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| Todd Heisler/The New York Times |
Years ago, Mr. Anderson considered adapting [Pynchon's 1990 novel] "Vineland," but ultimately couldn't figure out how. When "Inherent Vice" was issued in 2009, he was drawn to it - and wrote the film concurrently with his script for 2012's "The Master."
"I thought, I don't need to make a movie about California in the late '60s, early '70s! Didn't I already do that?" Mr. Anderson said, referring to his 1997 breakthrough, "Boogie Nights," "Well, I didn't. Like gravity, it didn't pull in any but one direction. And I just couldn't help myself."
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| Todd Heisler/The New York Times |
To get a grip on the project, [PTA] adapted the entire 384-page novel sentence by sentence. "I basically just transcribed it so I could look at it like it was a script," he said. "It looked like a doorstop. But I can understand this format. As big as it was, it was easier for me to cut down."Along with The Long Goodbye, PTA was also inspired by Kiss Me Deadly and The Big Sleep, film noirs whose "plausibility rarely mattered as much as the pleasure of the filmmaking."
� �North by Northwest�?� he said. �Tell me again how he gets to the middle of the field with a plane after him? I can�t. How does he get to Mount Rushmore? I don�t know, but it�s great.�
Mr. Anderson said his adaptation came into focus when he recalled an old quote from �Chandler or Hammett or one of those guys who said the point of a plot in a detective movie is to get your hero to the next girl to flirt with.� After that, he said, his approach became, �When�s the next girl or funny bit going to happen?�On top of those more formal influences, PTA turned to the sight gags and physical comedy of Zucker Bros. films as a filmic equivalent for the humor in the book.
�I thought,� Mr. Anderson explained, �What�s something I�ve seen that can get close to that amount of great visual information and all these things going on in the frame?�
� �Police Squad!� and �Top Secret!� are what I clued into,� he said, referring to collaborations by the slapstick maestros David and Jerry Zucker. �We tried hard to imitate or rip off the Zucker brothers� style of gags so the film can feel like the book feels: just packed with stuff. And fun.�The piece goes on to verify that musician Joanna Newsom, whom we reported was participating in the film many months ago, is playing the part of Sortil�ge, also narrating the film. According to the interview, PTA also wrote a new ending for the movie, its biggest difference from the book.
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| Wilson Webb |
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| The New Yorker |
"I read the book as fast as I could before I saw Paul, which means I might as well have not read it," Brolin, 46, admits, "I was so confused by the time he came, I was like stuttering through the whole thing. It was like trying to have a meeting after you've taken a bong hit or something.
Brolin describes the story's vibe as something in "Manson territory."
"It's during the time of of the shattering of the �Right Stuff� mentality into whatever revolution that conjures in you, whether that�s the assassinations or the sexual revolution or drugs, all that. It�s that transition," he says.
"This guy Bigfoot is one of the favorite characters I�ve ever played... He�s a guy that, five years earlier, would have looked like one of the �Right Stuff� guys. But because of his refusal to adjust to any future that doesn�t look like he wanted it to look, he�s kind of pathetic.�
"It�s a really circus experience,� Brolin says of the production. �It feels like traveling from city to city and putting together skits. You never really know if it�s going to work when you finally do it. And then if you�re doing something like Pynchon, which just naturally has that structure anyway, it�s sort of double wacky.�- Last, but certainly not least, The Film Stage has obtained our first look at Reese Witherspoon as Penny Kimball in Inherent Vice. Click below the fold and see at your own discretion.
Miller clearly knows how to work a roomful of media types without acting like a showboater or coming off like a man undergoing a root canal. He's a low-key fellow who sweats the details of his projects. We talked for a bit last weekend, and what he really wanted to talk about wasn't "Foxcatcher" but the drastically limited avenues of shooting on film, and projecting it, in the digital age.
In Toronto Miller told me straightforwardly, "I think we were better off as filmmakers 100 years ago." He does not prefer shooting digitally. He doesn't like the postproduction process as much now. And the clinical crispness of digital projection bugs him.
Miller picked up his iPhone midconversation and started fishing around for some recent texts. Look here, he said. Read these. They were from Paul Thomas Anderson, whose latest film, "Inherent Vice," plays the New York Film Festival next month.
The texts picked up a conversation Miller and Anderson had earlier the same day, about the inferiority of digital. The vitriol came through in every unpunctuated word.No direct quotes from either PTA or Miller's texts were lifted for the piece, but it would be nice to think they contained emoji equations like these:
Over at Filler Magazine, Pretty Little Liars veteran Sasha Pieterse dished out some nice comments about her experience working with PTA & co. on Inherent Vice:In Mr. Anderson�s narcotic noir, �Inherent Vice,� set in Los Angeles in 1970 and based on the Thomas Pynchon novel, Ms. Waterston plays Shasta, right, the free-spirited, sensual ex-girlfriend who wakes the mutton-chopped private investigator Doc Sportello (Mr. Phoenix) from his stoner haze. Like a beacon shining through the counterculture�s druggie fog, Shasta bristles with the kind of wild-eyed, visceral energy Doc has self-medicated into oblivion: a romantic embodiment of what might have been, and what might be lost.�Certainly, this whole film is sort of the smoke clearing after the �60s and everyone coming to, wondering what the hell happened,� she said. �There�s a lot of uncertainty on every page of the novel. Is it all in her head? Or not? Is she as afraid as she needs to be? Or not?"
"I'm pretty sure I will never have a better character name," laughs Pieterse, who goes on to gush about landing the part of Japonica and working with Anderson, as well as the film's star-studded ensemble cast, including Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon and Josh Brolin. "It was literally a dream to be involved with the movie," she says. "I'm really happy with the part of the film I'm in; I have so many fun scenes...and so many dark scenes."Elsewhere in the piece, Pieterse goes a bit more in depth about her experience working on the film. These remarks are a slightly spoiler-laden in nature. Read at your own discretion.
FILLER: We�re especially excited to see you in Paul Thomas Anderson�s Inherent Vice. Are you looking forward to premiering the film in September at the New York Film Festival?
SASHA PIETERSE: I am so excited to be in New York for that. I�m just honoured to be around all those amazing people � it�s going to be a really great ride. I�ve never been to the festival before; it�s going to be an amazing experience. It�s blowing me away. I still have one of those feelings where I�m like, �pinch me, this isn�t real.�
FILLER: Have you seen the film yet?
SP: I have not, so it�s going to be a big surprise for me too. I hope I get to see it before hand. I might�Paul is not secretive, but he doesn�t want to show anybody till it�s perfect, which I totally understand. I�m just really excited to see it. I know what to expect, but I don�t at the same time. It�s going be crazy to see it all come together; it was just such an amazing shoot and [Paul] has such an amazing process�I�m just over the moon about it.
FILLER: You must be so excited; it�s so soon! What did you think when you first read the script? It�s based on a pretty intense and unique book, and I imagine the script doesn�t stray far.
SP: No, being a Paul Thomas Anderson film, he puts in as much as he wants. The difference between the book and the script is more so a little bit of flavour, it does though still ring true to the story. And actually, what I respected most about Joaquin is that he would have the book and the script side-by-side, so basically he would say, �what do you want out of either?� People who are big fans of the book will appreciate that. Joaquin was just so amazing and so in it.
FILLER: How was it acting opposite him?
SP: He blew me away. I was not sure what to expect, and I was intimidated for sure at first, but he�s wonderful. And he�s cuckoo for sure (laughing), but in the best way possible. He�s such a talented person and such a nice person.
FILLER: He's a rare talent.
SP: To work side-by-side with him was incredible. He has fun, but he�s so in character that it�s easy to be in scenes with him because it just flows; there�s nothing to stop you from really diving into that scene. It was fabulous working with him, and fabulous working with Martin Short, who is hysterical. We had so much fun filming � when you watch it, it will show in the scenes.
FILLER: We�ve talked about Joaquin Phoenix and Martin Short, but there are so many more actors in the film; it features a huge ensemble cast, Anderson�s biggest since Magnolia I understand. What was it like working alongside so many veteran actors?
SP: It was different than I expected�I don�t know what I expected, but what I got was that people love their jobs. There was just a vibe about this set that was great because they all wanted the same thing. They are veterans, but they�re down to earth, and there really wasn�t much drama or anything like that. I mean Maya Rudolph was nine months pregnant while we were filming, and she had the baby while we were filming (laughing)!
FILLER: Oh wow. That's commitment.
SP: Yeah, she had a trailer right outside the stage door, and she had the baby in quarantine. She would literally film a shot and run out to breastfeed (laughing). It was crazy, but so cute!
FILLER: Was there one actor you were especially excited to share the screen with?
SP: I wanted to work with all of them, it�s such a crazy cast, but I think Joaquin. He�s brilliant; he truly is brilliant. I was just awe-struck by him.
FILLER: Paul Thomas Anderson is such an incredible director, what was it like working with him? How does he help prepare you for a scene?
SP: He is so funny and so sweet, and he has such an amazing vision. He�s incredibly hands-on, but in the best way possible. He�s there at rehearsals, barefoot and like, �hey guys, what�s up?� He�s very very chill. And what I really respect about him is � though I don�t think the studios always like him for this � he will literally take as much time as possible to get a scene where he wants it to be. If he takes 4 hours or 8 hours on a scene, he doesn�t care; that�s just how he rolls. It�s so amazing to work with someone like that. On the first day, he�s like, �this is kind of what I want out of the shot, so do it that way, and then do whatever you want to after that.�
FILLER: He gives you a chance to explore your character.
SP: To have that freedom and flexibility to really dive into your character and shape the scene, and really have free reign in that, it�s an actor�s dream.
FILLER: Can you tell us a bit about your character Japonica Fenway? I understand she�s something of a free spirit.
SP: She is a very unique person. She�s a drug addict and her part of the story, based on what is going on, is kind of one of the missing pieces. Joaquin Phoenix�s character travels to so many different places and there are so many different layers [to his story], and I�m just glad I�m one of them.Then, finally, Rolling Stone has acquired a new official image of Joaquin and Ms. Waterston as part of their Fall movie preview.
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| Photo: Wilson Webb |
