Watch: PTA's 15 Minute Intro To Max Ophüls' ‘The Earrings of Madame de...' Criterion Collection DVD

Paul Thomas Anderson on Max Ophuls from filmschoolthrucommentaries on Vimeo.

Back in 2008, PTA recorded a 15 minute commentary/intro to Max Ophüls classic "The Earrings of Madame de..." for the Criterion Collection DVD. Now, thanks to the magic of the internet you can watch that online. There are spoilers if you've never seen the film but even so, it'll probably make you more inclined to pick up the disc and watch the film. (Thanks Matt8U!)

"The Master" is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.    
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Watch: ‘Boogie Nights' Inspiration ‘Exhausted: John C. Holmes, The Real Story' With PTA Commentary

Most PTA fans are aware of "Exhausted: John C. Holmes, The Real Story" and its huge influence over "Boogie Nights" but probably few of you have actually seen it. About 35 minutes of excerpts from the doc appeared on the Criterion Laserdisc 15 years ago as a special feature with commentary by PTA. It was scheduled to go on the DVD release as well but for some reason or other got pulled and has been buried ever since, viewable only by the lucky few who held onto their Laserdisc players....until now. We're surprised it took this long honestly but some enterprising fellow named bodian26 has uploaded the doc to YouTube in 4 parts and even taken the liberty of cutting to a title card to block out the naughty bits so you can consider this SFW. In the opening minutes, PTA calls says the film is "a major inspiration for 'Boogie Nights'" and goes on to chronicle the various similarities as well as the things he loves just because they're funny/sad. Happy Friday. (via Richard Iaeger)



"The Master" is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.    
Stay tuned to Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and updates.

September 24, 2000

Archived update from Cigarettes & Coffee, run by Greg Mariotti & CJ Wallis from 1999-2005

Fiona Apple's Fast as You Can directed by PTA is nominated for Best Pop Video of the Year at the annual Billboard Music Video Awards. The ceremony will be held on November 10th at the Hilton in Universal City, CA.

Magnolia held at 11th place on the VHS rentals chart for the week ending September 10th.  Weekly rental revenue was 1.98 million for a total of 36.8 million since its release on July 25th. Magnolia's rental revenue is 163.8% of Box Office gross, which is an outstanding number. Nothing else in the Top 20 is that high. What does it mean? That a lot more people are seeing Magnolia at home than they did at the theater. Now we just need to get these VHS folks to invest in a DVD player...

There are a few PTA related tidbits in the brand new Total Movie Magazine. What's cool about this magazine is the DVD that's included. It has trailers, featurettes, short films & more. It's worth checking out. One feature called Cinemullets, chronicles the worst haircuts on film. Here's their take on Boogie Nights:


Mullethead: Little Bill

Interestingly, Boogie Nights spanned two critical mullet eras, the '70s and the '80s. The '70s were all about, "Am I a hippie? Am I disco? Pass the coke, I think I'm Bowie." In the '80s the mullet M.O. became "Well, yeah, I'm metal, but I'm fancy metal." Full credit, then, goes to William H. Macy's Little Bill for standing out in one of the greatest ensemble mullet movies ever made. If we had hair that bad, we'd blow our brains out, too.

Side Note: The soundtrack album is a monument to mulletdom in itself, featuring such hirsute heroes as Rick Springfield, ELO, Night Ranger & Dirk Diggler.

Another feature entitled "Commentaries That Don't Suck" also highlights PTA's Boogie Nights track:

The Set-Up: What's so great about the commentary from director Paul Thomas Anderson is that he obviously truly admires all of the actors he worked with on this film, and more than that, their performances crack him up. He also provides a surprising amount of background on everyone onscreen, including even the weird extras.

Revealed: Why Elliot Gould's picture is in the background of three separate shots; which real porno flicks influenced Boogie Nights.

Shining Moment: Anderson ponders at length how actor John C. Reilly leaves him "break-down-crying, falling-on-the-floor-thinking-I'm-going-to-throw-up laughing." About the time he admits, "I can't get enough of him. I could stare at that fucking face all day long," you're wondering if maybe our man Reilly needs to look into a restraining order.

Typical Quote: This is just like you've got this scene that you've written and you just kind of feel like you've got three great actors and a bunch of cocaine and you'd be foolish if you didn't sit them down and get a bunch of improvisational shit.