Xixax Film Forum

The Director's Chair => Paul Thomas Anderson => Topic started by: wilder on November 30, 2017, 02:59:02 PM

Title: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on November 30, 2017, 02:59:02 PM
Hard Eight

Feature Films
Atlantic City (1980)
Bob le flambeur (1956)
Melvin and Howard (1980)
Midnight Run (1988)
Something Wild (1986)
Sunrise (1927)
They Drive By Night (1940)


Short Films
Cigarettes & Coffee (1993)


Filmmakers
David Mamet



Boogie Nights

Feature Films
42nd Street (1933)
Casino (1995)
I Am Cuba (1964)
The Earrings of Madame De... (1953)
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
Goodfellas (1990)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
The Merry Widow
Nashville (1975)
Putney Swope (1969)
Raging Bull (1980)
Singing' in the Rain (1952)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

Amanda by Night (1981)
Exhausted: John C. Homes, The Real Story (1981)
The Jade Pussycat (1977)
John Holmes' films
On the Prowl - "On the Lookout" (1989)
The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976)


Short Films
The Dirk Diggler Story (1988)



Magnolia

Feature Films
2001: A Space Odyssey  (1968)
Network (1976)
Ordinary People (1980)
Quiz Show (?) (1994)
Short Cuts (1993)


Music
Aimee Mann



Punch-Drunk Love

Feature Films
The Band Wagon (1953)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Popeye (1980)
Shoot the Piano Player (1960)
A Woman is a Woman (1961)


Filmmakers
Buster Keaton
Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
Jacques Tati



There Will Be Blood

Feature Films
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Days of Heaven (1978)
Giant (1956)
McCabe & Mrs. Mller (1971)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
The Shining (1980)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Wise Blood (1979)


Books etc.
1920's milkshake transcription
Oil! by Upton Sinclair



The Master

Feature Films
Baraka (1992)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Black Stallion (1979)
Dark Corner (1946)
The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Let There Be Light (1946)
Men Without Women (1930)
Mr. Arkadin (1955)
Nightmare Alley (1947)
Out of the Past (1947)


Filmmakers
Charles Laughton
Val Lewton


Books
At Ease: Navy Men Of WWII
Dianetics in Limbo by Helen O'Brien
John O'Hara short stories
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Pacific War Diary 1942-1945: The Secret Diary of An American Sailor by James J Fahey


Music
Duke Ellington - "Peer Gynt Suite"
Helen Forrest
Jo Stafford
Kitty Kallen
Radiohead - "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)"
Stravinsky - "Ebony Concerto"


Other
Jason Robards' military stories


Influences on abandoned scenes
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
V by Thomas Pynchon



Inherent Vice

Feature Films
Airplane! (1980)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Candy (1968)
The Groove Tube (1974)
Journey Through the Past (1974)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Mondo Hollywood (1967)
The Naked Gun (1988)
North By Northwest (1959)
Repo Man (1984)
Top Secret! (1984)


Television
"Adam-12" (1968-1975)
"Police Squad!" (1982)


Filmmakers
Robby Müller
Robert Downey Sr.



Phantom Thread

Feature Films
Brief Encounter (1945)
Gaslight (1944)
I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
Jane Eyre (1943)
Maytime in Mayfair (1949)
Rear Window (1954)
Rebecca (1940)
The Red Shoes (1948)
The Passionate Friends (1949)
The Uninvited (1944) (?)
Vertigo (1958)


Filmmakers
Lewis Allen
David Lean
Max Ophüls


Actors
Laurence Olivier


Stories by
Charlotte Brontë
A Christmas Carol
Shirley Jackson
M.R. James (ghost stories)
Daphne du Maurier
Anya Seton
The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter


Music
Ben Webster jazz records
Billy Strayhorn
Glenn Gould's Bach recordings
Nelson Riddle
Ralph Vaughan Williams



Licorice Pizza

Feature Films
American Graffiti (1973)
The Apartment (1960)
Breezy (1973)
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Gloria (1980)
S.O.B. (1981)

Other
Gary Goetzman's stories






Know I'm definitely missing some. Post below and I'll edit this.

There's a part in Elaine May's Mikey & Nicky (1976) that upon first viewing struck me as being super similar to the scene in Hard Eight when John won't let Sydney inside the motel room. To my knowledge, he never mentioned it, and I'd need to give it it a rewatch, but it felt like something he'd pay homage to.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilberfan on November 30, 2017, 03:06:53 PM
Wow.  Great compilation. 

Some of the references are obvious ("I am Cuba" for the pool scene, "Goodfellas" for the opening of "Boogie Nights") others less so (at least for me).  ("2001" influenced "Magnolia"?)

Now all you have to do is notate each one!  ;)
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on November 30, 2017, 03:20:06 PM
Quote from: wilberfan on November 30, 2017, 03:06:53 PM
("2001" influenced "Magnolia"?)

Just the music cue when Frank T.J. Mackey comes on stage.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilberfan on November 30, 2017, 03:28:17 PM
Should we distinguish between "influence" and "reference"?  And I'm serious about notating each entry...
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on November 30, 2017, 03:32:47 PM
If you (or anyone else) want to do the notating be my guest.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Drenk on November 30, 2017, 05:55:23 PM
Quote from: wilder on November 30, 2017, 03:20:06 PM
Quote from: wilberfan on November 30, 2017, 03:06:53 PM
("2001" influenced "Magnolia"?)

Just the music cue when Frank T.J. Mackey comes on stage.

There is also a shot of a dying man in a white bed just when the music begins.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on November 30, 2017, 06:00:13 PM


I never made that connection.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Just Withnail on December 01, 2017, 06:51:03 AM
It pretty funny how the first "ta-da!" of Also sprach Zarathustra comes as Phil Parma rather mundanely turns around in the living room.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Lewton on December 01, 2017, 01:24:30 PM
Did Anderson ever explicitly note he was influenced by Days of Heaven while working on There Will Be Blood? The film certainly suggests its influence, particularly in that magic hour shot that pans across the labourers while Plainview is delivering his "let's talk about bread" speech.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on December 01, 2017, 01:49:12 PM
I can't find an explicit source. I think it's assumed because he poached production designer Jack Fisk, who works with Malick and Lynch almost exclusively (Fisk was art director on Days of Heaven), and PT has a history of hiring people this way: his Hard Eight editor Barbara Tulliver had previously edited Mamet's movies Oleanna and Homicide, and Dylan Tichenor worked with Altman as an apprentice editor and assistant editor on Short Cuts and The Player before going on to edit PT's films.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Tdog on December 01, 2017, 03:06:34 PM
The opening shot and sequence of There WillBe Blood always reminded me of the opening of 2001 with the apes scrating around in the desert.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on December 01, 2017, 03:11:03 PM
Right...and then with the adoption of tools, everything changes...

I'm putting it.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Tdog on December 01, 2017, 03:30:02 PM
Yeah that, the general wide desert shots and the   Penderecki esque music (which is more of a general Kubrick refetence).
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on December 01, 2017, 03:30:51 PM
Trying to remember the name of the porno that Jack and Rollergirl's limo ride is based off of. Any help?

Found it - Jamie Gillis' On the Prowl (1989)
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Tdog on December 01, 2017, 03:32:44 PM
Oh and the baptism scene in There Will Be Blood is visually similar to the duel scene in Barry Lyndon. Theres similar light spilling in through the window.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: ono on December 01, 2017, 03:43:02 PM
Quote from: wilder on December 01, 2017, 03:11:03 PM
Right...and then with the adoption of tools, everything changes...

I'm putting it.
On the Prowl.  (The chapter on the DVD is called On The Lookout, and PTA talks about it in the commentary.)
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on December 01, 2017, 04:06:32 PM
Thanks!

Quote from: Tdog on December 01, 2017, 03:32:44 PM
Oh and the baptism scene in There Will Be Blood is visually similar to the duel scene in Barry Lyndon. Theres similar light spilling in through the window.

Are we sure about this one? I do see the link, the window thing seems to stretch through The Master and his most recent work. Trying to put mostly admitted influences. Is there an article somewhere?


Edit - not an influence per se, but this is the movie PT mentioned noticing Vicky Krieps in, during that post-NY screening interview (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=13512.msg350450#msg350450):


Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Tdog on December 01, 2017, 04:55:06 PM
Yeah I think it might have been a bit of stretch but There Will Be Blood really seems like a best of Kubrick in terms of influences.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on December 01, 2017, 05:03:20 PM
There's also that other porno he talked about with the girl rollerskating from house to house looking in all the windows. I don't even know where to start looking for that.

Also think he mentioned Dreyer and Bergman in relation to Magnolia, but don't have a source.

Was Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game related to anything? And were the Monte Hellman westerns The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind referenced as influences on Blood or just thrown out there as movies he liked?

Added Something Wild and Murnau's Sunrise for the "gearshift" storytelling influence (http://cigsandredvines.blogspot.com/1998/01/) on Hard Eight.

Quote from: Sight & Sound 1998One of the things that's interesting about Boogie Nights is its tone shifts, for instance between dramatic and comic/parodic.

There are two answers to that. First, two of my favorite movies are F.W. Murnau's Sunrise and Jonathan Demme's Something Wild, what I call gearshift movies, that can change tones [snaps fingers] like that. I like to see that in movies because that's what real life is like, and it's also good storytelling.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: samsong on December 06, 2017, 03:08:48 AM
punch-drunk love took a lot of its visual cues from the long goodbye.  if i remember correctly, it's where the blue suit comes from too.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Lottery on December 06, 2017, 03:36:19 AM
Quote from: Tdog on December 01, 2017, 04:55:06 PM
Yeah I think it might have been a bit of stretch but There Will Be Blood really seems like a best of Kubrick in terms of influences.

I reckon he was done with Kubrick stylistically by the end of TWBB. TWBB certainly seems like the one where the influence was most prominent, perhaps it helped him get it out of his system.

QuoteAnderson, a fan of Stanley Kubrick's films, wanted the bowling alley to have a Kubrickian symmetry and menace. "Paul wanted to paint the walls white and turn the room into a white cube, like something out of A Clockwork Orange," says Elswit. "There's no character to the lighting at all; it's just a white box. Paul kept marveling at how Kubrick did things, and I would say, 'But Paul, Kubrick built sets. He didn't come walking into a place like this!'"

https://theasc.com/ac_magazine/January2008/ThereWillBeBlood/page4.html
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Just Withnail on December 06, 2017, 12:13:28 PM
But those kind of white bare walls Kubrickian walls are very present in both The Master and Inherent Vice as well. Much more than TWBB.

In any case I feel like the influence of Kubrick is present in more ambiguous and less easily measured ways, like for instance the conceptual structuring of the films.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Lewton on December 06, 2017, 02:16:53 PM
Quote from: Lottery on December 06, 2017, 03:36:19 AM
I reckon he was done with Kubrick stylistically by the end of TWBB. TWBB certainly seems like the one where the influence was most prominent, perhaps it helped him get it out of his system.

I'm not sure about this.

The office footage in the "Was There A Fight?" teaser (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oZDKFoCqAw) for The Master -- which I still think is just amazing as anything in the actual film -- seems to borrow from The Shining. Although, perhaps that's just coincidental, as Anderson was probably thinking of Huston's Let There Be Light in that instance.

Still, there's something about the sets and locations that PTA uses, and the way they're decorated, and the way the actors' faces are lit, which recalls The Shining and other Kubrick films. I've struggled to define this effect in another thread. It has something to do with the generous distribution of light and a related sense of the surroundings having a certain stark authenticity to them -- intricate textures, a lived-in feel, etc. Lancaster Dodd's bathroom in TM is one example, and there's also Hope's house in IV. The approach recalls the visual look of the drill-sergeant portions of Full Metal Jacket, and perhaps some of Eyes Wide Shut, which, despite its surreality, had many fine-grained, believably untidy visions of outdoor and indoor spaces. While Kubrick may have relied on sets more frequently, both directors infuse their spaces with a similar kind of credible shabbiness.

Quote from: Just Withnail on December 06, 2017, 12:13:28 PM
But those kind of white bare walls Kubrickian walls are very present in both The Master and Inherent Vice as well. Much more than TWBB.

It's not post-TWBB, but the white backgrounds show up in Punch-Drunk Love, too. It's kind of there in the opening shot, but also in that scene when Barry gets the first threatening call from "Georgia."
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Lottery on December 06, 2017, 08:18:08 PM
I can't recall any mention of Kubrick from the team in regard to The Master, he's been pretty clear with the sort of work that informed it- but that doesn't mean much. I reckon PTA's later films have a looser editing and structure than a lot of Kubrick's work. If the influence is there, then I think it's probably just a general presence rather than an active reference- which may be more significant. Both filmmakers reached a high level of technical mastery and there is visual similarity at times but I think they approach ideas/images in very different way. Kubrick is far more conceptually aware, driving toward concept and exploring it from every angle until something that is intellectually satisfying. Once PTA has his setting, he goes from the characters out. He does extensive research to find verisimilitude and to create models for his characters but it's far less calculated and is more about exploring reality through the character. Since he's gotten older he always goes back to saying- this movie is about relationship, about the father and son, about these two etc. I also think Kubrick's later work also doesn't have the same type of humanity that has driven the entirety of PTA's career.

PTA has been so stylistically informed by the 70s (and so on, you know the early influences) in his early career that all of these elements have permanently left a mark on him visually but The Master onwards, I reckon he's trying to make a break from that.

QuoteOn The Master it was just a gut thing, I saw it that way in my head. I was actually seeing it in 1.66, an even boxier, more European aspect ratio. It probably has to do with the fact that most of the movies I watch are 1.33, they're older movies. On The Master, somehow it felt more accurate to the period...
I don't fetishize '70s movies the way some people do. I love them, but my models are those '30s films, and I'm always trying to emulate that. Sometimes you can't – sometimes you try to get things in one shot and you realize you're forcing the staging, and you have to own up to the fact that it's not working. You always have to keep an eye on it to make sure that your visual ideas aren't affectations, and that you're not just adhering to some kind of dogma. But when you can make that kind of thing work naturally, it's just the best.
http://filmmakermagazine.com/88626-the-only-thing-i-ever-really-look-at-in-movies-is-the-actors-paul-thomas-anderson-on-inherent-vice/


If I could ask PTA many dork questions without him getting annoyed, one would defs be about his use of that intense white light he likes and the bare grubby walls. Why and where he got that from (Altman, Kubrick, nowhere and so on).

Someone will inevitably ask about the Kubrick connection in regard to the PT 'lighting cameraman' credit in the coming months so we might hear more on that front.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Lewton on December 06, 2017, 09:01:49 PM
Quote from: Lottery on December 06, 2017, 08:18:08 PMI also think Kubrick's later work also doesn't have the same type of humanity that has driven the entirety of PTA's career.

Not the same approach to humanity, no, but Kubrick's later work -- namely, EWS -- still gets fairly close to PTA's level, in a way. It's also occurring to me now the way in which Inherent Vice seems to recall Eyes Wide Shut in a few respects...

Anyway, I used to find the Kubrick comparisons kind of boring because I thought they suggested, generally speaking, a superficial auteurist impulse: people elevating PTA's legacy, at the height of TWBB mania, by gesturing toward another venerated filmmaker. TWBB is great, but it never felt like it was necessary to turn to Kubrick in order to prove that. However, in some ways, I think my early assessment of the Kubrick comparisons was actually superficial. It makes sense to compare the two.

On the other hand, I do think there are many limits to such comparisons. In my previous post, I was only discussing vague echoes in terms of their respective visual styles, but even those comparisons exceed Kubrick and seem more diffusely spread around 70s cinema and, stretching back, noir and Italian neo-realism. I also keep thinking about Anderson praising Repo Man's cinematography for apparently showing nighttime the way it really looks. I think he's interested in distinguishing his images through a particular kind of stark, seemingly unfussy authenticity.

Quote from: Lottery on December 06, 2017, 08:18:08 PMSomeone will inevitably ask about the Kubrick connection in regard to the PT 'lighting cameraman' credit in the coming months so we might hear more on that front.

Yeah, that might yield an interesting response. I would also like to learn PTA's opinion of EWS.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Lewton on December 10, 2017, 01:28:26 PM
Perhaps this will takes things too far outside of the intended focus of this thread, but it may be worthwhile to extend the scope to include literary references, and other kinds of influences (i.e., the transcript from the 1920s, from which he borrowed the "milkshake" line for use in TWBB).

A selection from the beginning of Moby Dick was included in The Master's script, for instance, and was essentially used to introduce Freddie: "Sometimes my hypo's get the best of me, I really feel like walking into the street and hitting people's hats off."

Other influences for The Master include Radiohead's "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)," which Anderson listened to a lot during the writing process.

I wish we knew more about his favourite books...
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Drenk on December 10, 2017, 01:38:24 PM
Freddy almost falling of the ship while people are throwing bananas at him is some kind of allusion to the beginning of Gravity's Rainbow. In the script, I think I remember some stuff that sounded like V by Pynchon too—alligators in the sewers.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Lottery on December 10, 2017, 09:55:06 PM
Quick summary from Cigs and Red Vines PTA interview for The Master, many of these influences have already been mentioned in the thread.

QuoteYou've talked about the doc "Let There Be Light" and book "At Ease: Navy Men Of WWII" as being great reference points but can you talk about any other books/films/art that inspired "The Master"?

It's always such a long list.....sometimes it's whatever was on TV that morning. Other times, it's something i'm really into. tons of old film noir's. Out of the Past, dark Corner, Mr. Arkadin, Lady from Shanghai, etc. Nightmare Alley! Val Lewton stuff like Seventh Victim and Ghost Ship. Dianetics in Limbo by Helen O'Brien. Helen Forrest/Kitty Kallen and anything by Jo Stafford music wise. also listened over and over to Stravinsky piece "Ebony Concerto." Duke Ellington - Peer Gynt Suite. list goes on.....oh! how about John O'Hara short stories. earlier drafts have a slight adaption of one of his stories, "Bucket of Blood" I think. great short story.
Quote
...All that stuff with Alligators in sewers was stolen from Pynchon's V. We looked around some sewers in upstate New York...... eventually decided to ditch the whole story line in writing before spending money and time on something unnecessary to the Main Event.

QuoteWe know it was always a semi-regular sing along at the old Largo but how did "Slow Boat To China" come to you as the climax of the film?

Can't remember the moment of decision for sure....but i think i was influenced by a tapestry on a bathroom wall i saw at a house i was staying at in Gloucster, Mass. great fishing/sailing town and the tapestry was about Sailors and Lighthouses lighting up the night...it was a little poem with a lighthouse on it....reminded me of Slow Boat to China the way it rhymed......that's probably the connection. kept going back to that bathroom while writing and then presto -chango - you've got Master's serenade.

From memory, one of the most commonly heard influence/inspirations from this period was TCM.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Lottery on December 11, 2017, 06:28:20 PM
Phantom Thread

Regarding the score.

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/jonny-greenwood-radiohead-phantom-thread-1202636131/

Quote"We talked a lot about '50s music, what was popularly heard then as well as what was being written and recorded," Greenwood tells Variety. "Nelson Riddle and Glenn Gould's Bach recordings were the main references. I was interested in the kind of jazz records that toyed with incorporating big string sections, Ben Webster made some good ones, and focus on what the strings were doing rather than the jazz musicians themselves."
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on January 04, 2018, 03:37:01 PM
Quote from: Lewton on December 10, 2017, 01:28:26 PMI wish we knew more about his favourite books...

From the Globe and Mail interview modage linked:

QuoteHe's much more comfortable discussing books – stories by Daphne du Maurier, Anya Seton, Shirley Jackson and Charlotte Brontë (at least by way of Robert Stevenson's 1943 film adaptation of Jane Eyre) fed into Phantom Thread's stuffy, sensuous milieu – and movies.



Quote"If I fetishize certain films, it's ones from the 1930s and 40s, getting up into the early 50s, too. Those are the ones that really get me going." Phantom Thread feels indebted to such sources: Lewis Allen, David Lean's smaller-scale dramas, and especially German exile Max Ophüls.

"Max Ophüls! Yes!" he pops. "Those films have always been big time – big time! – influences on me. His films are always so opulent, even if they're just interior chamber dramas. Just the lavishness of the smallest rooms! Four stars! And that fluidity he had with his camera? I've always tried to rock that look."

Unclear if Lewis Allen is an actual influence or just the interviewer's suggestion. Putting The Uninvited (1944) (https://www.criterion.com/films/27964-the-uninvited) with a question mark.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Lottery on January 04, 2018, 08:11:57 PM
Quote from: wilder on January 04, 2018, 03:37:01 PM

From the Globe and Mail interview modage linked:

QuoteHe's much more comfortable discussing books – stories by Daphne du Maurier, Anya Seton, Shirley Jackson and Charlotte Brontë (at least by way of Robert Stevenson's 1943 film adaptation of Jane Eyre) fed into Phantom Thread's stuffy, sensuous milieu – and movies.


All female writers in this quote, very interesting.

Quote from: wilder on January 04, 2018, 03:37:01 PM

Quote"If I fetishize certain films, it's ones from the 1930s and 40s, getting up into the early 50s, too. Those are the ones that really get me going." Phantom Thread feels indebted to such sources: Lewis Allen, David Lean's smaller-scale dramas, and especially German exile Max Ophüls.

He really loves him some old 30s-50s films, as mentioned earlier:
QuoteI don't fetishize '70s movies the way some people do. I love them, but my models are those '30s films, and I'm always trying to emulate that.

Another non-specific mention of Turner Classic Movies in this video. Possibly the most consistent influence on him since at least The Master. Mentioned in several interviews that it's always on in the background for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GybfGeP9_os
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on January 04, 2018, 08:26:34 PM
(for the sake of annotating)

Mark Bridges mentions he was shown Maytime in Mayfair (1949) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041647/) in the longer version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXDgWxapEhQ) of the video interview above.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Lewton on January 05, 2018, 01:43:10 PM
Quote from: wilder on January 04, 2018, 03:37:01 PM
Unclear if Lewis Allen is an actual influence or just the interviewer's suggestion. Putting The Uninvited (1944) (https://www.criterion.com/films/27964-the-uninvited) with a question mark.

I was going back and forth about this, but I'm currently thinking that PTA probably actually talked about Lewis Allen, as he's mentioned all of the other influences noted in that sentence. I might be wrong, though.

Thanks for sharing this.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on January 05, 2018, 05:30:20 PM
Most likely the case. I'll just put them. No one ever had a worse life for watching more Ophüls and Lean.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on January 09, 2018, 03:17:26 PM
Conscious influence or not, the film that feels most similar to Phantom Thread to me is Joseph Losey's The Servant (1963). It's mentioned in this (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/dec/07/phantom-thread-review-daniel-day-lewis-paul-thomas-anderson) Guardian review, but in general hasn't been bandied about as much. Losey's thematic interests very much align.

From Senses of Cinema's profile (http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/losey/):

QuoteThe dominant themes of Losey's eclectic work are emotional instability, emotional and physical violence and perverse sexual power plays. There is not one conventional love story in his films. He has a mania for settings that express states of mind, and his camera movements are always abnormally sensitive and skittish. He has been attacked as a case of style over substance, but this misses the point. If Losey had been a writer his deficiencies would make him a minor figure, but he was from first to last a film director, and, at least for directors who don't write their own material, style is substance.

At the very least it'd make a great double feature...


Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on July 21, 2018, 02:06:24 AM
Question mark. But whoa.

(https://i.imgur.com/unDMD9l.jpg)
aka Paris Thrills (1945)

Philippe Clarence, a famous Parisian dressmaker, seduces his friend's fiancee. But, for the 1st time in his life, this is for real. The film is also a sharp picture of the fashion world.

Quote from: CriterionForum user senseboveJuly 20, 2018

Just saw Jacques Becker's absolutely wonderful Falbalas—did Anderson actually acknowledge it as an influence anywhere?

Because I find it hard to believe he didn't see it... There are too many things that seem to be lifted: a fussy, capricious, and wantonly cruel couturier whose House is managed by his only living relative, a matronly older sister; a breakfast scene where the obsequious former lover who has fallen out of favor storms off when he rejects her overt attempts to cater to him; and some banter between the designer and a model which starts with his seemingly derisive comment on her breast size and ends with him telling her its none of her business (implying what PT makes explicit: it's his to make her have some if he wants her to). I may have gone into it looking for them—but put together they all seem a bit much to be coincidental.

Quote from: Letterboxd user rischkaMay 30, 2016

an early becker effort set in the world of haute couture. raymond rouleau stars as a womanizing diva designer who employs an army of seamstresses to produce his creations, each season inspired by a new muse. his latest discovery is betrothed to a dear friend, a girl who's too naive to see his seductions shouldn't be taken seriously. that is, until she's no longer available to him, when he suddenly decides to chuck everything and run away with her, not caring who may be hurt in the process. while i don't totally buy the ending, raymond rouleau is terrific here, becker has a deft hand with the witty dialogues and frantic pace and a great eye for interesting character traits. he still hasn't let me down. plus the wonderful paris 40s fashions esp amazing hats!!

Quote from: Letterboxd user Connor DenneyJuly 16, 2017

Flippant playboyism descends into the psychosexual when that required component of physical relationships, the self-gratification awarded by absolute power over romantic partners, is not awarded. We see the effects that objectification of women can have when the "objects" begin to turn on their "master," and the response feels as truthful as it does striking and surprising.


(https://i.imgur.com/9irYdrr.jpg)
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Robyn on October 25, 2018, 04:31:32 PM
I saw quiz show a while ago, which felt like a movie pta would enjoy, but I don't recall him mention it? "films that was never mentioned, but that he probably enjoys" is a thread idea, I guess.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on March 19, 2020, 02:50:08 PM
A Place in the Sun (1951)
(https://i.imgur.com/RURgd7n.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/q7agVaN.jpg)
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: jviness02 on March 19, 2020, 05:57:59 PM
Quote from: Lottery on January 04, 2018, 08:11:57 PM
Quote from: wilder on January 04, 2018, 03:37:01 PM

From the Globe and Mail interview modage linked:

QuoteHe's much more comfortable discussing books – stories by Daphne du Maurier, Anya Seton, Shirley Jackson and Charlotte Brontë (at least by way of Robert Stevenson's 1943 film adaptation of Jane Eyre) fed into Phantom Thread's stuffy, sensuous milieu – and movies.


All female writers in this quote, very interesting.

Quote from: wilder on January 04, 2018, 03:37:01 PM

Quote"If I fetishize certain films, it's ones from the 1930s and 40s, getting up into the early 50s, too. Those are the ones that really get me going." Phantom Thread feels indebted to such sources: Lewis Allen, David Lean's smaller-scale dramas, and especially German exile Max Ophüls.

He really loves him some old 30s-50s films, as mentioned earlier:
QuoteI don't fetishize '70s movies the way some people do. I love them, but my models are those '30s films, and I'm always trying to emulate that.

Another non-specific mention of Turner Classic Movies in this video. Possibly the most consistent influence on him since at least The Master. Mentioned in several interviews that it's always on in the background for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GybfGeP9_os

I'm confident a well-versed filmmaker and cinephile like PTA was already well-versed in Classic Hollywood before his 40s, but I do think he clearly has been more interested and influenced by those films the last decade of his career. I don't think it's a coincidence his last three films have been flat versus scope. You spend all day watching TCM, it becomes hard to imagine films in something other than a box.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Yes on October 01, 2021, 09:54:46 PM
Excited to see the updates for this with Licorice Pizza

I guess we can begin with American Graffiti
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Yes on November 13, 2021, 04:17:46 PM
He's officially named American Graffiti and Fast Times At Ridgemont Times as influences.

Also mentioned Billy Wilder and the film has a reference to Clint Eastwood's Breezy
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wrongright on November 13, 2021, 04:19:57 PM
Quote from: Yes on November 13, 2021, 04:17:46 PM
He's officially named American Graffiti and Fast Times At Ridgemont Times as influences.

Also mentioned Billy Wilder and the film has a reference to Clint Eastwood's Breezy

And "Gloria".
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on November 13, 2021, 07:08:43 PM
Have to imagine The Last American Virgin is rolling around in there somewhere, especially in light of this quote circa 2014:

Quote"The movies that I really love and the ones that stuck with me are the ones I just listed (https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a620268/paul-thomas-anderson-reveals-his-favourite-movies/). But I'm always remembering movies that have influenced me or have done something to me that've been lost or forgotten," he explained.

"I was remembering this movie the other day called The Last American Virgin - it's not a great movie but I saw it and it was a big deal for me.

"It's one of uncountable coming of age teen movies made in the early '80s, but it's really well made and really good. I hadn't thought of it in 10 or 15 years, and that moved me to think about it as much as I do Treasure of Sierra Madre."

Circuitous title connection, too, being a remake of the Israeli movie Lemon Popsicle. Wondering if he'll mention it directly in reference to LP.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Yes on December 10, 2021, 10:03:39 PM
In Sight and Sound, he mentioned The Apartment and Billy Wilder in general for Licorice Pizza
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: wilder on January 14, 2022, 06:04:40 PM
Someone mentioned a trailer for Floyd Mutrux's Aloha Bobby and Rose (1975) played in front of their NYC screening. And Armond White brought up Mutrux's other films in his review.

Quote from: Armond WhiteAnderson's other model, Floyd Mutrux, whose marvelous '70s quotidian narratives (Aloha, Bobby and Rose, Hollywood Knights, and American Hot Wax)

Quote from: wilder on March 07, 2017, 04:03:02 PM2017 TBD

Floyd Mutrux's Aloha, Bobby And Rose (1975) from Scorpion Releasing. Mutrux also made the underrated Dusty and Sweets McGee (1971) (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=13100.msg339997#msg339997)

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FwZiBz3H.jpg&hash=06b19e7a5fd117eabf933e368379362368f75dbe)

Bobby has a new '68 Camaro and a dead-end job. Rose has a young son and a nowhere life. One night, they meet, fall in love and share a dream of leaving the seedy side of Hollywood for the easy life of Hawaii. But when an innocent prank goes tragically wrong, Bobby and Rose are on the run from the law and for their lives. As they take to the highway, they find that paradise is just out of reach...and that 'aloha' can also mean 'goodbye.'



Quote from: wilder on May 13, 2015, 09:45:31 PM



Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: Reel on January 16, 2022, 10:51:10 PM
Quote from: wilder on November 30, 2017, 02:59:02 PM
Licorice Pizza
Feature Films
American Graffiti (1973)
The Apartment (1960)
Breezy (1973)
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Gloria (1980)
S.O.B. (1981)

I watched Hal Ashby's "Shampoo" for the first time today, and it seemed like essential viewing for having a full grasp of the world of Licorice Pizza through the lens of Jon Peters' character ( called George Roundy in this film.) Specifically in that we're seeing the worlds of the valley people and the hills people collide when Alana & Gary meet Jon and to watch 'Shampoo' is to fully immerse yourself in the free sprited lifestyle of this fictional Peters. Watching the nuances of Beatty's performance and really wrapping your head around what makes this guy tick adds a depth and legacy to this character that you're truly missing out on if you haven't seen it.
Title: Re: Influences on each film
Post by: RudyBlatnoyd on September 26, 2023, 12:42:17 AM
I don't know if anyone here has mentioned it before (they probably have) but I've been watching some Alan Rudolph films lately and there are definite points of similarity between his work and PTA's.

Rudolph was a protege of Robert Altman and his films are actually perhaps slightly more of a precursor to Anderson's than those of his forebear: they have the roving and graceful camera movements of Altman, but in place of his frequent ironic detachment there's a greater emotional immediacy, but with the same feel for outlandish, even psychologically unstable characters.

I've found a few references online to Rudolph's and PT's shared interest in strange, mercurial, tonally complex character studies, but I'd say a longer critical comparison is merited.