The Cinema of Paul Thomas Anderson: American Apocrypha

Paul Thomas Anderson has had a remarkable career trajectory, evolving from an "Indiewood" auteur to one of his generation's most distinctive voices. This book provides a comprehensive account of his career, encompassing his side projects, unproduced material, relationships with directors, and work as a music video director. Ethan Warren explores Anderson's thematic preoccupations, screenwriting methods, and relationship to his influences, arguing that his films conjure up an alternate American history that seeks a heightened truth marked by emotional hyperrealism.

Format: Hardback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 25 April 2023
Publisher: Columbia University Press

Paul Thomas Anderson's evolution from a brash, self-anointed "Indiewood" auteur to one of his generation's most distinctive voices has been one of the most remarkable career trajectories in recent film history. From early efforts to emulate his cinematic heroes to his increasingly singular late films, Anderson has created a body of work that balances the familiar and the strange, history and myth: viewers feel perpetually off balance, unsure of whether to expect a pitch-black joke or a moment of piercing emotional resonance.

This book provides the most complete account of Anderson's career to date, encompassing his varied side projects and unproduced material; his personal and professional relationships with directors such as Jonathan Demme, Robert Altman, and Robert Downey Sr.; and his work as a director of music videos for Fiona Apple, Joanna Newsom, and Haim. Ethan Warren explores Anderson's recurring thematic preoccupations—the fraught dynamics of gender and religious faith, biological and found families, and his native San Fernando Valley—as well as his screenwriting methods and his relationship to his influences. Warren argues that Anderson's films conjure up an alternate American history that exaggerates and elides verifiable facts in search of a heightened truth marked by a deeper level of emotional hyperrealism.

This book is at once an unconventional primer on Anderson's films and a provocative reframing of what makes his work so essential.

Weight: 494g
Dimension: 163 x 244 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231204583