Dirk Diggler Story. Once Hard Eight was done, Anderson started to circulate the script. New Line Cinema became very interested after the studio’s president Michael De Luca loved the script. Boogie Nights went into production and was released in 1997. The film was a breakthrough hit for Anderson and its stars – momentarily resurrecting Burt Reynolds’s career and serving as the breakthrough for Mark Wahlberg and Julianne Moore (among others). It received three Oscar nominations (two for acting and one for writing). Like Hard Eight but more so, Boogie Nights showed off Anderson’s brilliant ability to present great fully fleshed out characters across a large ensemble. Anderson also showed off his knack for writing wonderful scenes with sort of a heightened reality (I love this one with Rashad Jackson played by Alfred Molina). With the success of Boogie Nights, New Line Cinema gave Anderson a metaphoric black check to make whatever he wanted with absolute creative control (ever director’s dream). The film started out initially as a small intimate project, but as Anderson wrote it grew into a vast ensemble piece about the intersecting lives of several people in the San Fernando Valley, which we know as Magnolia. Again, Anderson’s film garnered three Oscar nominations (this time, one for acting, one of original song and one for writing). Anderson has claimed that Magnolia is the best film he will probably ever make.

And Now for Something Different (Sort of):

With the 1990s over and done, Anderson had three critical hits under his belt and sat almost atop the totem poll of prestige filmmakers. But, he wanted to try something different. All of his films had been long ensemble piece and he wanted to make something shorter and more centralized on one character. He decided to make a romantic comedy, but with his own style to it – and thus Punch-Drunk Love was born (partially based on David Phillips). Anderson played around with the visuals and especially the sound design to create the tone and character for his lead Adam Sandler (in what is easily his best performance). The film is aesthetically ambitious and wildly enthralling and strange (and maybe even off-putting for some). Leave it to Anderson to make a film in what has become the most genetic and boring genre (rom-coms) into something completely weird and beautiful. While not receiving any Oscar nominations, it did win best director at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Golden Palm (best film). Next, Anderson made a film that at first glance seems nothing like a typical PT Anderson film with There Will Be Blood (my personal favorite of his films to date). The character piece is a cinematic marvel, as it is both aesthetically superb and features some of the decade’s best performances (notably Daniel Day-Lewis in the lead role). In many ways, this film cements Anderson as a truly unique and gifted auteur, the film being among the greatest of the decade (some even naming it as one of the best American films ever made). It was nominated for eight Oscars (including Best Picture, Director and Screenplay) winning two (Cinematography for Robert Elswit, who shot all of Anderson’s first five films, and Lead Actor for Day-Lewis).

Upcoming Projects:

Anderson does not have any future projects set in stone at present. However, he is working on adapting Thomas Pynchon’s novel Inherent Vice – a hard boiled pothead detective story. He has also mentioned an interest in another Pynchon novel Gravity’s Rainbow.

Career Highlights:

1)      Hard Eight (1996) – writer/director (DVD)

2)      Boogie Nights (1997) – writer/director (Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming)

3)      Magnolia (1999)* – writer/director (Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming)

4)      Punch-Drunk Love (2002) – writer/director (DVD, Streaming)

5)      There Will Be Blood (2007)* – writer/director (Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming)

*Editor’s picks

Robert Elswit – Movies Spotlight – September 2010

Cinematographer Robert Elswit is best known for shooting all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s feature films. He is also a strong proponent of shooting on film, not digital – stating that digital provides “no texture, no grain”. Elswit is the director of photography on this month’s film The Town, directed by Ben Affleck about a bank-robber who falls in love with one of his hostages. It looks to be one of the best, if not the best, film of the month (and likely one of the best of the year, having received very positive buzz out of Venice and Toronto film festivals). Elswit has shot a lot of films, but his recent work is of such a high caliber that he is certainly one of the top DPs working today.

Early Career:

Elswit got his start in the late 70s’ as a camera operator and assistant camera operator on films like the drama/thriller Fraternity Row and the documentary Genesis. He also got work as a visual effects cameraman working on notable films such as Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Working also in TV movies, he had a surprise hit with the well-liked sci-fi family film All Summer in a Day leading to more TV and feature work. He got his first break in 1985 on Rob Reiner’s The Sure Thing (his second feature coming off the success of This Is Spinal Tap), as the comedy was a hit (starring a young John Cusack) and his first exposure to mainstream Hollywood as an above-the-line crew member. But like any newcomer in the business, he had to continue working on low budget, not so great films like the rock and roll horror film Trick or Treat and the comedy horror film Return of the Living Dead Part II. He next worked on the worst of Savage Steve Holland’s three feature films (all wacky teen comedies) How I Got Into College and Bad Influence, directed by Curtis Hanson and written by David Koepp (while this film is not very good, both would go on to great success). Hanson liked working with Elswit and hired him to shoot his next two films The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and River Wild. Both thrillers were moderate successes and gave both Hanson and Elswit more notoriety in the business. Elswit’s early career had given him a lot of experience working on all types of films and different genres, but it is his collaboration with writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson that really helped him make a name for himself – and it all started with Anderson’s feature debut in 1996 the crime-drama Hard Eight (though Anderson wished it to be called Sydney).

Collaborations with P.T. Anderson:

On Anderson’s first feature film, Elswit’s work garnered him an Independent Spirit Award nod. But, it is Anderson’s follow up Boogie Nights about fictional porn-star Dirk Diggler that elevated him to the status of Indy DP darling. The film is stylistically and aesthetically interesting with the opening scene having a three minute long single camera shot, moving from the street into and throughout the house introducing most of the characters. While, long takes have become part of Anderson’s style, Elswit fine lighting and camera work is also paramount in their success. Next, they made the drama Magnolia, which was another huge success on the Indy films circuit. Like Boogie Nights, the film has another three minute single shot. Elswit and Anderson also use camel lights and move the camera’s iris in/out as a throwback to silent films (both of which have also become trademarks of Anderson’s). Next, Anderson and Elswit embarked on a very ambitious neurotic experience with the dramedy Punch-Drunk Love. The camera work in the film creates a sense of panic (this is also largely due to the score) and the color scheme used at different moments in the film completely illuminates the emotions of the main character. It is one of the most interest films, purely from an aesthetics standpoint, of the decade (and it is a good overall film too). Their next film, the drama There Will Be Blood, catapulted both Anderson and Elwit into the elite of Hollywood, the film reaping a Best picture and directing nod for Anderson and cinematography win for Elswit at the 2008 Oscars. The film is a cinematographic masterpiece.

One of the Best:

Elswit also worked on a number of films while collaborating with Anderson from 1996 through present. Closing out the 90s’ he worked on Matt Reeves’s (who has since become one of J.J. Abrams’s go-to guys, and has Let Me In coming out next month) rom-com The Pallbearer, the ok Pierce Brosnan Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies and Joel Schumacher’s mystery 8MM. Elswit seemed to have a knack of working with famous directors and stars on their worst or at least bad films, though his work is always top-notch. And this continued into the early part of the next decade with a pair of Ben Affleck-starring rom-coms (Bounce and Gigli) and one of David Mamet’s lesser films Heist. However, with the success of working with PT Anderson on Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love, Elswit finally started getting better films to shoot (outside his Anderson collaborations), starting with 2003’s Runaway Jury, a thriller by Gary Fleder (not my favorite, but overall it is thought of as pretty good). After working with George Clooney on Syriana, Clooney hired Elswit to shoot his film Good Night, and Good Luck. To preserve the subtlety of the colors, the film was shot on color film on a grayscale set and then color-corrected in post-production (as it is a black and white film). He achieved his first Academy award nod with the film. Elswit also shot the Clooney films Michael Clayton (giving Elswit two films of five nominated for best picture in 2008) and The Men Who Stare at Goats. Rounding off the decade, he shot Mamet’s MMA film Redbelt, the crime-drama The Burning Plain and Tony Gilroy’s follow up to Michael Clayton the corporate espionage film Duplicity. He also shot this summer’s action-thriller Salt, directed by Phillip Noyce. With his work on and the success of films like Good Night, and Good Luck, There Will Be Blood and Michael Clayton, Elswit has established himself as a first-class cinematographer who can shoot in any genre.

Future Projects:

Elswit’s next film to be released is this month’s The Town. In 2011, he has two films scheduled for release, though at present they are both in preproduction. The first is PT Anderson’s new film The Master a 1950s-set drama about the relationship between an intellectual, known as The Master, and a young drifter, who becomes his right-hand man as The Master’s faith-based organization beings to catch on in America. The film stars Jeremy Renner, Reese Witherspoon and (of course) Philip Seymour Hoffman. After that, he shoots the J.J. Abrams produced, Brad Bird directed Mission: Impossible IV (sidebar, I am really interested to see how Bird handles his first live-action film, and yeah I am excited to see it), which stars Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames, and may have characters from III in it as well. Both of Elswit’s upcoming projects look to be pretty good and he will likely have more and more awards coming his way in the future.

                                                                                                                       

Robert Elswit Box Set (Selected Career Highlights):

1.)          Hard Eight [DVD]

2.)          Boogie Nights [Blu-ray/DVD]*

3.)          Magnolia [Blu-ray/DVD]*

4.)          Punch-Drunk Love [Blu-ray/DVD]*

5.)          Good Night, and Good Luck [Blu-ray/DVD]

6.)          Michael Clayton [Blu-ray/DVD]*

7.)          There Will Be Blood [Blu-ray/DVD]*

8.)          Redbelt [Blu-ray/DVD]

*Editor’s Picks