What more is there to be said, really? How far can the conversation possibly extend?

'Some people think that the scene is racist.'
'Oh, really? I don't think so. I think it's clear that the racist character is a buffoon.'
'Some people don't see it that way.'
'Oh. Okay.'
'...'
'...'

The only thing he could have said that may have helped his case is a lot of people don't know it's based on a real dude. Maybe that would help some people get he's the butt of the joke?

What PTA REALLY needs to say to the Critics in defense of the John Michael Higgins scenes:

"I only am who I am because I was born that way. I have a gift and I am trying to not be selfish about it but to use it. Okay? And if you want to knock me for that, it's your own problem. Okay? Jealousy will get you nowhere. I'm gonna keep rockin' on!"

Quote from: jviness02 on February 18, 2022, 10:24:31 AM

Quote from: itwasgood on February 18, 2022, 08:20:54 AM
Paul's interview with Indiewire

https://www.indiewire.com/2022/02/paul-thomas-anderson-interview-licorice-pizza-theaters-1234700592/

Is this the first time he's ever quoted one of his old characters from an earlier film he's not currently promoting? The Plainview comment seemed unique.

He was promoting it at the time, but I was struck by how he used a line from The Master in an interview that was getting heated.

"If you already know the answers to your questions, then why ask?"

He stopped short of "Pig Fuck!".

I think it was Good Morning America, or something, and she was setting up a provocation in regard to Cruise/Scientology .

He was back in NYC (with Alana and Cooper) then London this week doing Q&A's. Kind of surprising. I thought the Gary Valentine's weekend was the end of the promotional tour.

https://twitter.com/edibow/status/1496800695214874627

https://twitter.com/empiremagazine/status/1497364158890713088

51 mins in.

"My kids call me 'Paul Thomas Anderson' as a joke"

The Feb. 19 Q&A:

https://vimeo.com/681658659/7493ca68ef

I'm only half way thru this Q & A, but I love the shout-out to the camera ops and especially Adam--I can confirm what an amazing force of nature Somner was on those sets.    And I was pretty sure those were Anderson kids in front of the Munster booth...

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/licorice-pizza-the-sound-vision-of-paul-thomas-anderson/id1142632832?i=1000547899622

An interesting interview with

Co-cinematographer Michael Bauman

Supervising Sound Editors / re-recording mixers Christopher Scarabosio & David Acord

Costume Designer Mark Bridges

That was posted here back in mid-January...but it's a good one...

Quote from: wilberfan on February 26, 2022, 05:12:20 PM
That was posted here back in mid-January...but it's a good one...

Ah sorry I must have missed it.

'streaming' is part of the constant change in cinema: Paul T. Anderson

(Machine translated from La Jornada)

Mexico City    Movement in the cinema is a lie. It is nothing more than the progression of images fixed at different moments that, in short, deceive the human eye by pretending the course of a encapsulated and manipulated time to make us believe that what is in front of us as spectators is a simile of reality. It is the closest thing to a memory, in this case shared in the darkness of a room.

For decades, American director Paul Thomas Anderson has been one of the most skillful contemporary filmmakers in making these lies. Illusion maker, some more and others less attached to reality, the native of California has been in charge of exhibiting the stages that have marked his memories and obsessions of life, always through characters or fictional situations, who drink from those frozen moments in the frames of their memory. Licorice Pizza , Although it is no exception, it is perhaps his closest work to a succession of images directly emanating from his mental album of memories.

Starring Alana Haim on her first foray into the acting world and rookie Cooper Hoffman Licorice Pizza not only does he drink from the stories lived by the director during his childhood in Studio City, attending the recordings of the horror program that his father drove for television, but also those narrated by one of his friends, originally a child actor and now a producer. of cinema. To this must be added his adolescent experience, which included the innocent infatuation of one of her teachers, about whom the director already confessed that she was the mother of its protagonist Alana, who serves as the older woman Gary (Cooper Hoffman, son of the late great friend of the director, Philip Seymour Hoffman) will try to impress and conquer.

We talked with Paul Thomas Anderson about the different angles at which his life intersects with this teenage love story in the 70s, a time that he carries here from the idyllic gaze that static memories often have in our minds.

–How much did Cooper Hoffman's involvement as an actor and your relationship with his father influence the evident change in tone he shows Licorice Pizza in relation to the rest of your filmography?

"I don't think it's related at all.". The story is completely independent of Cooper or his father. This film emerges from two places: the first was 20 years ago, when I was interested in telling the story of a relationship between a young man and a woman older than him. There are also many stories from my friend Gary Goetzman, who was a child actor and lived in the San Fernando Valley, California. I have sold water beds and had a gaming machine business. It is from him that the optimism and joy of the film come. There he was born exclusively. Later, when I started searching for the actor to interpret it, I asked myself: "Who do I know who has that same optimism, who is sociable, is full of joy and has a super charismatic personality?"The immediate response was Cooper. So it happened.

Son of Philip Seymour Hoffman
"You mention growing up in the entertainment industry, and it's funny why both you and Cooper did it near that world.". Beyond what you just expressed, would you say that was another important element? Was there something about you that you considered would bring him more realism because it was something they shared?

–I never saw it that way because, although I understand what you mean, the reality is that it is the opposite. Cooper lives in New York, was never a child actor, and does not know that process. He had never had an agent in his life and in the film there are scenes where he interacts with his agent, but he did not understand anything about that reality. I had to explain everything to him, but if he had wanted the actor to be close to the character, he would have hired someone who had been doing it since he was five or six years old. However, it was intentional to have hired a person who had no relationship with the world of acting on an experiential basis. Just because his father was an actor doesn't mean he knew what that is."

–Whenever I see a film of yours that takes place in another was that is not the present, it seems to me that you are not looking to generate nostalgia. You never aim at that. It is clearly a context, but the portrait you make here of the film industry contrasts with that same world today. People like Sam Mendes and Quentin Tarantino often refer to you as an author and praise your work. Were you looking to reflect on this industry and the place of an author when placing it in the 70s?

–I must tell you something. I am not one of those people who complain about the current state of cinema as an industry. I think it is constantly changing and growing, moving in different directions all the time, sometimes even taking steps backwards. But for me that makes it exciting. It is a constantly changing entity. There are people who live whining about the current situation between movie theaters and platforms streaming. But do I tell you something? I think that if the rooms are suffering it is because they must improve. They should look better, sound better, and be treated more seriously and importantly. Do you agree?, because the streaming is not new. It is the equivalent of video clubs in the VHS era. They are home formats and those have been existing for a long time. This business is very exciting to me. Something that has been interesting with the release of this film, looking back in the past, is that before the films lasted from three months to a year in the same room, which were huge.

"I guess it was something similar in Mexico, and many times that cinema was the only place where you could go see the movie of your choice. Sometimes you had to train; Sometimes the tickets were over, but I think that made going to the movies feel like an important event. So while the industry loves to cry and complain that people no longer go to screenings, they would lie if they don't accept that it's something they caused themselves. They played down the movies, stopped taking care of the room facilities. So for me it is a lot of fun to be part of this industry right now and to be a cheerleader to demand better cinemas, as well as a greater respect for the work of those of us who make the movies seen there. Honestly, it's something I love. It is a great fight and I think it is good that we continue fighting."


The script writing
–Speaking of changes and evolutions, especially in your cinema, which is full of broken families and screwed up children, I dare say that Licorice Pizza does not necessarily adhere to those issues. The young stars are quite sane and belong to decent families. However, it is the adult world you present here that looks like a dangerous place they cannot help but go to. Was there an intention to show the adult as that dangerous place that we don't even realize we are going as it happens?

–It is not something that anticipates. To be honest, I'm not very good at anticipating where the stories I tell are taking me. Situations in the movie, like when Gary goes to New York and Lucille Ball doesn't stop bothering him, actually made it to the script because they seemed like very funny stories to me. I take those stories, put them in the script and from there I build. Later, when I enter the adult world, I put another one, like the one of Alana's character going to audition with the character of Sean Penn.

"Without the intention of counting more, that situation is derailed to lot; However, it is also based on something they told me. Then pieces begin to accumulate that seem interesting to me and, as I continue writing, I begin to notice certain patterns and common denominators. That is where history is born. I have never sat down to write thinking that I am putting together a script about the passage from adolescence to adulthood and the dangers of that process. It is not something that I know how to do. What's more, I assure you that if someone asked me to do it, it would go terribly wrong. For me stories are built from the facts.

"My movies are collections of events that, if I'm lucky, light something in particular once I manage to weave everything. And once I get to light those songs, I usually get excited, go back in the script and do a push job so that the themes I identified come up more clearly. Although it has also happened to me that I do not like what those stories show... "

–And what do you do in those cases?

–I start from scratch again.

Licorice Pizza (2021) - Interview with Graphics Designer Kerry Hyatt

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/creative-industry/licorice-pizza-2021-with-lL3cuoPKkrD/

Quote from: wilberfan on February 28, 2022, 09:26:00 PMLicorice Pizza (2021) - Interview with Graphics Designer Kerry Hyatt

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/creative-industry/licorice-pizza-2021-with-lL3cuoPKkrD/

That was a good interview! Nice to hear from some of the people in roles we don't normally hear from. I'd love to hear more details about how she got offered the gig!

Alana by Paul for W Magazine's Directors Issue

https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/alana-haim-lost-track-music-video-paul-thomas-anderson-licorice-pizza