The Master. Great Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman. His pulse actors reminds There Will Be Blood.
Paul Thomas Anderson has done it again. The Master is a film that is out of the norm. A rare bird in the billboard. Possibly not everyone will remove the same juice, the same enjoyment. But as happened with There Will Be Blood, is good, very good. Another thing is that you do not receive the same to everyone. The way in which the director tells her story has all the aroma of good literature and in cinema is not difficult to find a wide range of echoes that covers all styles, from William Faulkner to William Burroughs, John Fante and Jack Kerouac, Henry Miller and Charles Bukowski … But that should not mislead us. Not so their longer film cinema. As was the case with There Will Be Blood. In fact it is impossible not to think that another movie while we’re watching it, because somehow I think the formula is enhanced There Will Be Blood to The Master. There Will Be Blood was a great monologue of Daniel Day Lewis, almost alone, with no other presence in the cast counterweight make him or give him the replica continuously throughout the story. From that standpoint, I think the composition of his character that makes Joaquin Phoenix is as remarkable as that of Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood, but he instead develop a monologue interpret a pulse with the character played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Thus, this is a battle between two very talented actors in which undoubtedly senses the inclination to treat literary characters and situations always have the films of Paul Thomas Anderson, but where history is also constructed on purely influences film.
For example on the issue of starting the film with the protagonist living in the last days of his participation in World War II, we find a succession of scenes that have much in common with The Thin Red Line Terrence Malick. It is the only trace of Malick film in The Master, which is also presented in this brief subplot, almost little more than a wink, a sort of cameo in Badlands argument that stains the relationship between the protagonist and his teenage girlfriend, Doris.
Along with those echoes of Malick film find references that refer to more traditional sources. If There Will Be Blood had traces of King Vidor film with echoes of The Wind of Victor Sjöström and Greed of Erich von Stroheim, in The Master is almost impossible not to think of the character of Charles Foster Kane Orson Welles and seeing characterization and interpretation of the Master Philip Seymour Hoffman. The presentation of his own character with features Renaissance man able to do several things at the same time, serving as writer, scientist, thinker … fits perfectly with the megalomania that both marked and defined characters created and often played by Orson also Welles throughout his career. Master Lancaster Dodd could have been played by Welles, no doubt, and Paul Thomas Anderson introduces a sort of nod in a story that is also common Shakespearean resonances with film director of Citizen Kane. A Shakespearean resonances that essentially materialize in that kind of sectarian variant of Lady Macbeth who plays with remarkable talent at the height of the two male leads an equally great Amy Adams in the role of the wife of Lancaster Dodd. I think both Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman as strong candidates for the Oscar, and I think Adams can choose perfectly to a nomination as best supporting actress.
But alongside these key literature, most classical cinema, more exploration of characters and situations facing the abyss of madness and folly inhabit, which is the magic of The Master is not only a great job of directing actors or resulting remarkable what the composition of that deal, but the way they absolutely masterful moves and Paul Thomas Anderson fits their characters, their planning, visual work presiding ended almost flat each film, giving them a meaning of visual poetry unfolds the greatness and misery of his characters in a level of interest and depth that is not easy to see in the cinema.
The Master is not an easy film. It might even dare to call it «freak», not for the job of visual storytelling that is the strong point of the film. In his remarkable work as director Paul Thomas Anderson actors known for her care of every gesture and movement. But in his way of composing each shot of the film the director of The Master is even more demanding, owner of a talent as an observer of human nature that makes him one of the best visual storytellers of our time.
An example of this is the final sequence in which Freddie Quill, the character played by Joaquin Phoenix, the woman repeats has been linked in the bar flicker test was applied to the Lancaster Dodd. That moment speaks volumes emulation very easily not only on Freddie own character, but also about his relationship with Dodd and why this is resolved in the way that the director shows us emotionally intense scene after that we which totally disarms Master sings to Freddie in a last attempt to seduce and keep him by his side. Simply put, Paul Thomas Anderson tells us much about the sects and the way you work and seduce their leaders, and incidentally explains clearly the best way to escape its influence.
So, The Master is explained as an intense visual ride by a single concept that is repeated throughout the film: the freedom, and of course we all understand that concept in the same way and even chose deceive on it. That is precisely the scene of the bike in the desert and how different it is developed to Lancaster Dodd and Freddie Quill.
In this perspective, Freddie finally Quill is presented as Lancaster Dodd himself points out in one of his dialogues, as a hero, perhaps the greatest hero we’ve seen this year on the big screen.
So no, The Master certainly not an easy film, but it’s certainly one of the best films this writer has seen this year, of those who are able to open new doors and windows to our cinephilia, as always manages to make the films of Paul Thomas Anderson even in its strangest moments.
Miguel Juan Payán
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