Georgia Mason University, Written By Skylar Miller
October 20, 1997
Paul Thomas Anderson, director and writer of Boogie Nights, sat in the lounge at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C., dressed in a 70s style shirt. Before we had a chance to speak, we heard a loud humming sound coming from somewhere in the distance.
"What is that noise? A vibrator?" were the first words out of Anderson's mouth. I knew from the start that this would be an interesting interview. Along for the ride was a reporter from The Hatchet, George Washington University's student newspaper.
Skyler Miller: What was your inspiration for writing this film?
Paul Thomas Anderson: There was a couple of different things. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, which is where 90 percent of all pornos are made. You know, its really the capital of porn. So, it was always sort of surrounding me in a peripheral way. And it was just sort of a fascination with ... pornography. Probably on a filmmaking level just it was really liking the concept of it as a genre and always wishing it were better. There was a camp aspect that certainly is there, but there's also a really sort of sad and depressing element that's there.
Monday, October 20, 1997
Sunday, October 19, 1997
Interview: "Nights Shines Human Light On Porn"
San Diego Tribune, Written By Rene Rodriguez
October 19th, 1997
To most people, the words "porno film" conjure up the worst of American society: sleaze, exploitation, filth. "Boogie Nights" director Paul Thomas Anderson understands that natural association. But he doesn't think it has to be that way.
"Most people feel a weird embarrassment about watching porno -- they're shamed by it -- because it's so poorly done," the wiry 27-year-old says. "Most of it is crap, and you wouldn't bring it up in conversation with a group of smart people. It's like admitting you actually went to see `Con Air' and liked it.
"But if there were great porno movies being made, it might be a different situation. You could say, `Yeah, I'm renting this, and there's (sex) in it, but I'm not embarrassed by that, because there is also great storytelling, and it's good.' "
Anderson's understanding of the potential of adult films -- and his genuine lament of the state of the genre -- fuels "Boogie Nights." The highly anticipated film, which opens Friday, is a sprawling, multicharacter, 2 1/2 -hour epic.
October 19th, 1997
To most people, the words "porno film" conjure up the worst of American society: sleaze, exploitation, filth. "Boogie Nights" director Paul Thomas Anderson understands that natural association. But he doesn't think it has to be that way.
"Most people feel a weird embarrassment about watching porno -- they're shamed by it -- because it's so poorly done," the wiry 27-year-old says. "Most of it is crap, and you wouldn't bring it up in conversation with a group of smart people. It's like admitting you actually went to see `Con Air' and liked it.
"But if there were great porno movies being made, it might be a different situation. You could say, `Yeah, I'm renting this, and there's (sex) in it, but I'm not embarrassed by that, because there is also great storytelling, and it's good.' "
Anderson's understanding of the potential of adult films -- and his genuine lament of the state of the genre -- fuels "Boogie Nights." The highly anticipated film, which opens Friday, is a sprawling, multicharacter, 2 1/2 -hour epic.
Saturday, October 18, 1997
Interview: "Risque Business"
Los Angeles Daily News, Written By Janet Weeks
October 19th, 1997
Promoting 'Boogie Nights' proves challenging
With "Boogie Nights," the marketing department at New Line Cinema faces a daunting challenge: selling mainstream America on the story of a teen-ager with a gift in his pocket so special it makes adult-film producers happy to see him.
It's a Boy-Meets-Pornographer tale woven with sex, nudity, drugs, violence and one very large prosthetic device -- not exactly the elements of a feel-good hit. No space aliens, no dinosaurs, no president in jeopardy. Featuring Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore, it also has no
"bankable" celebrities.
And to make New Line's job even, ahem, more difficult, a decision was made with the promotional campaign to downplay the film's sexual context. Indeed, the "P" word -- pornography -- has been all but banned from the studio's vocabulary.
"Our strategy is that this film is an important film to see and not a pornographic film," says Mitchell Goldman, New Line's president of marketing and distribution. "It's not about that. (Pornography) is only the backdrop. We're not playing that card."
October 19th, 1997
Promoting 'Boogie Nights' proves challenging
With "Boogie Nights," the marketing department at New Line Cinema faces a daunting challenge: selling mainstream America on the story of a teen-ager with a gift in his pocket so special it makes adult-film producers happy to see him.
It's a Boy-Meets-Pornographer tale woven with sex, nudity, drugs, violence and one very large prosthetic device -- not exactly the elements of a feel-good hit. No space aliens, no dinosaurs, no president in jeopardy. Featuring Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore, it also has no
"bankable" celebrities.
And to make New Line's job even, ahem, more difficult, a decision was made with the promotional campaign to downplay the film's sexual context. Indeed, the "P" word -- pornography -- has been all but banned from the studio's vocabulary.
"Our strategy is that this film is an important film to see and not a pornographic film," says Mitchell Goldman, New Line's president of marketing and distribution. "It's not about that. (Pornography) is only the backdrop. We're not playing that card."
Interview: "Get Down And Boogie"
Toronto Sun, Written By Bob Thompson
October ??, 1997
Boogie Nights shows that nothing exceeds like excess
Sometimes a great notion can lead to really awful revivals, or at least encourage ones that already exist. For instance, there is a movie called Boogie Nights opening on Friday. It's written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, who made a name for himself with a quietly ambitious portrait of a gambler called Sydney, which is fine.
For an encore, Anderson decided to investigate the soft-porn industry that flourished in the '70s. He enlisted some decent actors to portray the "family" of film folks who made the dirty pictures in and around L.A. during the '70s and '80s.
In the feature, Mark Wahlberg is Dirk Diggler, Julianne Moore is Amber Waves, Heather Graham portrays Rollergirl and John C. Reilly is Reed Rothchild. Don Cheadle is Buck Swope, and for fun Anderson cast Burt Reynolds to play the director of the corny sex-capade flicks.
October ??, 1997
Boogie Nights shows that nothing exceeds like excess
Sometimes a great notion can lead to really awful revivals, or at least encourage ones that already exist. For instance, there is a movie called Boogie Nights opening on Friday. It's written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, who made a name for himself with a quietly ambitious portrait of a gambler called Sydney, which is fine.
For an encore, Anderson decided to investigate the soft-porn industry that flourished in the '70s. He enlisted some decent actors to portray the "family" of film folks who made the dirty pictures in and around L.A. during the '70s and '80s.
In the feature, Mark Wahlberg is Dirk Diggler, Julianne Moore is Amber Waves, Heather Graham portrays Rollergirl and John C. Reilly is Reed Rothchild. Don Cheadle is Buck Swope, and for fun Anderson cast Burt Reynolds to play the director of the corny sex-capade flicks.
Friday, October 17, 1997
Interview: "X Marks The Spot"
Philadelphia Daily News, Written By Gary Thompson
October 17th, 1997
Boyhood Porn Film Site was a Quest for Anderson
Anderson recalls seeing film crews setting up to shoot a dirty movie at one of the houses on his block. When he grew up (he's still only 27), he went on a grim porn quest, renting X-rated movies in hopes of spotting his neighborhood on tape.
He never found it, but he became increasingly interesting in the behind-the scenes aspect of the porn business, which struck him as a warped, pathetic and altogether fascinating business.
"My fascination with porno is that, in a twisted way, it can be incredibly funny one moment and incredibly sad the next. That feeling is something I wanted to capture,'' said Anderson, who visited some porn sets to get a feeling for the scene. ``I did just enough research to verify that what I thought was the truth was in fact the truth. My assumption turned out to be on the money, although the business was sadder than I thought.''
His Boogie Nights is a 1970s period piece about the heyday of porn - when the movies were still shot on film (today it's grainy video), when porno directors had pretensions of making art, or at least artful smut.
The movie's provocative subject (remember the hullabaloo surrounding The People vs. Larry Flynt?) and Anderson's eye-catching technique have made him and his movie a sensation this season.
His work has drawn obvious comparisons to Altman and Scorsese, although the structure and tone of the movie have similarities to Ed Wood, Tim Burton's biography of a man purported to be the worst filmmaker of all time.
Anderson acknowledges the resemblance.
"I think both movies admire people who have the desire to do good work, and who make the effort. Whether the work is good or not is ultimately not important. We are charmed by and in love with the fact that they want to try,'' said Anderson, whose Boogie Nights is the story of a director (Burt Reynolds) and star (Mark Wahlberg) trying to make Hollywood-style movies with pornographic content.
"A hack is a damn hack,'' Anderson said, ``but a filmmaker who has bad taste but is trying his damnedest is to be admired.''
Anderson, at age 27, is trying his damnedest. And succeeding, by most accounts. Boogie Nights is earning high praise, and Anderson may soon surpass Quentin Tarantino as the hottest young director in Hollywood, if he hasn't already.
Anderson does tend to stand out among other Generation X directors, whose work is often genre-bound, self-referential and small in scope. His ``Boogie Nights'' is a sprawling, epic account of American culture, spanning the '70s and '80s, and crossing several generations.
"A lot of people of my generation have been beaten down, maybe by low expectations, into not taking risks. There's so much negativity that ambition seems to be like a bad word. I want to push myself, to experiment. I want my work to have an audaciousness.''
That includes wading into the porno pool at the same time Milos Forman was being attacked for making ``The People vs. Larry Flynt,'' criticized by feminists for being soft on pornographers.
"We were editing when that controversy came to a head. All I'm going to say is that I pinned Gloria Steinem's article to the editing board. I loved it,'' he said. ``I don't think, given the content of my movie, that we're going to get the same kind of flak.''
Probably not. Anderson gives the characters in ``Boogie Nights'' a full measure of humanity while managing to make the exploitative nature of the industry apparent.
And for a movie about sex, it's not very sexy. The sex scenes are more clinical than titillating (part of Anderson's point), and the movie's ``R'' rating stems more from violence than sex.
"I'm not really interested in how pornography fits into some universal moral framework. I wanted to explore the society that this little culture creates for itself. And that's about all I'm going to say about it'' he said.
"There's nothing worse than listening to a filmmaker tell you about his movie, and you're like, 'Hey jackass, why pay $7.95 to see it?' ''
October 17th, 1997
Boyhood Porn Film Site was a Quest for Anderson
Anderson recalls seeing film crews setting up to shoot a dirty movie at one of the houses on his block. When he grew up (he's still only 27), he went on a grim porn quest, renting X-rated movies in hopes of spotting his neighborhood on tape.
He never found it, but he became increasingly interesting in the behind-the scenes aspect of the porn business, which struck him as a warped, pathetic and altogether fascinating business.
"My fascination with porno is that, in a twisted way, it can be incredibly funny one moment and incredibly sad the next. That feeling is something I wanted to capture,'' said Anderson, who visited some porn sets to get a feeling for the scene. ``I did just enough research to verify that what I thought was the truth was in fact the truth. My assumption turned out to be on the money, although the business was sadder than I thought.''
His Boogie Nights is a 1970s period piece about the heyday of porn - when the movies were still shot on film (today it's grainy video), when porno directors had pretensions of making art, or at least artful smut.
The movie's provocative subject (remember the hullabaloo surrounding The People vs. Larry Flynt?) and Anderson's eye-catching technique have made him and his movie a sensation this season.
His work has drawn obvious comparisons to Altman and Scorsese, although the structure and tone of the movie have similarities to Ed Wood, Tim Burton's biography of a man purported to be the worst filmmaker of all time.
Anderson acknowledges the resemblance.
"I think both movies admire people who have the desire to do good work, and who make the effort. Whether the work is good or not is ultimately not important. We are charmed by and in love with the fact that they want to try,'' said Anderson, whose Boogie Nights is the story of a director (Burt Reynolds) and star (Mark Wahlberg) trying to make Hollywood-style movies with pornographic content.
"A hack is a damn hack,'' Anderson said, ``but a filmmaker who has bad taste but is trying his damnedest is to be admired.''
Anderson, at age 27, is trying his damnedest. And succeeding, by most accounts. Boogie Nights is earning high praise, and Anderson may soon surpass Quentin Tarantino as the hottest young director in Hollywood, if he hasn't already.
Anderson does tend to stand out among other Generation X directors, whose work is often genre-bound, self-referential and small in scope. His ``Boogie Nights'' is a sprawling, epic account of American culture, spanning the '70s and '80s, and crossing several generations.
"A lot of people of my generation have been beaten down, maybe by low expectations, into not taking risks. There's so much negativity that ambition seems to be like a bad word. I want to push myself, to experiment. I want my work to have an audaciousness.''
That includes wading into the porno pool at the same time Milos Forman was being attacked for making ``The People vs. Larry Flynt,'' criticized by feminists for being soft on pornographers.
"We were editing when that controversy came to a head. All I'm going to say is that I pinned Gloria Steinem's article to the editing board. I loved it,'' he said. ``I don't think, given the content of my movie, that we're going to get the same kind of flak.''
Probably not. Anderson gives the characters in ``Boogie Nights'' a full measure of humanity while managing to make the exploitative nature of the industry apparent.
And for a movie about sex, it's not very sexy. The sex scenes are more clinical than titillating (part of Anderson's point), and the movie's ``R'' rating stems more from violence than sex.
"I'm not really interested in how pornography fits into some universal moral framework. I wanted to explore the society that this little culture creates for itself. And that's about all I'm going to say about it'' he said.
"There's nothing worse than listening to a filmmaker tell you about his movie, and you're like, 'Hey jackass, why pay $7.95 to see it?' ''
Sunday, October 12, 1997
Interview: "He Knows It When He Sees It"
LA Times, Written By Kristine McKenna
October 12th, 1997
Paul Thomas Anderson got Hollywood's attention with a look at the '70s porno-film world.
Before you rush out to see "Boogie Nights," Paul Thomas Anderson's epic about the pornography industry, there's something you should know: This is not a pornographic film, nor is it a film about pornography. It's a film about the people in the pornography industry, and, as such, it's more apt to move you than to turn you on. It's also apt to make you laugh.
Conceived by Anderson when he was 17 and under the sway of "This Is Spinal Tap," the scathing parody of the rock 'n' roll world released in 1984, "Boogie Nights" is set in the San Fernando Valley in the late '70s when, unbeknown to most of us, the porn industry experienced something akin to a golden period. Director-writer Anderson has a keen eye for both the surreality of making a living by having sex on film and the bad taste that pervaded the disco scene, and his film is as hilarious as it is distressing.
"Boogie Nights," made for $15 million and due out Friday from New Line, features an ensemble cast that includes Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Heather Graham, Don Cheadle and John C. Reilly. Also starring are Burt Reynolds, whose performance is being touted as his most accomplished in years; Alfred Molina, who does a memorable turn as a crazed drug dealer; and Mark Wahlberg, whose work should bring an end to any snickering about Marky Mark, the rapper and underwear model.
October 12th, 1997
Paul Thomas Anderson got Hollywood's attention with a look at the '70s porno-film world.
Before you rush out to see "Boogie Nights," Paul Thomas Anderson's epic about the pornography industry, there's something you should know: This is not a pornographic film, nor is it a film about pornography. It's a film about the people in the pornography industry, and, as such, it's more apt to move you than to turn you on. It's also apt to make you laugh.
Conceived by Anderson when he was 17 and under the sway of "This Is Spinal Tap," the scathing parody of the rock 'n' roll world released in 1984, "Boogie Nights" is set in the San Fernando Valley in the late '70s when, unbeknown to most of us, the porn industry experienced something akin to a golden period. Director-writer Anderson has a keen eye for both the surreality of making a living by having sex on film and the bad taste that pervaded the disco scene, and his film is as hilarious as it is distressing.
"Boogie Nights," made for $15 million and due out Friday from New Line, features an ensemble cast that includes Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Heather Graham, Don Cheadle and John C. Reilly. Also starring are Burt Reynolds, whose performance is being touted as his most accomplished in years; Alfred Molina, who does a memorable turn as a crazed drug dealer; and Mark Wahlberg, whose work should bring an end to any snickering about Marky Mark, the rapper and underwear model.
Friday, October 10, 1997
Interview: Robert Ebert Q&A
Roger Ebert Q&A With Paul Thomas Anderson
October ?? 1997
Chicago, October 1997 - Paul Thomas Anderson has made one of the best films of 1997, and at age twenty-seven is getting the kind of attention no young director has had since Quentin Tarantino erupted. His Boogie Nights, which follows a cast of colorful characters through six eventful years in the adult film industry, is the year's best-reviewed film - a hit at the Toronto and New York Film Festivals.
Although the film's subject matter is touchy, Boogie Nights is not a sex film; porno supplies the backdrop to a traditionally structured Hollywood story about an unknown kid (Mark Wahlberg) who is discovered by a director (Burt Reynolds), encouraged by an older actress (Julianne Moore), and becomes a star - until his ego and drugs bring everything crashing down.
October ?? 1997
Chicago, October 1997 - Paul Thomas Anderson has made one of the best films of 1997, and at age twenty-seven is getting the kind of attention no young director has had since Quentin Tarantino erupted. His Boogie Nights, which follows a cast of colorful characters through six eventful years in the adult film industry, is the year's best-reviewed film - a hit at the Toronto and New York Film Festivals.
Although the film's subject matter is touchy, Boogie Nights is not a sex film; porno supplies the backdrop to a traditionally structured Hollywood story about an unknown kid (Mark Wahlberg) who is discovered by a director (Burt Reynolds), encouraged by an older actress (Julianne Moore), and becomes a star - until his ego and drugs bring everything crashing down.
Wednesday, October 01, 1997
Interview: "A 27-Year-Old Director Tackles 70s Sensibilities"
Seattle Times, Written John Hartl
October ??, 1997
Paul Thomas Anderson wasn't even born when the 1970s began. Yet he's written and directed a 1970s epic about the California porn industry, "Boogie Nights," that is drawn partly from his own experiences growing up in the San Fernando Valley.
"I have strong and distinctive memories of the Valley, from my pre-adolescence and adolescence," said the 27-year-old filmmaker by phone from New York, where the picture played the New York Film Festival. It opens today at the Neptune and Lewis & Clark theaters and moves into 2,000 theaters Oct. 31.
"The Van Nuys industrial section had large warehouses, with people walking in and out of them who were not there to pour concrete," he said.
"I remember I was about 10 or 11, when across the street from my grandmother's house appeared this van and lights, with a lot of shady-looking people hanging around." He even recalls someone saying "They're shooting a porno movie over there."
October ??, 1997
Paul Thomas Anderson wasn't even born when the 1970s began. Yet he's written and directed a 1970s epic about the California porn industry, "Boogie Nights," that is drawn partly from his own experiences growing up in the San Fernando Valley.
"I have strong and distinctive memories of the Valley, from my pre-adolescence and adolescence," said the 27-year-old filmmaker by phone from New York, where the picture played the New York Film Festival. It opens today at the Neptune and Lewis & Clark theaters and moves into 2,000 theaters Oct. 31.
"The Van Nuys industrial section had large warehouses, with people walking in and out of them who were not there to pour concrete," he said.
"I remember I was about 10 or 11, when across the street from my grandmother's house appeared this van and lights, with a lot of shady-looking people hanging around." He even recalls someone saying "They're shooting a porno movie over there."
Interview: "Lights...Camera...Hold it, Hold it; Would Someone Please Reattach Mark's Member, Please...And Action!"
Esquire Magazine, Written By Mim Udovich
October 1st, 1997
It's a movie we saw. It's a movie you're going to want to see. It's a movie that made us want to talk to the director. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson is twenty-seven, and Boogie Nights, a truly awesome piece of moviemaking starring Burt Reynolds, Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, and Heather Graham, is his second feature. (The first was the indie Hard Eight) Set in the porn industry of the late seventies, this is a movie that even the Motion Picture Association of America can't help loving. "When I first started talking to them, they said, `No, no, no, we want it to be an NC-17 The rating has been ruined for us with Showgirls out there in that Showgirls way. This would really help us,'" says Anderson, who has, as he contracted to do, delivered an R. "I actually called Oliver Stone, thinking, Here's someone who's been through this and can maybe give me some advice. But it was kind of hard getting advice out of him, because all he wanted to talk about was the hypocrisy of America. Actually, he did end up calming down and being helpful."
October 1st, 1997
It's a movie we saw. It's a movie you're going to want to see. It's a movie that made us want to talk to the director. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson is twenty-seven, and Boogie Nights, a truly awesome piece of moviemaking starring Burt Reynolds, Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, and Heather Graham, is his second feature. (The first was the indie Hard Eight) Set in the porn industry of the late seventies, this is a movie that even the Motion Picture Association of America can't help loving. "When I first started talking to them, they said, `No, no, no, we want it to be an NC-17 The rating has been ruined for us with Showgirls out there in that Showgirls way. This would really help us,'" says Anderson, who has, as he contracted to do, delivered an R. "I actually called Oliver Stone, thinking, Here's someone who's been through this and can maybe give me some advice. But it was kind of hard getting advice out of him, because all he wanted to talk about was the hypocrisy of America. Actually, he did end up calming down and being helpful."
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