Paul Thomas Anderson’s Best Clips
For almost as long as he has been making feature films, Paul Thomas Anderson also had a low-key career as a prominent music video director. Since Anderson’s feature films are often the kind of cinematic statements the viewer is forced to intellectually wrestle with, it’s hard not to view his music videos as just a fun thing he does on the side. However, if you look at PTA’s output as a music video director, you can see all sorts of visual touches that also appear in his films and vice versa. Moreover, the fact that Anderson chose Alana Haim as a leader in its next Licorice Pizza argues that PTA’s music videos are integral to his evolution as an artist.
Although at the same time they are always a fun thing he does on the side. Freed from the confines of narrative storytelling (for the most part), his music videos allow the director to indulge his more playful side while seeing how many different things he can do with a steadicam. If you thought his films showed a love of long shots and tracking shots, they have nothing on the elaborate trips Anderson’s camera takes to the various empty buildings and streets of LA featured in his videos. While Anderson’s films have become more meticulous over the course of his career, his modest-budget music videos show a place where the director can scale things down and see what he can do with just a camera, a musician, and a good song.
“Try” – Michael Penn (1997)
Known for his heavy use of 70s pop music on a wandering camera penetrating the lives of some completely screwed up porn industry personalities, boogie nights also includes sheet music provided by the composer and singer-songwriter Michael Penn. Apart from this obvious link with boogie nights, Paul Thomas Anderson’s first music video (shot around the same time) features all sorts of connections to his seminal film. Not only does Anderson indulge in the same mastery of the “long setting” he showed in boogie nights‘ opening sequencebut the video also shows boogie nights old students Philip Seymour Hoffman and Thomas Jeanne. Shot in a downtown Los Angeles office building that contains the largest hallway in North America, this uninterrupted shot of a video is remarkably ambitious for a 3-minute clip and gives a taste of what’s to come. was going to happen in PTA movies and music videos. .
“Save Me” – Aimee Mann (1999)
Since there is a memorable scene in the late 1999s Magnolia where all of the various San Fernando Valley residents who inhabit the film sing along with Aimee Mann‘s “Wise Up”, the singer had already left her mark on the film. However, this single (which was nominated for an Oscar) and the accompanying music video make Aimee Mann and Magnolia feel even more connected. While it might not be the most impressive of PTA’s videos, it’s even more inspired than it should be, given that it was filmed alongside the film itself. By choosing not to go the lazy route of filming a soundtrack music video that inserts random film clips into an otherwise unrelated video, Anderson literally drops Mann into the movie universe. We see her singing very seriously in front of the camera in these long lingering shots where she haunts the characters, much like how her music haunts Magnolia himself.
“Paper Bag” – Fiona Apple (2000)
Paul Thomas Anderson and Fiona Apple were, quite simply, a match made in Gen X heaven. The two dated for a year or two around the turn of the century, and both inhabited a certain brand of raw, unnerving freshness in their work, which would only become less commercial after their separation. Although, for this short and glorious period that the two were datingAnderson made a series of memorable videos, which encompassed the dizzying black-and-white accompaniment to Apple’s cover of “Across the Universe” and essential videos from Apple When the pawn album. In these videos, you see both Anderson’s bravery filmmaking (in the case of “Across The Universe”) and the more improvisational nature (see “As quickly as possible”) that would inhabit many of his later videos.
The highlight of these video collaborations has to be “Paper Bag,” which might be Fiona Apple’s best song in addition to Anderson’s video being perhaps the best in the business. One thing (among many) that’s so great about it is how much it contrasts with the spikier nature of Anderson and Apple’s characters. It’s just a beautifully crafted ode to Hollywood musicals, while the visual of Apple dancing with a bunch of boys dressed like the 1940s is way cuter than anything you’d expect to see in a PTA movie. Yet here he lets his more sentimental side flourish, while the video’s lighter tone and use of reds and blues also sets the stage for his next film, 2002. Love Drunk Punch. But even taken out of Anderson’s context as a filmmaker, the 3-minute clip is one of the most perfect things he’s ever filmed.
“Hot Knife” – Fiona Apple (2013)
There’s plenty of room to speculate why Paul Thomas Anderson went over a decade without directing music videos. Maybe it’s because he focused on cinematic opuses like there will be blood and The master it did not allow the distractions of less ambitious projects. It could also be because Anderson equates directing music videos with his ex-girlfriend and was more interested in spending time with his new partner, Maya Rodolphe, and forging a family together in his free time from making movies. Either way, Anderson buried the hatchet with his former romantic and creative partner instead of him and Apple banding together for “Hot Knife.” It’s hard not to remember the amber-tinged simplicity of The masterwatching this video, while the silhouettes of Apple and its sister, Maude Maggartbear more than a striking resemblance to Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman staring at himself in this film. While he’s not on the more extravagant side of PTA music videos, the stark lighting and daring visuals make this one of the best examples of him doing a lot with little.
“Sapokanikan” – Joanna Newsom (2015)
Certainly a product of inherent vice, the Thomas Pynchon adaptation features Joanna Newsom in a small role and as the film’s narrator. The video has a similar spontaneous vibe to that movie, though it’s much easier to understand because it consists of little more than Newsom singing the song’s bouncy melody and walking through the chilly city streets. It’s a bit strange to see anything done by Paul Thomas Anderson that isn’t set in California, but the video embraces New York as that place where there’s always something interesting happening in the background. It’s easy to imagine they were making up the video as they filmed it, culminating in the happy fire truck red light crash that lights up Newsom’s face as she bids farewell to the camera. of Anderson at the end of the video.
“Reverie” – Radiohead (2016)
Considering that Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood was one of Paul Thomas Anderson’s most essential collaborators (he’s the composer of all the PTA movies from there will be blood for ghost yarn), a Radiohead/PTA clip seemed inevitable. In many of the director’s films, there’s an affinity for eccentric, elusive men, so placing Thom Yorke in the middle of another of the PTA’s signature “follow a singer around” videos seems only natural. There’s not a ton that sets “Daydreaming” apart from, say, Michael Penn’s video or Joanna Newsom’s, as it similarly sees Thom Yorke walk through the doors of different environments while scenes of life everyday life (literally) exceeds it. But the formula works well with the dreamlike nature of the song, while the sheer alienation inherent in the visuals seems so fitting for what much of Radiohead’s music represents. Plus, the video’s finale where Yorke jumps through a snow tunnel and falls into a fire-induced sleep is the kind of wondrous weirdness you’ve come to expect from both PTA and Radiohead.
“Summer Girl” – HAIM (2019)
Since meeting in the mid-2010s through a mutual friend and bonding over their shared love of the San Fernando Valley, HAIM and Paul Thomas Anderson have been nearly inseparable when it comes to to make video clips. Their collaboration began with the 15 minutes “Valentine” video that captures the band in the studio in one long take, what Alana Haim said evoked “something no one else had seen before that really captured us as a band”. Since then, they’ve made a series of videos together that build on the shaggy LA aesthetic that Haim had already established in their early music videos, but have that PTA way of making something look flawless, even if the videos were designed and filmed. in a few days.
It’s hard to pick a favorite among Haim/PTA videos, but there’s something particularly infectious about 2019’s “Summer Girl” video, which was concocted while Haim was working on the song in the studio and PTA is past. The simple “trick” of the video is that the three Haim sisters are constantly removing layers of clothing as the video progresses as they inevitably embrace the heat of a Los Angeles summer. We see them walking through a series of different Los Angeles landscapes (which includes movie-goer mecca The New Beverly Cinema) and generally indulging in a joyous relaxation that captures the hazy ambiance of a warm summer night. As far as Paul Thomas Anderson’s collaborations with musicians are concerned, we can say that this one is now the most fruitful, because it led Alana Haim to play in Licorice Pizza, and we’ll see if the film features any other directorial tricks that PTA picked up while filming HAIM. Or any other musician for that matter.
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