Cigs & Vines Discusses ‘The Master' With The Auteurcast; More Podcasts

Chances are, if you've seen "The Master" by now you've done a fair bit of reading about the film as well. From the reviews to the interviews to the 'what-does-it-all-mean' pieces (like this excellent one from Vulture), the film has become a hot topic of conversation and should prove to be for some time to come. We've read probably 50+ reviews of the film and continue to check them out on Twitter as our readers send them in. We've also been enjoying listening to a few podcasts for more in-depth analysis. We recommend checking out Slate's Spoiler Special for a great hour-long discussion of the film and Grantland's Hollywood Prospectus podcast as well. Our friends over at The Auteurcast have been doing a series on the films of Paul Thomas Anderson and were kind enough to invite 1/2 of the Cigs & Vines team (me) on to discuss "The Master." The 90 minute conversation was barely enough time to scratch the surface of the film but hopefully will be an entertaining listen nonetheless.*

You can download The Auteurcast podcast on "The Master" here.
Subscribe to The Auteurcast on iTunes.

#THEMASTER70MM

Enter our Gone To China Contest to win a copy of the soundtrack!

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*Please excuse the trailing off, 'ummm's and describing everything as 'great.' I missed my podcast training class.

Interview: Toronto Star

Paul Thomas Anderson, director of The Master, an accidental auteur: Howell
Source: The Toronto Star
September 28, 2012 | Peter Howell

I was starting to think Paul Thomas Anderson was “processing” me, much the way cult inductees are in The Master, his cerebral workout of a new film.

Having played the “maybe” game for an in-person interview all during TIFF, which eventually became “maybe not,” word was that the elusive Anderson was suddenly available for a telephone chat.

Then the appointed hour comes and goes, and there’s no call from PTA and no immediate explanation from either his Canadian or U.S. publicists for his absence.

Ninety minutes later, a misdialed telephone is blamed and a contrite Anderson is on the line: “Hey Peter, it’s Paul. Sorry about everything.”

Apology accepted. And it immediately occurs to me that much about Anderson is open to wild interpretation in the wake of The Master, a film that resists easy analysis.

The story of an uncommon bond between a feral sailor (Joaquin Phoenix) and a cerebral cult guru (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has a father-figure dynamic common to Anderson’s work, right back to his 1996 debut Hard Eight (a.k.a. Sydney).

But the nut of The Master, his sixth feature, doesn’t crack open as easily as Anderson’s earlier films, which also include There Will Be Blood, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love and Boogie Nights. There are long passages that don’t necessarily lead anywhere, the female characters are blurred, (especially Amy Adams’ whore/Madonna figure), and the resolution is unconventional, to say the least.

Watch The Final ‘The Master' Teaser Trailer ‘Last One / Thank You'

"The Master" is already in theatres but PTA decided to drop us one last trailer entitled "Last One / Thank You" which is an epic 4 1/2 minutes and features a ton of previously unseen footage (screened only for select journalists at Cannes). And to help you out, we've already updated our guide to the film's Deleted Scenes & Alternate Takes with all the new material. Enjoy.

#THEMASTER70MM

Enter our Gone To China Contest to win a copy of the soundtrack

Stay tuned to Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and updates.

‘The Master' Cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Confirms 85% Of The Film Was Shot On 65mm

Ever since the news first broke that "The Master" would be shooting in 65mm, questions have lingered about exactly how much of the film would be shot in the large-format. We knew before the film's release that the number was definitely over 50% but Kodak sat down with cinematographer Mihai Malaimare who confirmed that the number is closer to 85%.

Anderson and Malaimare initially planned to shoot mainly portraits with 65 mm, about 20% of the movie. Even in situations where audiences are not seeing a 70mm print, the 65mm-originated scenes deliver breathtaking images that draw viewers into the story.

“As we were looking at dailies, we saw that every 65mm shot was so amazing,” says Malaimare. “After a week or two of shooting, we switched, and ended up shooting something like 85% of the movie on 5-perf 65mm.”

The 35mm cameras – Panavision Millennium XL2s – were brought out for handheld scenes, or other shots that required a dirtier look. “When your eyes are accustomed to what 65mm looks like in terms of grain and depth of field, with these amazing landscapes, switching over to a smaller negative area, you perceive the difference immediately,” says Malaimare.

‘The Master' Opens Strong In Wide Release With $5 Million

Box Office Mojo reports that "The Master" continued to perform strongly in wide release collecting an estimated $5 million this weekend from 788 theatres. That puts the film in 7th place for the weekend just behind "Dredd" which opened in around 1800 more theatres and gives it the highest per screen average of any film in the Top 15 this weekend. (For comparison, this opening is a little higher than "There Will Be Blood"'s $4.8 million back in 2007 during its second week expansion.) Congrats to Annapurna Pictures & Weinstein Co. on the film's success so far and let's hope that the desire for repeat viewings keeps the film doing well in the coming weeks.

Speaking of repeat viewings, Slate critic Dana Stevens wrote up a magnificent piece where she re-reviewed the film after watching it a 2nd and 3rd time.

"There’s something deeply and irreplaceably pleasurable about revisiting a complex, ambitious film a few times in close succession on the big screen if possible, and letting each iteration inform and expand on the last. Having gotten the chance to do so this week not only deepened and transformed my experience of this particular film, it reminded me why I started wanting to think and write about film in the first place."

Read the entire thing over at Slate. Two new TV spots featuring some new footage (though not new if you've seen the film by now) are up at Fandango. (They also feature some inadvisable narration so perhaps worth watching just for that.)

If you haven't already you should check out our Deleted Scenes guide to look at all the material that made it into the teasers and trailers but not the final cut. And be sure to enter our Gone To China Contest to win Jonny Greenwood's soundtrack and perhaps some other things we may decide to throw in.

I caught the film for a 5th viewing over the weekend at the grand old Ziegfeld Theatre just to continue my tour of seeing it across all of NYC's 70mm venues. How about you? Did you see the film more than once? How was your first/second/third viewing? Sound off in the comments.

#THEMASTER70MM 

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‘The Master' Is Now Playing In Theatres Everywhere

Last week, Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" opened in limited release and shattered attendance records playing to packed houses all weekend long in New York and Los Angeles. Today the film expands to nearly 800 locations across the U.S. and Canada including 70mm presentations in Seattle, Boston, Washington DC, Austin, Toronto, Oakland as well as NYC and LA. For those of you outside of North America, your patience will be rewarded soon with a film that is absolutely worth the wait but for many readers, today is the day you've been waiting for.

Lucky for you, we've been preparing for today too. Last week we recalled the films' long and winding road to the screen and today we'd like to celebrate in a different way, by introducing you to our "The Master" page. There you'll find a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes info we've been collecting on the film these past few months including interviews, production notes, deleted scenes and more. For those of you have been avidly avoiding spoilers until after you've seen the film, this is the time to dive in. Here's a user's guide:

Read our brief history of the project and then relive that initial excitement by revisiting the film's teasers, trailers and posters featuring a wealth of material not seen in the finished film.

Dive into our brand new Deleted Scenes section to track all of the alternate takes, deleted and extended scenes from those clips that didn't make it into the final cut.

Read the film's Production Notes to dig deep into The Story, The Cast, The Photography, The Design and The Music, featuring quotes from Paul, producers JoAnne Sellar and Daniel Lupi, production designer Jack Fisk and composer Jonny Greenwood.

Read every interview with Paul Thomas Anderson since "The Master" debuted at Venice -- including Filmmaker Magazine, Huffington Post, Newsweek, Screen Daily, SF Gate, Vancouver Sun and the excellent must-read Village Voice profile -- or watch Paul speak at the TIFF & Venice Press Conferences or at Academy Conversations. 

Check out glowing reviews from Variety, NY Times, LA Times, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, The Hollywood Reporter and countless other critics who are still struggling to unlock its mysteries.

Watch Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman discuss their roles in the film or read the LA Times excellent profile of Joaquin Phoenix.

Buy Jonny Greenwood's "The Master" soundtrack on Amazon or stream it on Spotify.

Enter our Gone To China Contest to win a copy of the soundtrack.

If you think you plan on seeing the film more than a few times, hold onto your stubs. Personally I'm going to be rounding viewing #5 later this weekend but we have some teaser posters to give away courtesy of The Weinstein Company and we'd like to reward those hardcore fans who keep going back. (Contest details TBD.) 

But most importantly, enjoy this moment. If you've been reading the site for a while, remember the long road it took to get here and how special it is to be able to see a new Paul Thomas Anderson film in theatres. As we said last week, "See the film, see it more than once, take your friends and remember that we're lucky to live in a world where 'The Master' exists." The next few weeks will be important in proving to studios that getting behind a visionary filmmaker like PTA is a risk worth taking.

And if you feel so inclined, please spread the word about Cigarettes & Red Vines. Thanks for reading, everyone.

#THEMASTER70MM 

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Contest: Win Jonny Greenwood's ‘The Master' Soundtrack

We have 5 copies of the excellent "The Master" soundtrack on CD to give away courtesy of The Weinstein Company so we thought we'd have a little contest. The disc features 11 original compositions by Jonny Greenwood as well as standards by Ella Fitzgerald, Jo Stafford, Helen Forrest and actress Madisen Beaty. One song not featured on the disc, however, is the rendition of "(I'd Like To Get You On) A Slow Boat To China" which *SPOILERS* is sung quite memorably a capella by The Master to Freddie during the film. So, to remedy this absence we'd like to see your rendition of the song. So all you have to do is record a video of yourself serenading someone with the song, we'll post the best videos here and the Top 5 (as voted on by Cigs & Vines) will receive a copy of the soundtrack. It's that simple.

Here are the rules:

1. Record a video of yourself serenading someone with "(I'd Like To Get You On) A Slow Boat To China." (See Lyrics below and reference countless versions of the song on YouTube for inspiration.

2. You must sing the song to another person also in the video. (Pets and inanimate objects will be considered on a case by case basis at the discretion of C&RV.) The more intense the better, additional instrumentation is optional, close contact is advised.

3. Upload the video to YouTube or Vimeo.

4. Tweet the link to your video and include the hashtags #gonetochina and #THEMASTER70MM.

5. Await fame. (Optional.)

The contest deadline is Friday October 26th (5 weeks from today) with winners to be announced the following week. You may start uploading your videos now however and we may RT some of our favorites in the meantime. The Master awaits.

Update 9/5: We also have a few copies of the as-of-yet-still-unavailable-for-purchase teaser poster to give away as well (courtesy of the Weinstein Company) which we'll throw in as an additional prize to any really great entries.

‘The Master' Deleted Scenes

One of the first things you may notice about "The Master" is that many, many of the scenes present in the film's marketing did not make it into the finished film. An LA Times article cites Joaquin Phoenix as saying that PTA doesn't worry about continuity, he's open to improvisation and often scenes that might take up one-eighth of a page can shoot for a day and a half. The actor told Time, "Paul will write many, many scenes that won’t make it into the movie." In some cases entire scenes have been left unused, while in other cases the scene in the trailer is an alternate (and sometimes substantially different) take of the one in the film (ie: the "Just tell me something that's true!" is not present during the finished jail sequence). To make note these changes, we've compiled a list of the deleted scenes as well as extended and alternate takes from the various marketing materials that don't appear in the final cut.

DELETED SCENES FROM THE SCRIPT

Read them here.

Watch: Philip Seymour Hoffman & Amy Adams Talk ‘The Master'

Quick update for you this morning as the news keeps rolling in. In case the video of PTA discussing the film wasn't enough for you yesterday, you can now watch interviews with both PSH and Amy Adams. Adams speaks to David Poland mostly about "The Master" in this 30 minute interview below. (via @gazzwa)