Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson at Cannes 2002

Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970^[1] in Studio City, California) is an American filmmaker.

Film style, themes, and trademarks

Anderson is perhaps best known for his movies with large ensemble casts and complex, interweaving storylines, namely Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999). He is part of the first generation of "VCR filmmakers"; directors such as Quentin Tarantino, who learned their craft not in film schools, but by viewing thousands of movies on video in their adolescence and thus gaining a vast knowledge of film technique and culture.

The films of Paul Thomas Anderson typically deal with the significance of familial relationships over time, especially with regard to fathers and their children. Themes concerning divine fate, the serendipitous nature of love, and the role of media in contemporary life are also common. The director stresses the interconnections between his characters as these forces unpredictably, and even chaotically, weave in and out of their fragile lives. Anderson's stylistic trademarks include the frequent use of logistically difficult steadicam-based long takes, such as the opening shot in Boogie Nights (which lasts approximately 3 minutes without a cut), and an aggressively bombastic use of sound and music.

In addition to films, Anderson has also directed several music videos, including several Fiona Apple videos. Anderson was also a "ghost" director for Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion, presumably for insurance purposes, as Altman was 80 years old. Anderson was not formally credited in the film. [1] [2]

Anderson's next film, There Will Be Blood, is an adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel Oil!. The novel is set during the oil scandals of the Harding administration, providing in the process a detailed picture of the development of the oil industry in Southern California; it will star Daniel Day-Lewis.

Personal Life

Paul Thomas Anderson at Cannes 2002

Anderson is the son of noted voice actor Ernie Anderson, best remembered as the voice of the American Broadcasting Company and as Cleveland-area horror host Ghoulardi, after whom Paul's production company, Ghoulardi Films, is named. He attended New York University, but dropped out before completing a degree.

He and singer Fiona Apple had a relationship for several years; she appears with him in the making-of video diary on the DVD of the film Magnolia. Anderson's current relationship is with Saturday Night Live cast member Maya Rudolph. The couple have a daughter, Pearl Bailey Anderson, born on October 15, 2005.

Trivia

• Philip Seymour Hoffman has appeared in all four of Anderson's features. Other actors with multiple appearances in Anderson films include Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Luis Guzmán, Ricky Jay, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Melora Walters and Robert Ridgely. His three big-budget films (after Hard Eight) were headlined by Mark Wahlberg, Tom Cruise and Adam Sandler, respectively.
• There was a feud between fans of Magnolia and Kevin Smith found at Kevin Smith's web forum www.viewaskew.com. Neither PTA nor Smith had any part of this feud. Magnolia fans went after Kevin Smith after Smith declared his hatred for Magnolia. It caused Kevin to put a reference to it in his movie Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back with the "magnoliafan" Internet fanboy reference. Some thought this tension would spill over to Smith and Anderson, but the two later met in a doctor's office where Anderson introduced himself to Kevin and there was no ill-will. The two later met each other on the set of Saturday Night Live when Ben Affleck was hosting. In that episode Anderson directed the sequence of Affleck meeting Anna Nicole Smith.
• Anderson served as standby director for Robert Altman on the film A Prairie Home Companion, due to Altman´s illness. The studio demanded for a standby director, and Altman´s choice was none other than one of his biggest fans; Anderson.
• Many of his cinematic influences include Blake Edwards,Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese.

Filmography

Feature films as writer and director

• Hard Eight (also known as Sydney) (1996)
• Boogie Nights (1997)
• Magnolia (1999)
• Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
• There Will Be Blood (in production) (2006)

Music videos

• "Paper Bag" by Fiona Apple
• "Limp" by Fiona Apple
• "Fast As You Can" by Fiona Apple
• "Save Me" by Aimee Mann
• "Across the Universe" by Fiona Apple
• "Try" by Michael Penn

Other

• The Dirk Diggler Story (1988) - short film, inspired Boogie Nights
• Cigarettes & Coffee (1993) - short film, inspired Hard Eight (Sydney)

References

1. ^ paul thomas anderson ::, Cigarettes and red vines. accessed April 24, 2006.

External links

• cigarettes and red vines - the p.t. anderson web resource
• Paul Thomas Anderson interview collection on YouTube
• Paul Thomas Anderson at the Internet Movie Database
• Punch Drunk Love: The Budding of an Auteur by Cubie King
• "The 'Quirky' New Wave". Alternate Takes
• [www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/tt/tt971031paul_thomas_anderson Interview of KCRW's The Treatment: Paul Thomas Anderson (10/97)]
• Interview of KCRW's The Treatment: Paul Thomas Anderson (06/03)

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