The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson film in 70mm)*

I saw the movie at Cinerama, in Seattle. I felt like the aspect ratio was slightly different than 1.85:1 -- maybe 1.66:1? It seemed a little more square to me. But I'm not used to seeing movies there, maybe it was just the way it looked projected on that screen. For example, the scene where we saw Hoffman in his office in England -- there seemed to be a lot of height to get the windows in.

 

Saw it in 70mm at the Seattle Cinerama as well last night.

Glorious picture, definitely trounced 35mm in this presentation (though I think the projector at cinerama is probably two-bladed shutter, so there were some bright scenes with pretty visible flicker).

Very glad I saw it in 70mm before I missed the chance. The acting was incredible.

But as a movie, I thought it was a mess, and just didn't really do anything at all for me. I wasn't expecting to like it, as I'm really not a fan of the director really at all, and so it kind of got what I expected: a disorganized, bland attempt at forced meaningfulness that just fell flat and kind of dumb.

In the microcosm of scenes and acting though, there was a lot of brilliance. It really frustrates me to see so many strong glimmers of mastery handled by an inferior director. Reminds me of Speilberg a lot in a way. A director with pieces of great talent, but a mediocre mind and a dumb vision that believes he is attaining some kind of auteurist greatness.

Oh well.

It was also fascinating to see Samsara (shot in 70mm, digitized and projected in 4K) back-to-back in the same venue as The Master. If anyone needed proof that 70mm film simply trounces 4K digital, that was it. The whole time I was just thinking: gosh, if only I could see the footage of Samsara like this!

 

That composer isn't any good,didn't care for his score it at all ,thank God it wasn't the
whole film
I wonder what went wrong with the 70mm print I saw,strange

 

Clever. I hadn't thought of it that way.

 

Interesting mix of reviews seem to be coming out on this film, not just here but among the paid critics. I absolutely adored "Magnolia" and liked very much "There Will Be Blood," so I will see it for sure at some point. I don't think I have a local 70mm option, unfortunately.

 

I actually thought the score was great. I'm even considering buying it, and I never buy soundtracks! It'd be awesome if it got pressed on vinyl. By the way, the composer (or at least one of them) is Johnny Greenwood, guitarist for Radiohead.

 

Lousy projectionist?

 

Back to what I read a few pages ago, I don't think any previews of a PT Anderson film contain scenes that were left in the film.

 

Lee, what about this film leads you to conclude it is pretentious?

 

I've seen mention of this as "65mm" and "70mm". Is the discrepancy related to 1.85 masking? Can anyone explain?

 

Camera negative is 65mm, release print is 70mm, extra area used for soundtrack (depending on format). 70mm can yield almost any aspect ratio you want, depending on lenses and masking, but natively, it's generally considered to be 2.20.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/70mm_film

You know, I'm not sure I would call it "pretentious," but it certainly does drag, and it's not satisfying by any definition (to me).

I think there are several story lines there, but none of them are really resolved to me. I think you have a beginning and a middle, but no real third act. Strange, strange film. I don't see this as a mass market film at all, and I would be very surprised if it made any money. I had similar feelings about Tree of Life, another movie that I think had some good ideas and great performances, but not any real story there.

 

The Truth Rundown

I saw The Master at our local gigaplex. I assume the format was some sort of glorified Blu-ray. Whatever it was, it obviously wasn't 'film.' It's an amazing movie. Funny, reading the Wikipedia 'telling of the tale', the plot makes a lot of sense:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_(2012_film)

Watching it looks and feels woozy, perhaps there's a bit too much paint thinner in the fondue? But I'm sure that wooziness is very much on-point. However, as it is the story of a man becoming an "Apostate", 'The Master' would have to end on a curious and ambiguous note and it does, with Freddie Quell doing a bit of "Squirrel-Tech" on a fine English Rose he just plucked from a bar.

There's a lot of 'Inside Baseball' in this film, a lot of L.R.H. in the acting, a lot of Dianetics in the 'Source'. Close examination of little bits of dialog seemingly dropped into the story—the scene where Laura Dern's character tells Dodd how 'The Master's' new book took an essential aspect of 'The Cause' ['processing' accesses past lives] and changed its meaning [the focus is now on the infinite potential of the imagination] in such a way as to require even more 'processing'—these things tell you that Paul Thomas Anderson is enraptured by L. Ron Hubbard himself and that he has studied the subject quite throughly.

One has to know a bit about Scientology to really appreciate this movie. The more one knows about the history of L. Ron Hubbard's Movement, the deeper the film appears to be.

Speaking of 'Inside Baseball', famously "Ex"-Scientologist Marty Rathbun has this to say of "The Master" and more specifically, Philip Seymour Hoffman's realization of LRH:

This article goes point-by-point as regards parallels between "The Cause" and Scientology.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...r-based-on-scientology-and-l-ron-hubbard.html


I'm mentioning these things and providing these links because a lot of what is happening in "The Master" requires some knowledge of the subject. I suspect that the film will do poorly in broad release. I also suspect the Blu-ray will contain scenes deleted from the final edit. One of trailers for "The Master" had a scene where folks were being tossed over the side of the ship into the sea, a sport that LRH was said to be fond of. Whatever else "The Master" might be, what's in the film appears to conform to eyewitness accounts of L. Ron Hubbard himself, with a few names changed to protect the project from a "Cause" well known for litigation*. According to the Wiki article, the one thing in the film that was upsetting to Tom Cruise [when he watched a private screening of the film] was the scene where Dodd's son says "You know he's making this up as he goes along." Once LRH's son split the scene and changed his name to "Ron DeWolf" he pretty much said the same thing. Guess that would be a bone of contention. At the same time, Hoffman's 'Master' is charming and charismatic and very human and engaging. If you listen to LRH's tapes [there's zillions of them all over the interwebs] you will hear the Actor and Fabulist in this very charming man. And looking at Joaquin Phoenix's incredible performance as Freddie Quell, you see all the mannerisms of "Method Acting" in full flame, a performance that out-"Brando's" Brando for sheer, unbrilded force of will. 'The Master' demonstrates how the atomic zeitgeist of Post-War America had figures like Hubbard and Brando emerge from the last "Good War." Like I said, amazing movie, gives you a lot to think about.

* And a couple two-three scenes that beggar description.

 

TV show LOST????

 

I agree with you there. I described "The Tree of Life" as a "2001 domestic drama with visual motifs borrowed from "Carnival of Souls"--shaken up in a back, warmed up and then served."

It had it's moments but even for Malick "Tree" had an elplicitical styled narrative that seemed to avoid major plot points in favor of smaller ones hinting at the larger issues. It can make it difficult for average audience members to grasp and they often don't have the patience for it. If "The Master" is unsatisfying in this way--Oscar buzz aside--it will flounder.

 

I enjoy cryptic -style movies, it appears that 'The Master' fits the bill.

 

"Lousy projectionist?"

could be ,not sure ,bulb ?? I think it was a fair print,which had too many marks
for a brand new film

 

They are teh same thing.

 

No, it's better than that. They've released the film in four different formats: 35mm print, 70mm print, 2K DCP (digital cinema package), and 4K DCP. Both the 2K DCP and 4K DCP's should be much better in quality than a Blu-ray disc, since they use 10-bit color and have a wider color space.

Yes, the section that talked about how an early investor in the Master's lectures on the ship later sued over the money involved, winding up with Lancaster Dodd and Freddie getting thrown in jail. This kind of thing happened quite a few times in the early history of Scientology.

This happens a couple of times, also with the scene with (I think) Laura Dern asking about why the original process involved recalling past events, and then new book advised people to imagine certain events. I thought stuff like that was revealing.

It's an open question as to how much Scientology was just Hubbard making crap up as he went along, and how much was real stuff he extracted from Buddhism and a dozen other religions, philosophies, and movements of the 1940s. I once asked Forrest J Ackerman, who was Hubbard's literary agent for 20 years, if he thought Hubbard believed in Scientology. Ackerman shook his head and said, "I think it was purely motivated by money in the beginning, but I think he started to believe in it as time went on. But then it got twisted into something very different from what he started out with." (I'm paraphrasing, but that's the gist of what I remember.)

 

That is rather brilliant.

 

He was the J.J. Abrams of self help movements. (or Avika Goldsman)

 

In regard to the 'window/wall' sense of perception : with any film - the viewer in fact, creates their own film.

 

Wow, so I guess my wish came true and the soundtrack is being pressed on vinyl!

http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/the-master-soundtrack-lp-cd

Looks like it is missing a few tracks, though.

 

Ugh!

 

"Ugh!" is actually kinda how I'm feeling about The Master soundtrack on vinyl. Complaints:

- Price: $23 for a single LP (most of the other complaints stem from this)
- Packaging: just a regular jacket with a poly-lined inner sleeve and a flimsy paper insert. Not even a printed inner or high quality materials.
- Pressing: a good amount of noise right out of the package.
- Mastering: sounds loud to my ears. Kept wanting to turn it down.
- Content: missing three tracks compared to the CD.

All of this I might have been willing to look past if the price wasn't so damn high. It did come with the full album on CD, but that's of little use to me, honestly.

Compare with another new release I saw today by Bat For Lashes: double LP, sturdy gatefold jacket, also came with the CD. Price: $21.