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A Little P.T.A. Action On This Here Link!
Hey folks, Harry here... No here's a film I had hoped was going to be coming out this Christmas season, but won't be coming out till sometime next year.... Argh, I want it now daddy! I don't want it when I get home, I want it noooooow! Ahem, excuse me. PTA's choice in films to screen before starting a new movie is inspired. What a wonderfully odd double feature.... wonder if it has anything to do with anything.... Hmmmmm
Hey --- just dropping you a note that Robert Elswit (PTA's DP) came to USC
tonight to talk about his new film, "The Heist." The only thing he really
talked about though was his work with PTA, and more specifically, his new
film, which he said is now titled, "Punch-Drunk Love." He actually called it
"Punch-Drunk Knuckle Love," but I'm thinking he just confused the original
title with "Knuckle Sandwich" - another rumored possible title. Something
else worth mentioning are the two films he said they screened before making
this new film. PTA screened "Network" before filming "Magnolia" and for this
film, he screened "An American in Paris" and "A Woman is a Woman" (Godard)
--- both of which are MUSICALS. Spread the word.
AKASoze
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Whoops, sorry. Anyways, I know this is stupid, seeing as how the subject covers what I'm going to say, but, um, yeah. In all honesty, I doubt anyone would care, but maybe the studio didn't feel comfortable naming the film after a Radiohead b-side. That Thom Yorke is a wily one, y'know.
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I see P.T.A action as a header, but nothing about Barbara Eden here at all. I was hoping for news about an uncut verson. Oh well, at least I get to go to bed thinking about Barbara Eden (the 6o's version). ZB
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The Tom Cruise scenes in MAGNOLIA aren't what I'm talking about, but rather a theme that is a constant through all of his films, and that is the attitude that the worst thing in the world a woman can do is fuck. It's the classic woman-hater's fantasy that all woman who cheat or fuck a lot of guys should kill themselves as 'punishment' for their unforgivable sins. In Anderson's world women are hell-bound sluts who can only 'redeem themselves' by suicide or drug-addled ruin.
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...they're mostly on the same "hell-bound" path. PTA characters -- regardless of gender -- all tend to be conflicted misfits who end up paying for their assorted sins, often through punishments they impose on themselves. I find Julianne Moore's bottomless soliloquy in "Short Cuts" (a movie in which just about every woman has to take off her clothes) more sexist than anything in an Anderson film. Maybe it's just that PTA's sexism -- with its emphasis on the cock -- is more complex than Dirt Old Altman's fascination with nekkid women.
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which is why kevin smith can call his film 'jersey girl' or there can be two films called 'driven' and two films called 'cheaters' currently out on video...or a comic book and tv show both called 'alias' right now... besides, thom yorke may be many things, moody musical genius included, but he's never struck me as particularlly lawsuit-happy...after all, he's not courtney love...
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here's a guy who made a very good movie right out of the gate, and followed it up with two toweringly great movies that are permanently ensconced in my personal Top Ten. Boogie Nights was this exhilarating masterpiece and just when I thought there's no way he can top it, he totally blew me away and broke my heart with the excellent Magnolia, which is an opus that is anything but threadbare or wannabe. Apparently there's an assload of people who still don't get it, who think that the goddam frogs made Magnolia an "art film". I don't understand the Magnolia haters: I guess it's possible that they never knew anyone who got sick and died, that they never got so fed up with their miserable lot in life that they were ready to do something crazy, or that they are all otherwise emotionally stunted. Then again maybe there just weren't enough droids and wizards in it. Punch-Drunk Love can't come out soon enough for me, who the hell knows why PTA has to fuck with this movie for a year before we get to see it, but o well whatever. Meanwhile bring on the PTA musical, due for release sometime before 2010, if it's half as cool as the Wise Up sequence I'm all over it like Luis G on a bong hit.
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I find it interesting that someone would take issue with the female nudity in Short Cuts. If I recall correctly, I read an article about the film where Altman was quoted as saying he didn't want the amount of female nudity to be any higher than the male nudity. 2 women in the film are naked, and two men are naked (Huey Lewis' famous pissing scene, and I believe Matthew Modine was also nude). So although it may be gratuitous, Altman wasn't playing favorites with gender.
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Yeah, I know. The lawsuit thing was said in jest. To be honest, if he should sue anyone, it would have to be Travis and Muse for ripping off The Bends and OK Computer. On the flip side, just about anyone at Warp Records could sue him for Kid A and Amnesiac. The moral of the story? Radiohead rocks. As does Boogie Nights. It roxors my boxors.
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Yeah, I know. The lawsuit thing was said in jest. To be honest, if he should sue anyone, it would have to be Travis and Muse for ripping off The Bends and OK Computer. On the flip side, just about anyone at Warp Records could sue him for Kid A and Amnesiac. The moral of the story? Radiohead rocks. As does Boogie Nights. It roxors my boxors.
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I swear to god, disliking magnolia is like disliking 2001:A Space Odyssey, or saying Mozart has too many notes. Short Cuts is a masterpiece too, but Magnolia is better. And Boogie Night is an absolute fucking masterpiece too. Two of the very, very best movies of the decade. Like, in the top three. Or two.
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is the actual, full title of the Radiohead song. Brilliant song too. That actually would be a pretty sweet name for a movie, especially a PTA one.
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Ordinary People is an incredible film, well worthy of the Oscar it has. Raging Bull is a great film, but truthfully OP is better. Sad that it is not very recognized now.
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... Fargo.
Magnolia is a pathetic, directionless mess of narrative self-indilgence.
Case closed. -
You clearly misunderstand the statement "Case closed". The verdict is in on PTA and he is a childish, self-indulgent minorly talented director. One only needs to look at PTA's refusal to refer to "Hard Eight" as anything but it's working title "Sydney" because that was the title he really wanted to realize just how self-indulgent this man really is. "Magnolia" is an overwrought, absurdly melodramatic mess. Your admiration for "Magnolia" is misguided. Pseudo -complexity does not equal brilliance. Someday you will be embarrassed by your stand on this film. Case closed.
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Stnaley Sphincter- Pia Zadora won a Golden Globe and Marisa Tomei took home an Academy Award. Enough said. I hope that puts the issue of awards to rest. At the time "Citizen Kane" was released, much of the press was controlled by Hearst thus contaminating the examination of the critical reception of the film at the time. That puts the "Kane" issue behind us. I will agree that 30 years from now it is quite possible a college course will be dedicated to Magnolia
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But I love his fucking movies!! They are amazingly overreaching and sooo well directed! How GREAT is Sydney!?! He needs to make more as short and sweet as that one. But PTA himself, that guy's a pretentious dick. Can't wait to see the new movie!
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I do hope that everyone contributing their own (un)intelligent comments about Paul Thomas Anderson and his films, as well as those reading them, realize that this is one of the reasons he is one of the most important "new" directors out there.
The fact that his films cause so much bickering might just be a positive thing.
I am an admitted admirer of his films. Whether or not the man himself publicly comes across as a bit immature and ego-filled is really not all that important - unless you want to build your own personal like or dislike of his work on these media-filtered perceptions.
Given that, I really wish whoever brought up Citizen Kane would think before doing such a thing.
Comparing one film to another, especially one so secure in the master canon of cinema, only leads to more trouble....
I also consider Magnolia to be one of the best American films in recent years, but also recognize its potential flaws - overarching melodrama, structural holes, the complete abandonment of the Dixon/Worm plotline, etc.
Having said that, I still personally consider it a great film for the potential emotional impact it can have on someone.
Another poster mentioned Mulholland Drive, one of this year's best films. Each film has many different reasons for its being considered such a good film, but these two films share a similarity, in that they both have a pivotal moment (or perhaps several) that ask the audience to give itself over to the film. There is a complete refusal of rationality by the filmmaker, and the viewer must make the choice to either allow the film to take them where it wants to go, or dimiss the film for not doing what the viewer wants of it.
---Inherently, I think this is where the problem that people have with Magnolia lies, they are unwilling to give up their cynical, rational gaze that Hollywood has (perhaps unknowingly) instilled in them.
Mulholland Drive is directly about this gaze; it destroys it. Magnolia merely tries to subvert it.
This should not be a negative criticism of the film. With Magnolia, PT Anderson tries to do what so many other filmmakers wouldn't even dream of attempting; he is trying to make films that pay homage to other films that he loves (nowhere near the level of someone like De Palma on the rip-off scale), while also creating character stories that have a moral relevance to himself and others (questions of familial estrangment and the sin, suffering, forgiveness/redemption cycle are among the most apparent to myself).
--That was way more than I intended, but, like everyone else, I have to at least try to defend my favorite filmmakers. Not justify, just defend.
--It really makes me wonder what people are thinking when they see a film they don't like: do you think that the film has failed you or you have failed the film?
Why automatically assume that, because you didn't 'like' a film that it was 'bad'? Is a film's artistic integrity really dependant upon your own personal viewpoint? Many of us can like a film we feel is a 'bad' film, why can't we consider a film 'good' without liking it? -
If I hear one more person rip on PTA I am going to go crazy. What's wrong with not liking his movies?... Nothing! You are allowed to have your own opinion. What's wrong with talking shit about PTA because you don't like his movies?... Everything! If you hate him so bad why are you clicking on the link to view more info about his upcoming film? Move on to the next topic dumb ass! But you don't... The funny thing is there is not a PTA hater here that wouldn
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Nov 12, 2001 5:49:23 PM CST
Are you really as stupid as your post makes you out to be?
by scryptonomicon
Congratulations Backupoffmefoo. That is the dumbest post I have ever read on this site.
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I will take that as a compliment Scryptonomicon! Now take Sister Act II back to Hollywood Video and switch it for Fargo.
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