THE MASTER (2012) P.T. Anderson's film on the origions of Scientology (sort of), Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and Laura Dern

lol @ the notion of 65mm being 'wasted' on a close up

needed more cock shots

there r lots of benefits to shooting on a bigger negative that apply whether youre shooting a face or a canyon - like, look at the portraits of richard avedon, u cant get that 'look' from a smaller negative

its 65mm in-camera but printed on 70mm stock iirc, the extra for the soundtrack.

yeah I saw this in 70mm twice and I'm no expert but I don't think the 35mm version would've shown off Joaquin's craggy paralytic face to its full effect

think I saw it in 35mm, but regardless, the 'look' of being shot on 65mm will come through whether its projected in 35mm or 70mm or w/e

it looked really good

I'm going to give this another try tomorrow night. lag∞n, you might want to avoid this thread for a few days.

er, surely he means 70mm?

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Saturday, November 17, 2012 1:34 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

its shot on 65 and printed on 70, iirc

the whole thing wasnt actually shot on 70, there were definitely some 35mm scenes

what on earth does this even mean

it means... time to die.

what max said... 5mm reserved for the optical audio track

Fresh Air interview with PTA (worth seeing) talks about how some close-up scenes were created/filmed on the fly on a day when the 65mm camera was broken: erotica-reading scene, what color are my eyes scene.

You'd think at some point word would've gotten around that hey, if you badmouth Lancaster Dodd to Freddie Quell you will find yourself in a headlock getting pummeled for a few minutes. But apparently it didn't.

Anyway I like Phoenix and generally don't like Hoffman, but they were both fine in this. There's really not much narrative momentum in this, is there? I had no firm idea of what FQ saw in the Cause/LD aside from daddy issues, wanting to find a Sand Lady to fuck, etc.

The last 20 mins aren't as huge a fuckup as the end of There Will Be Blood, but "Slow Boat to China" was bullshit. Could be PTA's best film, but I've never found him to be a major filmmaker, and this seems to be about as deep as he gets (not very).

That Irving Berlin song "Get Thee Behind Me Satan" is amazing though!

Could be PTA's best film, but I've never found him to be a major filmmaker, and this seems to be about as deep as he gets (not very).

I think it is his best, which is to say it's a good film with several impressive sequences (mostly in the first 50 minutes) but not much more.

Much prefer him in emotionally splattery Magnolia/Punch Drunk Love mode.

I prefer chemotherapy to Punch Drunk Love

If we're just talking about PSH's perf in that movie, then yes.

jeez he was in that too eh (have blotted out as much as i can)

PDL had a gallery of terrible performances, pick one

You know Adam Sandler was actually pretty decen-*giggle breakdown*

y'all are no fun, I liked that movie when I saw it when I was 12 or 13 or something!

I think I own it actually.

The first 5-10 minutes of The Master are a nice riposte to 50 years of Greatest Generation properganda. (Could've done with more sailor wrestling tbqf)

hopefully the DVD will have extended sailor-wrestling and sand-lady cuts

thinking back I think the sand lady was the best part of this movie

Should of cut right from that to PSH yelling "Pig fuck!"

does anyone think the sand lady might be up for some awards this season

yeah, where's detrius 2012 at

She's got Ernest Borgnine's posthumous vote.

This is the thread where we discuss matters pertaining to the detrius that accompanies the "End of the Year in Cinema" -- 2012

Would like to see this in 70mm just for the shot of him running away from the migrant workers.

i wanted to see this again but its not playing here anymore ;_;

phoenix channelling robin williams' popeye in this on occasion

the out-of-focus shots got on my nerves really quickly.
― seriously, THIS GUY (daria-g), Monday, September 24, 2012 4:55 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i dont remember any out of focus shots.
― Hungry4Ass, Monday, September 24, 2012 9:18 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

when he's walking on the dock towards the yacht
― barthes simpson, Monday, September 24, 2012 11:55 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha, had this word-for-word convo coming out of the film

thought this was OK; pretty boring in parts but joaquin was very watchable & beautifully photographed

the way I remember it the focus in that shot kept shifting from Freddie in the foreground to the people on the boat dancing in the background, it was pretty purposeful and made sense imo

yep, there's so many rhythms going on in that shot; Phoenix's walk, his looking from his path to the boat, the dancing on the boat, and the focus shifting

also the party music clashing with the film score

that particular shot doesn't make it seem possible that he slipped onto the boat, though.

(I checked the running time after the movie to make sure that PTA elided their meeting, and that the projectionist hadn't dropped a reel -- I saw it in 70mm celluloid)

?

you see him get on the boat

I didn't, musta been the focus

ya but the scene of him first on the boat is, seemingly deliberately, cut out of the movie.

Morbius, did you see it at Village East? That's the only 70mm celluloid copy I found showing in NYC.

JUst saw this and one thing that struck me was there are bits in this where Joaquin looks more like Johnny Cash than he did in I Walk The Line.
Also wondered if sudden nudity in one scene was a hallucination or not. Seemed to suddenly happen unexpectedly.

WAs it Amy Adams that I saw thought I recognised and then wondered if it was Fairuza Balk for the rest of the film.

Sudden nudity seemed to fit in with his dirty Rorschach interpretations and the sand lady--how he saw the world. Fully-clothed PSH gave him an alternative, a master other than sex and alcohol.

Stupid "The Master," seems like it played Chicago for a minute.

I saw it at the Century Evanston. Bet it will be back at River East 21 or the Siskel in Jan/Feb leading up to the Oscars.

Dragged my heels about seeing this a second time, but I finally did last night. I made sure I was wide awake--I now realize I probably drifted off for as much as 30 minutes the first time. Anyway, it didn't get any better, just longer. I'm not attacking anyone who loved it when I say it's dead weight for me. J. Hoberman thinks it's a great film; J. Hoberman's a great critic.

Hoffman's good, and a couple of shots stay in my mind--Phoenix being chased through the door onto the field (an echo of The Searchers?), the ship passing under the Golden Gate Bridge. Hoffman singing "Slow Boat to China" had some of the menace of Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet. I find Phoenix very affectatious, and repetitive--he's constantly responding to people with that same wry laugh. Some of the music works pretty well, but nothing even close to numerous inspired interludes in Boogie Nights. I'm not at all saying Anderson should have continued trying to redo Boogie Nights. But that's still my frame of reference, and the things I love about it--add a director's love for his characters, and great show-offy sequences--have been slowly drained from Anderson's work one film at a time. Even thematically it comes up short for me. The best I can do is that when all is said and done, we're still ruled by base animal passions.

I happened to watch Malcolm X earlier this week, and broadly speaking, there's interesting overlap between the two films.

Nah, it was beautiful to look at and the actors were great and I'm a big Anderson fan but this was easily my least favorite of his films. Maybe it'll require further viewings (P-DL was a grower, for sure), but it seemed to be missing some essential engaging element. Phoenix's jaw-dropping performance does not an amazing film make.

ppl debating whether the party nude scene was a fantasy or not make my brain explode and make me feel insane and like i don't get how to interpret fiction....like it was really obviously his fantasy? as obvious as the part in requiem for a dream where the wayans bro steals the cop's gun and plays keepaway with it...he's horny and bored...that scene is what his mental landscape is like. i'm not trying to be smugsworth here, it just seemed like according to film vocabulary 101 it was a fantasy and i don't get why it seems ambiguous. did there really need to be a cut to everyone clothed again while joaquin is roused by a partygoer-"hey, buddy, i thought we lost you for a second there"