On the audio commentary, Paul Thomas Anderson explains, that all you need, to get a film started, is coffee and cigarettes. What few know is, that this perhaps is one of the most important statements from a director in the last 35 years, as Godard's rule ("All you need is a girl and a gun") had been overused: With this simple statement, Paul Thomas Anderson, not only is honest in giving away his secret to how he gets the ideas spinning, but also steps out of the shadow of the past. Paul Thomas Anderson may fake it, as he did go to filmschool, but he still thinks that you can't learn people to make film by putting them into a classroom for four years: As he says on the audio commentary of "Boogie Nights": "I learned more from listening to the audio commentary of the Criterion Laserdisc of "Bad Day at Black Rock", than I did in four years of filmschool."

Paul Thomas Anderson wrote "Hard Eight", or "Sydney" as it probably should be called, especially for Phillip Baker Hall. It is the tale of a retired bigshot, who for some unknown reason helps a down and out loser, to perfection played by, according to Paul Thomas Anderson the best actor alive, John C Reilly. Sometimes feeling more like a play, as it was written for actors, the film introduces us to the world of gamblers and hustlers, where their rules are law and they are above everything else. That Paul Thomas Anderson is a talent beyond his age and experience is crystal clear. The film is directed with so much care and precision - The mise-en-scene is so controlled and elaborate set up. This is a film, by a guy, who not only knows film, but who can think and talk film - "Hard Eight" would be a masterpiece for some, but for Paul Thomas Anderson, it was just the beginning. out of

Henrik Sylow

 

 

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