Quirky delights in The Master, discuss them here

Started by SailorOfTheSeas, May 14, 2014, 05:43:35 PM

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SailorOfTheSeas

Got inspired by the very similar PDL quirky delights thread which was great and a fucking goldmine for little details and discussions about them. Hopefully the same thing can happen here as the master is pretty damn full of these things, like all of PTA's films are.
I'll start off with somethan that isnt very hidden but that Ive always found nice.

In the deleted scene reel, we see both Quell and Dodd snuggle up with their face against a nipple. With Freddie it's when he's making out with the woman in the car, he snuggles up to her topless breasts. With Lancaster it's at the premiere of the Split Saber in Pheonix, as he sits on the pianists chair.

The deleted scene reel is real cool. It kinda acts AS a time hole in itself. We see all the same places, with some new ones too, as the released film but with little bits of scene that change their feel or expand them and thus illuminate somethin else in the film by doing so (such as clark and freddie's relationship, or the split saber etc) with some of it set to Peggy explaining the meaning of time hole. I've always found that pretty great. Instead of just having some deleted scenes on the bonuses of the dvd/bluray, PTA edits them together into a mini masterpiece b side that perfectly compliments the film whilst also expanding some of it by embodying one of the films key themes. not sure whether thats really quirky, but it certainly is a delight.     

SailorOfTheSeas

Just noticed something now which could be nonesense but also, i suppose could be considered an interesting quirky delight.

imo, freddie/joaquin pheonix has a kinda meta theatrical presence in the film.
to go back to the beginning, to explain my point i gotta point out what many may consider obvious. freddie seems to understand the fact that man is only an animal, and he lacks MOST of the convulusion that men like dodd make for themselves during their existence. i could go into more detail but what i gonna say is that freddie seems to slightly get "the bigger picture" of existence when compared to dodd, who does all this futile shit to try and keep his head above the rising water. dodd does slightly "get it" but only really in a murky way through his fun little fantasies and big ideas unlike freddie who understands it in a more instinctual and pure way. freddie, because of the lack of other people in the film who begin to "get it"on the same level he does, has arguably rose above evolution in a real interesting way. he's reverted evolution to return to a purer form.

as he's arguably "above" in some way, freddie begins a meta theatrical presence (stay with me here). he does get it but only fully begins to have worked it all out when he hears dodd speak in pheonix. it's as if freddie, played by joaquin pheonix, has now arrived at pheonix and now finally understands. he rises through the meta theatricality, finally being linked with his actor and transcending an art form. character being linked with actor. one more element of convolusion has been fought through. one more "master" is taken down, despite the infinite that are still waiting. call that bullshit or whatever, i just reckon it's interesting.

another thing that goes with this can be found in the deleted scene reel. i always found it interresting that the reel, which is kinda a small piece of art unto itself, ends with a bloopers scene. it ends with something that reaches beyond the fiction, with the characters breaking out of character, into the actors.

in my post before i said that the deleted scene reel shows a retrospective time hole that visits different places in the film and expands and changes them in interesting ways. here, after freddies awakening in pheonix, we see freddie (who gets it) awake dodd (who almost kinda gets it). they both break character and transcend the art form. imo the act of smoking in PTA's film seems to mean human struggle. kools are  like...human struggle with a "minty flavour" aka a little bit of excitement and spark. freddie is the one that gives dodd that "minty flavour". so in this scene, we come back to it in a timehole, a deleted scene reel. this IN SOME non-linear time hole WAY takes place after freddy is in pheonix and transcends. he now, during the united human struggle they share, finally gets dodd to get it. and the whole "The Master" (film and deleted scene reel) experience ends with both of our characters, the two lovers, the two ends of the spectrum, rising through the art form in some meta theatrical way together and stepping one step forward in grasping the infinite masters in their path.

this all may seem like pretentious bullshit to you and fair enough: i did use the word "transcendence" a few too many times  :yabbse-wink:. imo this all works and i enjoying thinking of it that way. im not saying this WAS what pta was thinking or that its definitive in any way, it's just my interpretation and i hope you all enjoy it  :yabbse-smiley: 

btw sorry what i've written doesn't flow very well and is a bit of clunky. i just hope you get my point and find it stimulating in some way or another

SailorOfTheSeas

i love seeing the little fun examples of Freddie being "scientific in his thought". for example when he curiously hits his finger with the knife on the beach, and when he is introduced to the woman in New York and just inspects her necklace and moves on

SailorOfTheSeas

I got the bluray for my birthday yesterday, and in HD I really noticed the heavy emphasis the film has on faces. All the sags, and pours and what not are so clear in HD, it's wonderful. For example in the Slow Processing sequence, the face of Peggy Dodd as she carries out the eye colour exercise. Lipstick, eye make up, Amy Adams being very goodlooking, whatever, yet still all the little imperfections and dents and sags and pours in her face are in such intense detail. There's something so honest and pure about the way the film shows faces, goes along well with the honesty and purity from which the film shows humans in general.


SailorOfTheSeas

Yeah, I've always thought Elvis Mitchell is a pretty great interviewer. Has anyone else noticed how similar a certain character is to another certain interviewer in The Master?

The officer that questions Quell in the opening 10 minutes about his episodes is JUST like Charlie Rose. The way he looks, the way he stares, the way he asks question: "tell me about that." "because i need to know." watching PTA during Charlie Rose interviews is so interesting and funny, especially the way rose pushes forward his questions in a really assertive and correcting way, almost interrupting whoever he's interviewing. i respect and don't think he's a bad interviewer but can't help noticing. also the slightly smug and knowing smile paul has when being interviewed by him is hilarious. the similarities the officer has with CR is undeniable imo, makes me think pta is giving us an (un?)subtle hint as to whatever he thinks.

and Sportello, wonderful song  :yabbse-smiley: i'm so envious that you watched the film at Tiff. I was 15 and missed it in the cinema. watched it very bad quality online. the dream lucidity is one of my favourite aspects of the film. surreal moments that never come on to strong or forced and are easily forgotten when thinking about the film but still stand out in subtle intriguing ways, such as the room of naked women, the eyes changing colour, the cinema caspar phone call. all great. reinforcing the whole dream like landscape the film takes up but never enforcing to the extent where its just too much surrealist mess

SailorOfTheSeas

Act 1:
1. Nervous Condition
2. Commander
3. Guinea Pig
4. Doris

Act 2:
5. Will Of One Man
6. Go Roving
7. Captured
8. Slow Process

Act 3:
9. A Life's Work
10. Pick A Point
11. Free To Go
12. Back Beyond

On the bluray especially, if you go to on-screen menu and then special features as Freddie lies on the beach in the last shot, play the Back Beyond reel, then watch as it goes, from saying "The End" after the Kools outtake, back to the beach with "Changing Partners" in the background and then the end of the film, it's too perfect to describe.