Wednesday, September 10, 1997

Interview: "A Little Nights Music"

Entertainment Weekly, Written By Chris Willman
?? ?? 1997


Twenty-seven-year old director Paul Thomas Anderson didn't grow up to the superhits of the 70's, but he's built a monument to them with his Boogie Nights Soundtrack.

Having handpicked 40-odd songs for the soundtrack to his pornland epic Boogie Nights, filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson got nearly everything on his period-pop wish list. Only one songwriter asked to see the film before giving permission to use his tune: ELO-meister Jeff Lynne, whose "Livin' Thing" provides an It's alive! punchline to the scene where smut star Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg) finally comes to terms with his...gift. "Jeff said, 'I have two young daughters, and I have a problem with sex and violence in movies. Should I see this?' So I screened it for him," chuckles Anderson. At the climax, rather than fleeing, Lynne leapt up, fists raised, as ELO kicked in post-prosthesis. "He said, 'I don't like sex and violence in movies, but this is the most brilliant f---in' movie ever!'"

Interview: "Boogie Might"

Toronto's Eye Magazine, Written By Alex Patterson
September ??, 1997


Director Paul Thomas Anderson gets down and dirty

Minutes before I'm due to call the director of the nostalgic comedy-drama Boogie Nights, a gaggle of Jesus freaks start some kind of revival meeting right outside my apartment. They are unbelievably noisy -- these folks may be doing God's work, but they're doing it with Satan's amps -- so I yell at them, "Lower the volume, damn it, I've got to talk with a guy who just made a movie about the porno business in the '70s!"

That guy's name is Paul Thomas Anderson, he's 26, and Boogie Nights is only his second feature. His noir-ish debut, Hard Eight, earned critical respect but sank without a trace earlier this year. But Boogie Nights won't be so easily ignored. Not only is it drenched with good old S-E-X, it features a star-making performance by Mark Wahlberg (the artist formerly known as Marky Mark) as a kid who makes it big by... well, making it big.


Tuesday, September 09, 1997

Interview: "Splay Misty For Me"

Details Magazine Interview With Paul Thomas Anderson
September ?? 1997


The Director of this year’s most controversial movie, Boogie Nights, gets his money shot.

Studio City, California, 1979. Late at night, in the darkened family room of a ranch home, a sandy-haired nine-year-old stands in front of the TV, his drop-jawed face illuminated by the flickering images. Gripped by arousal and fear, he keeps an eye on the door and a finger on the stop button of the VCR, which unspools The Opening of Misty Beethoven, a tape he has just discovered in his father’s porn stash. In such moments are obsessions born.

Eighteen years later, Paul Thomas Anderson is in a dim Cuban restaurant in Los Angeles, recalling that moment. Unshaven and wearing a rumpled blue oxford, Anderson looks more like a residential adviser in a freshman dorm than a guy who has just finished directing one of the year’s most anticipated – and controversial films.


Wednesday, July 02, 1997

Interview: "15 Minutes With The Prodigy"

Girls On - Claire Magazine
Fall 1997


I get 15 minutes. A short amount of time considering my hours of preparation for this interview--up since six a.m., writing out questions, rehearsing, calling Lise ("is that question too obnoxious?"). I come to his jazzy uptown New York hotel 20 minutes early, armed with a recorder, five 90-minute micro- cassette tapes, extra batteries, notebook, four pens, Boogie Nights production notes. Then I sit in the lobby like a dick, not thinking to call his room, testing my recorder for the thousandth time. After half an hour, I finally call, and his assistant appears to usher me to his suite.

I walk in and see that this guy is young. Like 26 or 27 young. And not only did L.A. native Paul Thomas Anderson write and direct Boogie Nights, he also wrote and directed a flick that I recently caught on video and loved, Hard Eight, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Philip Baker Hall. I'm a little star-struck, frankly. But he's just sitting there, all casual and sweet-looking and poised, smoking his Camels. He's kind of thin, with glasses and not-so-recently-washed-looking hair. Regular clothes--khakis, a button-up shirt (not oxford, though). But I notice he's wearing one of those super-hip G-Shock watches. Mmm-hmm. Mental note: wearing G-Shock. This is going well.


Friday, April 25, 1997

Interview: French Premiere Magazine

French Premiere Magazine, Written By Aviva Brooks
April ??, 1998


"I'm nothing more than a movie fanatic who started watching movies at 5 and who decided that it was going to be his job." His favorite film is oh! French and oh! It's Truffaut's Shoot the piano player !

"Between the age of 15 and 18 I only watched Truffaut's and Godard's films. Between 18 and 21, when you acquire a taste, I started watching films from Renoir, Clouzot, Max Ophuls,.."

A thin bespectacled man, PTA "didn't find anything else" to do than making movies. Boogie Nights is his second feature film - which has been a big success for an independent movie- after Hard Eight and a short film which was a fake documentary about John Holmes, the porn actor.

Where does Dirk Diggler come from ?


Monday, March 03, 1997

Interview: "Writer Created From Sundance Project"

Seattle Times, Written By James Hartl
March 3rd, 1997


In Robert Altman's Secret Honor (1984), Philip Baker Hall did a dazzling impersonation of Richard Nixon that dwarfs Anthony Hopkins' recent caricature in Oliver Stone's Nixon.

More than a decade later, he's getting his second shot at a big movie role in Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight, an enigmatic four-character film noir that opened in theaters Friday. Hall plays a veteran Reno gambler named Sydney who adopts John (John C. Reilly), a down-and-out young stranger, for no apparent reason. Gwyneth Paltrow is Clementine, a cocktail waitress who marries John, and Samuel L. Jackson is Jimmy, a crook who complicates their lives.

When he first saw Altman's film on television, Anderson was a music-video production assistant and dabbler in short films. He bought the video of the movie and decided he had to work with Hall.

"I thought, 'This is a brilliant performance,' then for the next 10 years I saw him crop up in roles that weren't good enough for him,'' said Anderson by phone from a California editing room.

"He's one of the great undiscovered actors. The kinds of parts he plays tend to go to Gene Hackman or Robert Duvall. A lot of those kinds of actors are seriously underused, and no one knows they're out there."


Tuesday, September 10, 1996

Deleted Scene: Original Ending

Original Ending


EXT.  HIGHWAY 80 COFFEE SHOP - MORNING - THAT MOMENT

It's snowing harder now.  Sydney exits the coffee shop and walks towards his car, the two CATS watch him coming....

A nervous, sweaty MAN in a yellow jacket approaches.

MAN
Are you Sydney Brown?

SYDNEY
...excuse me...?

Sydney looks at the man.  BEAT.  In this moment, Sydney recognizes this to be the MAN from the MOTEL.  THE HOSTAGE.

MAN
You cost me my wife.  You and your friends beat me....that whore.

Sydney is dumbfounded.  HOLD.

SYDNEY
I don't know what you are talking about?

MAN
Are you Sydney Brown?

Sydney walks past him, the MAN follows.

MAN
A man named Jim told me of you.  I know you, I know you, I followed you.

SYDNEY
...I don't know what you're talking about, sir...

MAN
You and you friends, Clementine and John....I'll find them too....

SYDNEY
Don't follow me.

MAN
...I'll find them in Niagara Falls.  I know your the man that held me, I know it.

SYDNEY
...don't follow me....

MAN
....you motherfucker...

Sydney reaches his car...the MAN stops....BEAT....

MAN
You COST ME MY WIFE.

The MAN raises his arm....FIRES THREE SHOTS INTO SYDNEY...

...Sydney falls...

...The MAN runs off, gets in his car and pulls out of the lot.

Sydney lays covered in blood.  He holds onto his breath and his heartbeat for a few moments in horrible pain, He starts to cry.

The CATS watch him from the car.

Sydney lays flat on his back...looking up...gasping for air...

SYDNEY'S POV

Snow falls down softly...directly INTO CAMERA.

Sydney holds onto his breath for another moment.

DUTCH ANGLE, ABOVE PARKING LOT, LOOKING DOWN ONTO:

Sydney's dead body in the middle of the parking lot.

END  

Monday, September 09, 1996

Deleted Scene: Flashback #2

Flashback #2

 

EXT.  ATLANTIC CITY/ALLEY-WAY - FLASHBACK - DAY

Arthur sits on the ground, Sydney paces around.

ARTHUR
I wanted to tell you about it first, cause I knew you'd hear or maybe you'd heard.

SYDNEY
Uh-huh.

BEAT, THEN:

ARTHUR
I won't tell them anything about you, Sydney.

SYDNEY
What did they ask?

ARTHUR
Lots of things...Baltimore, the thing, Baltimore.

CAMERA NOW HOLDS ON SYDNEY THROUGH ENTIRE SEQUENCE.

ARTHUR (OC)
They waved it, but I didn't bite, Syd.  I didn't bite and I wanted you to know that.

SYDNEY
They ask anything else?

ARTHUR (OC)
They asked about everybody.

SYDNEY
You didn't tell them anything.

ARTHUR (OC)
Nothing.  I won't.  I didn't.

SYDNEY
I know.

ARTHUR (OC)
They talked about protection for me and all this other stuff, but you know, you know...I held strong, Syd.  I held strong....I held...like a man.

CAMERA DOES A SLOW DOLLY TOWARDS SYDNEY.

SYDNEY
Can I ask you something?

ARTHUR (OC)
Anything.

SYDNEY
Don't lie to me.

ARTHUR (OC)
I'd never lie to you, Sydney.

SYDNEY
Are you off the drugs?

ARTHUR (OC)
Yes.

Sydney turns and faces Arthur, who verges on tears.  Sydney holds a look on him.  Arthur looks at Sydney's hand stuffed in his coat pocket.  Sydney takes a few steps back....

ARTHUR
....Syd....Sydney....Sydney....Listen to your name, listen to me say your name: Sydney.  Sydney.  Please.

SYDNEY RAISES THE REVOLVER FROM HIS COAT POCKET, INTO FRAME, POINTED AT ARTHUR.

ARTHUR
...My baby...for my little, John, my child --

SYDNEY FIRES THE GUN INTO ARTHUR'S FACE.  CO we HEAR a PHONE RINGING.  SYDNEY places the REVOLVER in Arthur's hand and walks quickly off, down the alley and away.  CO PHONE RINGING CONTINUES OVER...

CUT TO:

Sunday, September 08, 1996

Deleted Scene: Flashback #1

Flashback #1



SYDNEY
...I trust that once I give you this money you and I will have separate paths and that this negotiation will settle everything.  That's what I hope.  I don't want to die.



Jimmy holds eyes on him.  PAUSE, THEN:

HYSTERICAL MAN (OC)
...I DON'T WANNA DIE...

ANGLE, CLOSE-UP.  SYDNEY.

HYSTERICAL MAN (OC)
...Please, I don't wanna die...

CUT TO:

INT. APARTMENT ROOM/ATLANTIC CITY - DAY - FLASHBACK

The FACE of John's father, ARTHUR in TEARS.  He looks into CAMERA.

ARTHUR
...I CAN'T DIE, SYDNEY.

SYDNEY
Stop saying that, Arthur.

ARTHUR
I'LL DO WHATEVER THEY SAY.  WHATEVER YOU TELL ME TO DO, I'LL DO IT.

SYDNEY
I just want you to calm down for Christ's sake.  Your wife and child are in the next room, just calm down.

ARTHUR
MY BABY, SYD, MY BABY, FOR MY SON.  FOR MY SON.  FOR MY SON, YOU WON'T.

WIDER ANGLE IN THE APARTMENT - THAT MOMENT

A one bedroom place.  1966.  Sydney, obviously younger, stands up from a chair, walks to Arthur, picks him up from his knees.

SYDNEY
...I won't hurt you.  You know that.  Do you believe I won't hurt you?

ARTHUR
I believe you.

SYDNEY
Come sit in the chair.

Arthur and Sydney sit face to face.  HOLD.

SYDNEY
Do you have anything?  If you put forth an effort...

ARTHUR
I've got sixty dollars to my name.  My kid...my kid...he needs shots and all this other shit...hospital bills and all that...it's just...it's all fucked.  He can't do this to me, not for thirty-eight hundred bucks, he can't.

SYDNEY
You know you're not gonna get shot up over this....

ARTHUR
...he sends you to talk to me, I know it means something, Syd...

SYDNEY
He knows that I know you, he figured I could talk...

ARTHUR
...You know me...you know me...the next person here....I don't want to die, Sydney.  Look at my child, look at my child, Sydney.

SYDNEY
Stop it.

ARTHUR
I used to be in on jobs.  I was in on some big jobs, you've heard the stories about me.  Shit, this was before you were even around, but I was in it.  I was eyes and ears, Syd.

SYDNEY
I know.

ARTHUR
And now what?

SYDNEY
You've got a problem.

ARTHUR
That's over.  I'm done with that shit.  On my child's eyes, that shit is over.  You're my friend...

SYDNEY
...I'm your friend.

ARTHUR
Just a month ago, I was in it.  Remember the Baltimore job?

SYDNEY
I remember.

ARTHUR
It went wrong, but you took care of it.

SYDNEY
Yeah.

ARTHUR
..The next person that comes...

SYDNEY
Be quiet now.

They sit in silence for a moment.  Sydney looks into the kitchen, through a pair of glass doors.

SYDNEY'S POV - INTO THE KITCHEN

A young baby being breast fed by his MOTHER.  She glances at Sydney.

Sydney takes a hundred dollar bill from his pocket, hands it to him.

SYDNEY
You might want to be a little harder to find, Arthur.

ARTHUR
It doesn't matter.

SYDNEY
Don't put it in your arm, put it in your child's stomach.

Sydney leaves.  HOLD.  Arthur looks to the kitchen.