The Master and IV look the same even if Elswit came back in between.
Do people agree with me? I'm saying it as a gut feeling.
I have a similar sense, although I wouldn't say they're exactly the same or anything. I have yet to substantiate this hunch through a close comparison of both films, though (after editing in some screen caps, I'm not even sure how convinced I am anymore, because TM definitely has this darker, moodier, melancholic look, and IV seems way softer and brighter...so whatever "overlap" I detected definitely doesn't go
that far).
If you look at the scenes
inside Doc's office in
Inherent Vice, and compare them to
the scenes of Freddie in the hospital near the beginning of the
The Master, I believe there's
some similarities there in the texture of the image, the plain backgrounds, and the distribution of light. I know "texture of the image" is too vague, but again, this is mostly just a hunch (it's been a while since my last viewing of either film). IIRC, the effect I'm talking about can probably be described as "naturalistic," as opposed to overtly expressionistic and stylized. There's this kind of blanched quality via lots of white light -- literally streaming in through windows in a Janusz Kaminski/bloom-esque effect (
like here in TM and
here in IV) or through
the background color.
During his "master class" thing at NYFF, Anderson said something about admiring Robby Müller's cinematography in
Repo Man. He said Müller made the night shots actually look like nighttime. I think you can detect something similar going on in some scenes from TWBB, TM, and IV -- an "authentic," no frills kind of thing. There are still moodily arranged, expressionistic moments in all of these films, of course, and they're great, but there are other bits where it feels more like a decidedly unfussy, detail-oriented, naturalistic
showcase for an actor's face, without shadows or snazzy lights stylizing or obscuring someone's appearance.
Even when the shot is dimmer and there are more shadows, it can still feel like natural magic hour stuff rather than, say, a Wes Anderson close-up, where, IIRC, color and light can sometimes go full-tilt in a contrived and artificial way (still nice, though). I think this is evident in TWBB when Plainview is brooding in his office before stepping out to address the Little Boston denizens.
It's a shadowy shot but it's in the same naturalistic ballpark (actually, a better example is probably this one moment near the end of the film...I believe there's a great close-up on Plainview in his office there?). It just scans as authentic and down to earth...a Malick-esque seizing of the right light at the right time of day, rather than, say, Barry and Lena in the blue haze of that car ride in PDL (which is also beautiful, but in a different way).
I think
the beach scenes in TM, and
Doc and Sancho talking over beers in IV, are visually arresting in a similar way. I just don't see that precise look in other films -- it's a very unique, subtle thing where the characters' faces seem naturally lit, there's a dollop of grain, this mix of sharp clarity and a certain softness in the use of light, etc. Another hunch tells me that the closest analogue for this exists in my favourite movies from the 70s:
The French Connection,
Don't Look Now,
Days of Heaven, etc. I haven't watched the
Phantom Thread trailer yet, but I've come across a few screen-captures and I think I see something along these lines there, too...
EDIT: Added some screen-caps...although I'm not sure if you'll think they effectively support this hunch or if I'm making any sense. TM definitely seems to feature more contrasts between dark and light, but there's still
some overlap in terms of that soft, natural look I'm struggling to define.
