Xixax Film Forum

The Director's Chair => Paul Thomas Anderson => Topic started by: Link on February 02, 2004, 08:02:58 AM

Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Link on February 02, 2004, 08:02:58 AM
My girlfriend surprised me and got me the bootleg for my birthday (what an awesome girlfriend), and we watched it, and I can honestly say it is SUCH a crappy movie.  Man alive, it was painful to watch.

HOW did he get the people to agree to do that crap?  Did ANYONE see potential?  Granted, he didn't have the equipment we have nowadays, but man alive, it was terrible.

Though I was pleasantly surprised to see a ton of stuff from there used in Boogie Nights (The Touch, Angels Live In My Town, Reed Rothchild, etc).
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: kotte on February 02, 2004, 08:31:39 AM
I thought he had a pretty good script.

You have to judge it for what it is...a video short made by a 17 year old.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: SoNowThen on February 02, 2004, 09:25:47 AM
Um, it was a for-fun project by a teenager editing vhs to vhs, what the hell did you want???
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: ono on February 02, 2004, 11:43:02 AM
If anything, hearing that his first attempt was absolute crap should give people hope.  But then again, it's very rare that something done by a teenager isn't crap.  But what blows the mind, still, is how young he was when he did Hard Eight, and how that helped him improve so much on Boogie Nights.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: boombanglarrabee on February 02, 2004, 12:41:12 PM
Tsk tsk tsk, you are going to PTA hell for watching that bootleg.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: molly on February 02, 2004, 12:53:36 PM
i've heard rumores that Kubrick wore diapers when he appeared on this world for the first time. I've also heard that he drooled and cried a lot, but i think that's a bit too much. what do you think?(i've heard that he also didn't know how to write, and lot's of really scandalous shit, but i forgot about some of them)
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: SoNowThen on February 02, 2004, 12:58:48 PM
Quote from: mollyi've heard rumores that Kubrick wore diapers when he appeared on this world for the first time. I've also heard that he drooled and cried a lot, but i think that's a bit too much. what do you think?(i've heard that he also didn't know how to write, and lot's of really scandalous shit, but i forgot about some of them)

:lol:
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: prophet on February 02, 2004, 03:09:48 PM
bob did it because he was a freind of his dad, i know a actor in hollywood that would let me do a crappy short movie just because hes a freind.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Sigur Rós on February 02, 2004, 03:18:08 PM
Anyways, could someone rip it and send me a copy?
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: 82 on February 02, 2004, 06:05:35 PM
Quote from: Sigur RósAnyways, could someone rip it and send me a copy?

I would if you would from this point on stop saying "anyways"
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Pubrick on February 03, 2004, 01:02:35 AM
there's gonna be a public screening of it at a bar i frequent..

7pm Tuesday 17th February: PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON vs JOHNNY WADD!

Two radically different portraits of porn superstardom - The Dirk Diggler Story (1989), the INCREDIBLY RARE FIRST FILM from PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON, a 30 minute shot-on-video mockumentary that was later reworked as Boogie Nights! Plus Wadd: The Life And Times Of John C. Holmes (1998), the true story of porndoms well-endowed king John Holmes aka Johnny Wadd.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: The Silver Bullet on February 03, 2004, 06:46:31 AM
I really should come up for that.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Link on February 03, 2004, 08:59:46 AM
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think I've made better stuff for fun, and I'm sure lots of you have, when you were 17.

But my main point in saying that (and something that I totally forgot to mention, so that makes me a doofus) was the fact that just a few years later, he made Cigarettes & Coffee, which is LIGHTYEARS ahead of The Dirk Diggler Story.  It was just shocking to me how he could make that much progress in that little time.

But I don't think I'm wrong for bashing his crap that he did at 17.  There are some talented 17 year olds out there.  Unfortunately, he wasn't one of them.  I guess he's more than making up for it now.  But it does inspire me.  If he can make crap like that and then make brilliance 4 times in a row, I'm pumped.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Sleuth on February 03, 2004, 11:41:13 AM
LEAVE 'EM DA FUCK ALONE MUTHAFUCKA
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: abuck1220 on February 03, 2004, 02:25:54 PM
yeah, it sucks big time. but i don't hold it against him.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Link on February 04, 2004, 09:19:19 AM
The only thing I hold against him is that he hasn't used the guy who played Reed in The Dirk Diggler Story in one of his feature films.  That guy is huge and doofy looking!
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Pubrick on February 04, 2004, 09:43:21 AM
speakin of doofy looking fools, has anyone seen Cigarettes and Coffee? man that dude who is talking to PBH almost ruins the damn movie, can he close his mouth???? the whole time it's like sumone is pulling down his lower lip. it's effing distracting and stupit.

(been wanting to get that off my chest for a while)
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: kotte on February 04, 2004, 11:34:37 AM
Quote from: Pspeakin of doofy looking fools, has anyone seen Cigarettes and Coffee? man that dude who is talking to PBH almost ruins the damn movie, can he close his mouth???? the whole time it's like sumone is pulling down his lower lip. it's effing distracting and stupit.

(been wanting to get that off my chest for a while)

I didn't even think about that. I think he works...
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Pubrick on February 04, 2004, 11:48:28 AM
he looked like a goddamn fish, and his eyebrow action didn't help either.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: kotte on February 04, 2004, 11:50:36 AM
Quote from: Phe looked like a goddamn fish, and his eyebrow action didn't help either.

Haha, yeah well...act alongside Baker Hall and you'll look as fishy as he did.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: SoNowThen on February 04, 2004, 12:13:07 PM
So for those who have seen it, is Cigarettes And Coffee amazing, or is it just "that's a decent short film, it's nice to see where he started"?


Because even watching the Polanski shorts on the CC dvd, I thought one was quite good, 2 others were fairly good, and the others were interesting but nothing special. Maybe I'm just not a fan of short films...
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: kotte on February 04, 2004, 12:16:15 PM
Quote from: SoNowThenSo for those who have seen it, is Cigarettes And Coffee amazing, or is it just "that's a decent short film, it's nice to see where he started"?


Because even watching the Polanski shorts on the CC dvd, I thought one was quite good, 2 others were fairly good, and the others were interesting but nothing special. Maybe I'm just not a fan of short films...

I wouldn't say amazing...but very good. It's fairly pretentious (The Word :) ) but exciting.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: phil marlowe on February 04, 2004, 03:15:34 PM
pretentious? why?
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: kotte on February 04, 2004, 03:24:40 PM
Quote from: phlmrlwepretentious? why?

Well, we've had a discussion about what that means. To tell you the truth, I don't know. I just get a feeling of self-importance. I like it. I think it's good but that it tries to run deeper than it is...

Hell, even the man himself calls it pretentious.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Pubrick on February 04, 2004, 05:46:16 PM
i guess it's a silly little movie about the first thing PT ever noticed while doing absolutely nothing.

the idea of the movie is that, before u do anything, u hav to smoke/drink sum coffee. it's obvious why he's embarassed by it now, u know, u don't use ur most profound material on ur first proffessional short. but u get the impression at the time, he did think it was the most profound thing.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: molly on February 04, 2004, 06:08:31 PM
i have a theory that creative people do lots of stuff just as an experiment, like: What will happen if i do_______________?
writers read a lot, they read lots of books that really suck, to see what was the factor of that, so they could avoid it. In the end we see a finished product, but we don't want to know how much of really hard work is behind it. I've read in some magazine that pharmaceutical industry usually tests 5000 substances before gets to the right one. It's not some epiphany, or it's LIKE epiphany, but after you do a lot of work. Film students here make lots of movies that to me look like a pile of shit, but they say they are more experiments with light and equipment in general. They are NOT meant for the ordinary audience.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Link on February 04, 2004, 08:18:20 PM
Quote from: Pspeakin of doofy looking fools, has anyone seen Cigarettes and Coffee? man that dude who is talking to PBH almost ruins the damn movie, can he close his mouth???? the whole time it's like sumone is pulling down his lower lip. it's effing distracting and stupit.

(been wanting to get that off my chest for a while)

:lol!:  :lol!:  :lol!:
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: soixante on February 06, 2004, 10:25:28 PM
Making short films is like a corporation doing R & D -- Research and Development.  I remember seeing Scorsese's short NYU films, and seeing glimpses of talent, but I didn't feel that I was watching the work of a genius.  It took a few films for him to hit his stride.  Tarantino started directing a low-budget feature, which he abandoned half-way through.  Even if he was disappointed in the results, QT learned a great deal from it.  It is better to make a film, any kind of film, just to get your feet wet, rather than sitting around theorizing about film (which is good up to a point, but you gotta lay it on the line sometime).
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Pozer on February 08, 2004, 04:13:35 PM
Quote from: Pspeakin of doofy looking fools, has anyone seen Cigarettes and Coffee? man that dude who is talking to PBH almost ruins the damn movie, can he close his mouth???? the whole time it's like sumone is pulling down his lower lip. it's effing distracting and stupit.

He's the cop from Rez dogs right?
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: mogwai on February 08, 2004, 04:22:56 PM
Quote from: poserismsHe's the cop from Rez dogs right?
why do you ask if you already know the answer? pfft.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Pozer on February 08, 2004, 05:29:27 PM
Quote from: mogwai
Quote from: poserismsHe's the cop from Rez dogs right?
why do you ask if you already know the answer? pfft.
I wasn't for sure. And don't ever write pfft again.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: ©brad on February 09, 2004, 12:12:34 PM
Quote from: poserisms
Quote from: mogwai
Quote from: poserismsHe's the cop from Rez dogs right?
why do you ask if you already know the answer? pfft.
I wasn't for sure. And don't ever write pfft again.

pfft, make him.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: jtm on March 20, 2004, 02:37:44 PM
finally picked DDS and C&C up on ebay.  i thought DDS story was clever for what is was, a 17 year old fucking around.  it had some funny moments and definitly led him to sumthing wonderful. :yabbse-thumbup:

C&C on the other hand i thought was a boring peice of shit.  i'm not even sure what it was supposed to be saying.  the scenes with the guy talking on the phone were the worst.  it appeared the guy on the other end of the phone (who we couldn't hear) had the best lines, all we got was 5 minutes of this guy saying "yeah?"  really?"  "no shit!"....  :yabbse-thumbdown:
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Lambdacism on March 20, 2004, 06:25:37 PM
i feel the compulsion to utter: pff,ff;ffff,t

you are stealing the childhood of a human being;
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: billybrown on March 22, 2004, 08:09:00 PM
For those that own or have seen The Dirk Diggler Story and Cigarettes and Coffee, what is the audio and video quality of the copies currently available, and what is the running time for TDDS? Thanks.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Link on March 24, 2004, 08:37:30 AM
The video quality of TDDS that I have is terrible.  A lot of time I had a hard time seeing what was going on (though it progressively got better).  The sound wasn't too hot either, but part of that is the fact that it was shot on video.  C&C is better.  It would look pretty good if it wasn't a VHS copy, but the sound is much better.  I don't remember the running time for TDDS except it was too long for it's own good.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: billybrown on March 24, 2004, 12:23:46 PM
Quote from: LinkThe video quality of TDDS that I have is terrible.  A lot of time I had a hard time seeing what was going on (though it progressively got better).  The sound wasn't too hot either, but part of that is the fact that it was shot on video.  C&C is better.  It would look pretty good if it wasn't a VHS copy, but the sound is much better.  I don't remember the running time for TDDS except it was too long for it's own good.

Thnx for the info.
Title: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: jtm on March 27, 2004, 12:17:25 AM
Dirk Diggler= 31 minutes

Cigs & Coffee=23 minutes
Title: Re: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: grand theft sparrow on June 16, 2007, 04:16:00 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTASRDkEpgk

OK, which one of you guys put this out there?
Title: Re: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: B.C. Long on July 18, 2007, 05:43:28 PM
Darnit. Removed already.
Title: Re: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: kassius on January 24, 2008, 12:28:29 PM
Agreed to be in it? Wasn't this just some movie that Paul shot in high school probably for film class or something? I don't think anybody agreed to be in it thinking it was a career move. haha The guy was what, like 17? It was just some project he did for fun.

I saw it today. Thought it was awful. BUT it is what it is. The production quality is so bad that I couldn't even watch it. I'm sure the story - upon the projection flaws - might have been good but I couldn't tolerate myself to get into it.
Title: Re: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: theyarelegion on August 05, 2008, 08:10:17 PM
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6568842455418764286&hl=en
Title: Re: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: matt35mm on August 05, 2008, 08:38:41 PM
Thank you, friend.
Title: Re: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Alexandro on August 05, 2008, 09:05:17 PM
It's still pretty sophisticated for something made by a 17 year old dude editing from vcr to vcr. There's a lot of humor and smart editing choices. He was trying his best to make it work with what he had. It was fun to hear "you've got the touch" and all the stuff about the vocals being up when recording the album.
Title: Re: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: john on August 05, 2008, 10:56:42 PM
I wish Robert Ridgley was in my short films in high school.

Though, one of the customers in the video store I worked at used to be Philip Baker Hall's roommate in college so I guess that kinda... doesn't... count... at all.

Title: Re: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: hedwig on August 06, 2008, 12:06:07 AM
Quote from: john on August 05, 2008, 10:56:42 PM
Though, one of the customers in the video store I worked at used to be Philip Baker Hall's roommate in college so I guess that kinda... doesn't... count... at all.
and the guy who runs my favorite local movie theatre was a friend of ernie anderson and knew pta when he was 11 years old, so that also kinda ... doesn't ...count ... at all. :yabbse-undecided:
Title: Re: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: 72teeth on August 06, 2008, 12:36:58 AM
Who the hell is that big guy, he totally has that same John C./P. Seymour/Guzman lovable big-dope factor going on for him... it's funny to see how established little pt was to his characters already...

but creepy to think that all these guys were willing to go shirtless and writhe around in banana hammocks for this scrawny little junior with a camera... i have the felling Ghoulardi was the kinda dad that would bring home a hooker and and you use her afterwards... yeesh.
Title: Re: I saw the Dirk Diggler Story yesterday...
Post by: Tommy Both on August 10, 2008, 04:56:34 AM
anyone know if he filmed this himself?

the guy with the bandanna in the beginning (who calls dirk and who slates the first scene with his hands)
sounds an awful lot like pta!