There Will Be Blood - now with child/partner forum we call H.W.

Started by depooter, March 27, 2005, 02:24:56 PM

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Marty McSuperfly

Fantastic Fest: There Will Be Blood
Source: Matt Dentler; indieWIRE

There Will Be Spoilers...




For the first 15 minutes or so, there is no dialogue. Just men at work, and a swelling violin by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. And then, oil! Before long, Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview is doing what he can to uncover more of it, at any price. This leads to the discovery of a small community sitting "on an ocean of oil." Plainview sets up shop, but ends up warring against Dano's Eli Sunday, a young evangelist out to preach God's will and save souls. It soon becomes a battle between the two enterprising men, and each actor explodes with charisma and terror. Anderson is the architect of some great American stories, and this is one of his finest. Loosely based on Upton Sinclair's book, Oil!, the film is all Anderson. There are flourishes of Stanley Kubrick, Terrence Malick, and Robert Altman (to whom the film is dedicated) but Anderson steps up his game as a master filmmaker beautifully telling a very scary story.

It was a great way to end the third annual Fantastic Fest. I think it was a great year. And, at the Closing Night Party, fellow organizers Tim League and Harry Knowles both looked at me and we just had a moment of pride. Here are some pictures I took in the final few days

Stefen

HAHAHA it just doesn't stop!

PTA = mix between Kubrick, Malick, and Altman.

Oh, please do not set me up to be let down!!!!
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

modage

i have never been more excited to see a film. 

and not to wish ill of my fellow xixaxers but i would die of jealousy if one of you made it to this screening.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: Stefen on September 28, 2007, 01:19:44 PM
PTA = mix between Kubrick, Malick, and Altman.

I kinda cringed when I read that. I understand Malick and even Altman to a certain degree, but people name drop Kubrick all the time for films he has no reason to be associated with. I'm not saying PTA couldn't utilize him, but I'll have to wait and see. It's a tough thing to pull off.

Pozer

besides what p quoted earlier, this is my favorite thing said about it so far:

*1st shot spoiler tho*
And gosh what a beautiful film to look at. The turn-of-the-century Texas landscape has rarely looked this, well, real, and Anderson paints his canvas with some masterful strokes. The establishing shot that introduces the central town is nothing short of stunning, and there are numerous sequences that simply dazzle the eye. Cinematographer Robert Elswit -- a frequent PTA collaborator -- should be preparing his "it's an honor just to be nominated" speech right now. And the musical score by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood is more than a separate character in the film; the stunning score feels more like an aural Greek chorus.

Fernando

One thing is for sure, we can cancel next year's xaxies because CMBB will take EVERYTHING.

Also, I won't read any articles/reviews until late december.

MacGuffin

Quote from: RegularKarate on September 28, 2007, 12:13:10 PM
I just unloaded about a hundred imaginary bullets into my head after reading Dentler's blog this morning.

I almost bought a badge this year, but convinced myself that it wouldn't be worth it... I mean why THE FUCK would they play something like this?  And PT was in town!!!????  My dream of finally meeting him TOTALLY shot down.

If anyone needs me, I'll be at the bottom of the river.

Which is ironic because when I posted the rumor I mainly did it for you, thinking if anyone would go it would be you.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

tpfkabi

so if this is ready now, the wait is purely for awards purposes?
I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the Master is away.

picolas

mother of god. i'm scared to open this thread now. the anticipation is turning into an anxious 'i want it NOW' kind of feeling.

JG

this is unbelievable. 

Quote from: Cinematical
one of the year's best films (so far)

best "(so far)" ever. (so far).   


MacGuffin

Quote from: bigideas on September 28, 2007, 04:16:42 PM
so if this is ready now, the wait is purely for awards purposes?

The studios want to promote a Paul WS Anderson vs Paul Thomas Anderson Christmas smackdown.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

There Will Be Blood
Bottom Line: Daniel Day-Lewis stuns in Paul Thomas Anderson's saga of a soul-dead oil man.
By John DeFore; Hollywood Reporter
Oct 1, 2007

*READ - RISK*

Fantastic Fest

AUSTIN -- Both an epic and a miniature, Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" uses the fewest possible brush strokes, spread across a vast canvas, to paint a portrait of greed at the beginning of the American century. Built around another powerhouse performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, it's a certain awards contender and will be a strong draw for serious moviegoers.

Partially shot in Marfa, Texas, and stretching across three decades -- just enough time for an infant to rise up and defy his father -- it begs comparison to another Marfa production, "Giant." "Blood" has none of that film's melodramatic sprawl, though. Instead, it pares allegory-friendly material down to the elementals. It shows not the birth of the American oil business but the origin of a certain kind of oil man -- self-made, hands-on, destined for great wealth but doomed to not enjoy it -- then pits this capitalistic force of nature against its Bible-thumping mirror image, hinting at the culture-shaping sibling rivalry between the influence of God and of Mammon in America.

Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, a prospector introduced in a wordless sequence showing his progression from heavy-bearded miner to civilized man with prospects: In the entire first reel, the only dialogue we hear is a muttered "there she is" as Plainview finds his buried treasure. The soundtrack is dominated by wilding clouds of strings that bestow on petroleum the mysterious power of Stanley Kubrick's famous obelisk.

That music, by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, is captivating and sometimes intense, greatly contributing to the sense that tectonic forces lie beneath the drama.

The film then makes up for lost time as Plainview addresses a gathering of country landowners in hopes of talking his way onto their property. In Day-Lewis' hands, the spiel becomes a John Huston-ish seduction, a velvet rumble about how qualified he is to suck oil from their dirt and transmute it to wealth for them and their children. When his listeners hesitate before taking the bait, Plainview refuses them a second chance, moving briskly to the next-best prospect. Eventually, he lands a territory with vast, empire-building potential, and the film settles down there, watching him struggle to exploit the discovery.

The film isn't as bloody as its title suggests, but from the start it makes the most of what violence it contains. The dangers of digging for oil are starkly depicted, and at one point -- during a hair-raising sequence in which a just-struck gusher catches fire -- Plainview's young adopted son takes a fall that costs him his hearing.

That loss and a more mysterious family matter are all we see of Plainview's personal life; he seemingly exists to do nothing but find and sell oil. An obstacle arrives in the person of Paul Dano's Eli Sunday, a self-styled man of God hoping to funnel as much as possible of his congregation's impending wealth into glorifying the Almighty. Barely old enough to shave, Sunday spellbinds listeners with frenzied exorcisms and threatens to steer his flock away from the man who needs their land.

Director Anderson's critics might not know what to do with this picture, which has none of the attention-grabbing flourishes of earlier films -- no hailstorms of frogs or deus ex machina pianos here. The closest it gets to self-conscious showiness is its closing scene, a confrontation as memorably strange as the fireworks-popping, "Jessie's Girl"-belting drug deal in "Boogie Nights." Its setting is as visually spare (a highlight of Jack Fisk's brilliant production design) as the other was decadent and cluttered, and eventually the scene makes good on the title's promise -- but only after offering a virtuoso humiliation to mirror one Plainview suffers earlier in the story.

Even here, though, what could be mere showboating serves as the last step on the path "Blood" started out on: drawing us slowly and with steadily increasing horror into the bitter worldview of a man whose name suggests he sees the world for what it is.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Paramount Vantage
Ghoulardi Film Co./Paramount Vantage/Miramax Films/Scott Rudin Prods.
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Paul Thomas Anderson
Based on the novel by: Upton Sinclair
Producers: Paul Thomas Anderson, Daniel Lupi, Joanne Sellar
Executive producers: Scott Rudin, Eric Schlosser
Director of photography: Robert Elswit
Production designer: Jack Fisk
Music: Jonny Greenwood
Costume designer: Mark Bridges
Editors: Tatiana S. Riegel, Dylan Tichenor
Cast:
Daniel Plainview: Daniel Day-Lewis
Eli Sunday: Paul Dano
H.W.: Dillion Freasier
Fletcher Hamilton: Ciaran Hinds
Running time -- 158 minutes
MPAA rating: R
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Pubrick

Quote from: MacGuffin on September 28, 2007, 07:03:46 PM
no hailstorms of frogs or deus ex machina pianos here

it's a harmonium.

and i strongly urge everyone to avoid the above article because it is ALL SPOILERS, huge ones, specific ones about the final minutes of the movie. it even ends with the credits, like you've just seen the movie. it really pisses me off now when ppl can't review things without giving everything away. especially a movie that isn't out yet, why talk about specific scenes or the ending of the movie?? complete asshole behaviour.

years of reading the Lost thread without actually reading anything has helped me develop voluntary amnesia. unless you can master this weird form of senility, do not attempt to navigate past the spoiler warnings.

under the paving stones.

Stefen

We need to nominate someone to be a xixax guinea pig. Someone who's, I don't want to say dumb, but not so bright, so spoilers won't bother them, but they can distinguish spoilers from non spoilers and warn us all for situations like this.

I nominate Kal.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.