I am a big bright shining star.
December 10, 2014 8:19 PM   Subscribe

 
Also
posted by paulhyden at 8:50 PM on December 10, 2014


Wow, it was easier for them to talk to a dead guy than get quotes from Wahlberg, Reynolds et al.
posted by infinitewindow at 11:20 PM on December 10, 2014 [3 favorites]


...or PTA. all his quotes were from previously pub'd articles. Loved it, though. Nice work, fellas!
posted by Zerowensboring at 12:40 AM on December 11, 2014


Well, now I want to skip work and watch Boogie Nights instead, so thanks for that.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 3:51 AM on December 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


Wow, it was easier for them to talk to a dead guy than get quotes from Wahlberg, Reynolds et al.

The advantage of their inaccessibility is that this oral history gets to concentrate a bit more on the business side of producing this film, which, by rights, should have been impossible to green-light, produce, shoot, and release. In addition, the stories from the production crew illuminate how much care went into the cinematography, costumes, and, of course, prop design. If celebrity quotes are your interest, Thomas Jane is happy to supply some awesome ones, e.g. "That much porno and cocaine is gonna lead to 'Sister Christian'".

And imagine the might-have-been/almost-was cast from the producers' wish list: Leonardo DiCaprio as Dirk Diggler, Drew Barrymore as Roller Girl, and Albert Brooks as Jack Horner.
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:58 AM on December 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


This was probably not the most super-appropriate thing for me to be reading on the bus this morning, but I don't care, I really enjoyed this and I'm pretty sure the kid sitting next to me was too young to read the inappropriate stuff over my shoulder. Thanks for posting this!
posted by Stacey at 5:34 AM on December 11, 2014


Boogie Nights was one of those movies I didn't want to like but liked anyway. So many terrific performances and that weird energy. Fun read, I really enjoyed it--again, more than I thought I would.

And yes, now I need to watch it again.
posted by kinnakeet at 5:59 AM on December 11, 2014


My favorite revelation was the quotes about Joanna Gleason. Her scenes are unbelievable -- some of the best scenes in the whole movie. She just crackles. And very little is revealed in those scenes about just why she is so angry. All we really learn is she is so angry at Dirk that she can't even get through breakfast without losing it, she seems to have a very unusual obsession with Dirk's girlfriend ("slut" talk), and the dad is utterly emasculated. I've watched those scenes dozens of times, and I've always thought she was downright brilliant in them. The whole scene wraps around her because of those scary bursts and intensity. These set of quotes suggest PTA based the character on his mother, which given all I've read about his father, but never once anything about his mother, adds a layer to it that I got a lot from.

---


Gleason:
When I met with [Anderson], he was jet-lagged and very, very tired, and I remember after chatting for a while he said, “OK, would you like to stand up? Walk around? Do anything you want.” And I said, “No, I’d like to sit.” And I had the guy. I said to him, “You stand. I’m just gonna inhabit this woman right now. I am in a room full of younger men and I am the mom here and I’m just gonna make myself as unpleasant as possible.”

So I sat there like she sits in the movie and I did the whole scene from a seated position. Read it just as it was written. It was powerful. And at the end of it, I asked Paul if this was based on his mom. He was so jet-lagged that his little eyes were watering. I thought, Never mind, we don’t need to go there. I didn’t mean to push a button. And he didn’t answer, but I said, “If it is, you never have to forgive her.”
posted by scunning at 6:42 AM on December 11, 2014 [4 favorites]


I'm most fascinated by PTA shooting the prototype for the movie in high school. In high school. I know a lot of filmmakers get a very early start and shoot films in their backyard with the neighbor kids, but a porn mockumentary? I think of the grotty little Super 8 films my friends and I would make, and this just blows my mind. [NSFW, of course]
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:27 AM on December 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


OMG, this bit from Eddie Dalcour, one of PTA's friends who helped him with The Dirk Diggler Story:
For the hot-tub scene, I turned to Mike and I said, “Hey, I wrote a poem.” I improvised a lot. It cracked Paul up. You can hear him laughing in the background all through the movie. John Reilly does the same poem in Boogie Nights. Paul asked me to be in Boogie Nights, too, but by then I was doing a full-time Christian ministry called the Power Team, doing things like breaking bricks and tearing phone books in half. It’s inconsistent to be in Boogie Nights and a full-time Christian ministry.
That's like an outtake from Boogie Nights itself.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:33 AM on December 11, 2014 [5 favorites]


Alright. I've got to watch it again. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley and really, the intersection of Reseda and Sherman Way was a real hub for me. There was this hair salon with mutilated Barbie dolls hanging all over the ceiling with blue and green hair. Antenna, I think. I loved that place.
posted by Sophie1 at 7:44 AM on December 11, 2014


Boogie Nights was one of those movies I didn't want to like but liked anyway.

Same here. To this day, it's the only PTA movie I've seen that didn't make me angry in retrospect about having watched it. The man has his partisans, but man, can he be punishing.
posted by psoas at 8:18 AM on December 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


Ha, oh I love that there were all these worried whispers about it being produced in the shadow of the flop that was (the now much-beloved, in certain circles) Showgirls. There's really not a lot of overlap between the two, apart from nudity.
posted by psoas at 8:26 AM on December 11, 2014


DIRECTOR'S TALENT MAKES 'BOOGIE' FEVER INFECTIOUS.

Roger Ebert interviews Paul Anderson.
posted by bonehead at 8:36 AM on December 11, 2014


About the "oral history" part: reading that Ebert interview I realized that words attributed to Anderson were in fact said by Ebert:
From the Oral History: I interviewed Gerard Damiano. He was the best of the hardcore directors, and he went through a period of believing he could make art films about sex. Home video came along in 1979 and destroyed that illusion. attributed to Anderson.

From the Ebert interview: Q.[Ebert] I interviewed Gerard Damiano at the time. He was probably the best of the hard-core directors, and he went through a period of believing he could make art films about sex. Home video came along in 1979 and destroyed that illusion. The golden age on film was from about '69 to '79.
A.[Anderson] It's like there could have been a new genre. We've had sci-fi, murder mysteries, Westerns, and there could have been a sex genre. . . .

posted by CCBC at 5:46 PM on December 11, 2014


Stayed up late last night watching this movie again. This is an interesting addendum:

37 Things We Learned From the 'Boogie Nights' Commentary
posted by readery at 5:57 PM on December 12, 2014


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