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Brock Landers, Raining Frogs, and Trust in Pudding:A Retrospective On the Work of Filmmaker Paul Thomas AndersonBy: Aaron Lehman
 
“I have a feeling, one of those gut feelings, that I'll make pretty good movies the rest of my life. And maybe I'll make some clunkers; maybe I'll make some winners…” Director PaulThomas Anderson is recognized as one of the world’s most prolific and well-respected directorson the planet. After his impressive debut with his first feature film Sydney (the studio given titlewas called Hard Eight), he then went on to make the incredible follow-up with Boogie Nights,then the ambitious melodrama Magnolia, the characteristics of the true auteur film with Punch-Drunk Love, and then his epic character driven period piece There Will Be Blood. Anderson has been able to keep the integrity of his films alive and well in the dangerous areas of the corporatedriven film studios. His stories contain tragedies, comedies, heartbreak, and grinding realism at points. All of the characters in his films have a drive for the need of family and/or the need toget away from their plutonic one and find a surrogate family. His films Boogie Nights,Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love show his fantastic ability on writing, directing, and hisemphasis on issues familial issues.Paul Thomas Anderson was born in Studio City, California on June 26, 1970. He grewup and lived in the San Fernando Valley. His father was the first in the neighborhood to have aVCR. From an early age he was exposed to films of all kinds. In his teens, his fascination for other kinds of films grabbed his interest; porno films:“My dad was one of the first guys on the block to have a VCR. So along with all thevideotapes that I would rummage through, I would find porno movies. Not that it twistedme into some maniac or anything. I was watching porno from age 10 to 17. I had aninterest in it.” (IMDB)This certainly drove Anderson in the direction of wanting to make movies. Growing up in “The
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Valley” made Anderson very aware of what was going on. The San Fernando Valley was knownas the porno capital of the world. A large number of these productions were being made rightunder Andersons nose;“There was a warehouse near my high school that had some signage for a bit then asection would have no signage at all. But a ton of like expensive cars parked out in front.So I would be like, ‘What the fuck is going on in that one with no sign.’ And they wereclearly making porno movies in there,” (Hollywood Conversations).Before the end of his high school career, at the age of seventeen, and the adding influence of  porn films and the porn industry around him, Anderson wrote and directed his first short filmcalled The Dirk Diggler Story. The film itself was shot like a fictional documentary andAnderson said that Zelig and This is Spinal Tap! were major influences in helping him shoot andcreate the story. Since movies were a huge influence and meant a lot to him, school never reallyappealed to Anderson since he was a young kid. Anderson felt that because of his love for filmand his vast knowledge of film itself, he felt he never really needed to go to film school. His plan was to start directing right out of high school. However, after a few years of no luck,Anderson decided to apply to different colleges. But because of his bad grades in high school,he was never able to attend. In an interview with Elvis Mitchell he states that; “It created thisattitude in me, like ‘I don’t need film school.’ Because, anyway, you’ve gotta justify yourself and explain to yourself why you couldn’t get into college. So you start saying, ‘Well that’s bullshit.”Anderson then decided to enroll at NYU and was accepted. Upon his first day of class,Anderson had conflicting beliefs with the film professor, with his professor stating on the first
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