greatest PTA scene

Started by Alethia, April 08, 2003, 10:32:02 PM

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Alethia

just interested in what you all think is the greatest single scene Paul thomas anderson has ever written and directed.........while there are a ton to choose from (I don't think he has ever written and directed a scene that i wouldn't have been proud to have made myself), i narrowed my selection down to this:

the scene in MAGNOLIA when Donnie Smith tells Brad the Bartender he loves him - that entire sequence is sheer fucking genius...get's me every time.

--- i'm new here by the way...

Duck Sauce


cine

I like the raining frogs will be a very common answer, so I'm going to exclude that and say the Boogie Nights scene where the three go to sell the coke to Alfred Molina.

The Silver Bullet

Likewise. The entire Long Way Down (One Last Thing) sequence of Boogie Nights is probably the best in terms of most everything. The performances, the music, the cinemtography, the editing. By the time 99 Luftballoons begins, it fels as though you've witnessed the greatest sequence of late 1990s cinema [the cocaine/FBI sequence of GoodFellas being the greatest of the early 90s]. It is a tour de force of a sequence, that one.
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Newtron


Redlum

The slow push in on Claudia. It brought closure to a 3hr 15minute film with 9 threads to its story, in a way that was completely emotionally satisfying.
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phil marlowe

the poolparty scene in boogie nights. it can somehow be compared to the opening shot but i think this one does better. everything is sliding so fucking smooth. the camera movement, the dialogue, the acting, the music, the atmosfere...damn...

same can be said about the bar scenes in magnolia.

chainsmoking insomniac

I'm going to have to go with Mr. Marlowe's pick for the pool party scene....when I watched that scene, I just wanted to be at that party...with the music, the beautiful women, everything about that was so fucking great....
But if I had to pick one more scene, I think it would be with John C. Reilly and Phillip B. Hall (the diner scene) in Hard Eight, when they first meet each other. There was something about the dialogue, and how they react to each other, that struck me as being fucking brilliant. I don't know.
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MacGuffin

The "On The Prowl" sequence in "Boogie Nights". From Jack Horner's intro making film history...on video, all the way till Buck steals the donut money. The "Clementine Loop" is perfectly used here.
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SoNowThen

The "I lost my gun" Jim & Claudia dinner conversation scene in Magnolia.
Two people trying so painfully hard to be honest with one another.
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Link

I have favorites from all, like Hard Eight, the sequence where he goes to Jimmy's place, gets the gun, and waits for him.  The music rocks my socks.  In Punch-Drunk Love, from when Barry gets pudding, dances in the aisle, talks on the phone, punches the wall, starts crying, and all of a sudden He Needs Me starts playing.  It's great (also the pay phone seen in Hawaii).  In Magnolia, Mackey's scene where he comes back after the interview.  It's just instensity to the 5th power, dudes.  But:

I have two major favorites from Boogie Nights.  While I love the pool scene SO much, my favorite is the short awards ceremony.  You got a great song playing, and it just shows the different shots of Amber, The Colonel, and Jessie all announcing Dirk, and it's just so great, and Dirk does his little speech, and adds some Karate moves.  Gotta love it.  

My second one is actually a deleted scene, and, coincidentaly, it's the OTHER awards ceremony.  I dunno how to describe it, but it's just so cool, and semi-surreal, and I wish it was in the movie.

Ernie

Quote from: punchdrunk23I'm going to have to go with Mr. Marlowe's pick for the pool party scene....when I watched that scene, I just wanted to be at that party.

I was at that party...I experience PTA movies, I don't watch them. There are other filmmakers that do that to me, PTA is definitely one of them.

As for a favorite scene? there's no way i'm picking just one. I'll just say one that I don't think many other people will say...the part in Hard Eight when Syd, Clem and John are walking out of the hotel room after the whole fiasco with the fucking guy not giving Clem the money and all that...that scene is shot perfectly. The camera gliding around and all, it's just very beautiful to me. That's the stuff that gets me. I love how it's like all in one shot, it's cool. The music is cool too...very fucked up, but also cool.

Pedro

Any scene in magnolia...especially Earl Partridge's "Regret" monologue.

atticus jones

you liked that jibberish ramble of a monologue?
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Alexandro

Not only on Anderson's filmography but on any films is the Dance sequence in Boogie Nights...It's a great fun moment. It represents exactly what is going on at that point of the story...It's fucking genius..!!!