Boogie Nights (1997)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
In 1977, an idealistic porn producer and his promising protege try to catch up with the end of an era before their never-ending party collides with cold, hard reality.
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The omnipresent soundtrack– Nights is a combination of American Graffiti (the prolific use of songs), Goodfellas (the way music is used to move a scene) and Saturday Night Fever (the general feel of the first hour… and look for the Staying Alive reference in the film’s second half)–the soundtrack draws so much attention to the way the film looks, it’s almost like Anderson is telling the viewer the story doesn’t matter too much.
Anderson is in love with his camera, and a bit of a showoff in sequences inspired by the famous nightclub entrance in "GoodFellas," Robert De Niro's rehearsal in the mirror in "Raging Bull" and a shot in "I Am Cuba" where the camera follows a woman into a pool.
The "next Quentin Tarantino" tag stuck to Anderson throughout that fall, and it was easy to see why it applied; its outsized running time, dark humor, kinetic violence, and tonal slipperiness clearly recalled Tarantino's arthouse-to-multiplex crossover smash Pulp Fiction from three years earlier—to say nothing of that film's clearest antecedent, Martin Scorsese's 1990 masterpiece Goodfellas .
In style and feel Boogie Nights is most reminiscent of Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990).
Anderson, who begins his film spectacularly with a version of the great Copacabana shot from "Goodfellas," has no qualms about borrowing from the best.
With its emphasis on pornography's people and period not, as will be assumed, the process the film is strongly reminiscent of the distinctly American sagas Nashville, GoodFellas, City of Hope and Pulp Fiction (big, complicated yet personal movies all, as this one very much is).
Anderson is in love with his camera, and a bit of a showoff in sequences inspired by the famous nightclub entrance in "GoodFellas," Robert De Niro's rehearsal in the mirror in "Raging Bull" and a shot in "I Am Cuba" where the camera follows a woman into a pool.
The now-notorious final scene is a direct homage to the end of Raging Bull.
Watch for the final sequence, in which Wahlberg does his own interpretation of Jake LaMotta from Raging Bull; youll either laugh or shake your head at the shamefully obvious parody.
Eventually, after a spectacularly botched drug hustle that results in the death of freebasing wildman Rahad Jackson (Alfred Molina), Dirk returns to Jack's house and resumes his career, glimpsed in a final shot as memorable as it is shockingly funny (think Raging Bull with a "Living Thing").
Despite the fact that the central story can be summarized as “Raging Bull” with pornography instead of boxing, “Boogie Nights” is a true ensemble film.
Its elaborate visuals and 1970s soundtrack instantly remind one of Scorsese's breakthrough film "Mean Streets".
But it's depressing that, as with so many other young filmmakers, the Scorsese Anderson reveres isn't the impassioned expressionist of "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver" but the mannered technician Scorsese has become.
A better model for Anderson might be something like Jonathan Demme's Citizens Band, a movie that puts the emphasis on the sense of community that's formed by characters existing on society's fringes rather than the fringe characters who evolve from the previously established communities in films such as Nashville and Mean Streets.
Its editing and cinematography, however, are top-notch, very much echoing the relentless energy and creativity of, say, some of Scorsese’s finest works such as Casino (1995) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
Anderson’s filming of two separate parties at the Horner house is boundless and reminiscent of Altman’s opening scene in The Player as well as Scorcese’s casino scenes in Casino.
The way the movie focuses on telling the story of individuals over a time period is reminiscent to the likes of "Goodfellas" and "Casino".
The “rise and fall of” structure was less effective in Boogie Nights than in Casino because of its easy symmetry.
But it's depressing that, as with so many other young filmmakers, the Scorsese Anderson reveres isn't the impassioned expressionist of "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver" but the mannered technician Scorsese has become.
Like Jerry Lewis in "The King of Comedy," he gives the role an extra edge by playing a swaggering, self-important figure very close to the bone.
The omnipresent soundtrack– Nights is a combination of American Graffiti (the prolific use of songs), Goodfellas (the way music is used to move a scene) and Saturday Night Fever (the general feel of the first hour… and look for the Staying Alive reference in the film’s second half)–the soundtrack draws so much attention to the way the film looks, it’s almost like Anderson is telling the viewer the story doesn’t matter too much.
The film, which begins in 1977 (just in time for a dancing "Saturday Night Fever" homage), casually incorporates such milestones as Dirk Diggler's virtual baptism in a hot tub and the New Year's Eve gunfire that ends the 1970s with a bang.
A bracing antidote to the likes of Saturday Night Fever and the whole revolting disco movement, the tone of Boogie Nights is what, in the end, makes it great: it is a story that could only have happened in America (will it play as poorly overseas as the less courageous People vs. Larry Flynt?), and could only have taken place during the peculiar years that straddled two decades and mark, for now, the depths of greed, decadence, self-delusion and lack of taste and sense to which a great and spoiled society could sink.
Arrisco dizer que me senti muito mais imerso e envolvido nesta experiência do que em “Saturday Night Fever“.
The "next Quentin Tarantino" tag stuck to Anderson throughout that fall, and it was easy to see why it applied; its outsized running time, dark humor, kinetic violence, and tonal slipperiness clearly recalled Tarantino's arthouse-to-multiplex crossover smash Pulp Fiction from three years earlier—to say nothing of that film's clearest antecedent, Martin Scorsese's 1990 masterpiece Goodfellas .
With its emphasis on pornography's people and period not, as will be assumed, the process the film is strongly reminiscent of the distinctly American sagas Nashville, GoodFellas, City of Hope and Pulp Fiction (big, complicated yet personal movies all, as this one very much is).
If Boogie Nights apes Scorsese, it follows in the footsteps of Tarantino, whose infinitely superior Pulp Fiction made eccentric gutter characters glamorous again.
An integral part of Horner’s day-to-day operations, Thompson is the catalyst for the gang’s collective diffusion, which grows to excruciatingly combustible levels before exploding in a quickfire torrent of beautifully orchestrated scenes in the Pulp Fiction vein.
Some of the most distinctive American films of recent years -- "Pulp Fiction," "The People vs. Larry Flynt," "L.A. Confidential" and now this one -- have invoked a sleaze-soaked Southern California as an evilly alluring nexus of decadence and pop culture.
The non-linear structure, adding a poetic edge to something so disposable, led directly to films like Boogie Nights, Go and Snatch in the following years.
Boogie Nights shares the same music supervisor (Karen Rachtman) as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, so it's no surprise that the period tunes work so well.
The music by Michael Penn is evocative of the time as well, and the cuts chosen for each scene are spot on, from Andrew Gold’s “Lonely Boy” (revealing Amber Waves as a mother) to the Beach Boys “God Only Knows” providing the coda for the characters, to “Sister Christian”, which now serves as a sinister song, as used in the film’s most harrowing scene, much like “Stuck in the Middle with You” after Reservoir Dogs.
The same thing was a turn-off in “Reservoir Dogs”, an otherwise great movie.
The sense of homage/pastiche goes further still: if the rambling ensemble construction derives from Nashville , the swooping long takes and whiplash pans come courtesy of Scorsese.
With its emphasis on pornography's people and period not, as will be assumed, the process the film is strongly reminiscent of the distinctly American sagas Nashville, GoodFellas, City of Hope and Pulp Fiction (big, complicated yet personal movies all, as this one very much is).
The film's unofficial family group is immersed in exploitation movies, which becomes the same collective eccentricity that country music was for "Nashville."
The sweep and variety of the characters have brought the movie comparisons to Robert Altman's " Nashville " and " The Player ."
Writer-director Anderson's second film, Boogie Nights has been often enough cited for its similarities to Robert Altman's Nashville.
Anderson’s filming of two separate parties at the Horner house is boundless and reminiscent of Altman’s opening scene in The Player as well as Scorcese’s casino scenes in Casino.
In a sweeping four minute tracking shot reminiscent of The Player's opening, Anderson introduces almost all of his characters and sets the atmosphere for what is to come.
The sweep and variety of the characters have brought the movie comparisons to Robert Altman's " Nashville " and " The Player ."
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If, as John Huston's "The Asphalt Jungle" memorably insisted, "crime is a left-handed form of human endeavor," Anderson has been shrewd enough to see pornography in the same relation to show business in general and Hollywood in particular, to show it attracting the same kinds of dreamers desperate to make something halfway meaningful out of their lives.
Anderson is in love with his camera, and a bit of a showoff in sequences inspired by the famous nightclub entrance in "GoodFellas," Robert De Niro's rehearsal in the mirror in "Raging Bull" and a shot in "I Am Cuba" where the camera follows a woman into a pool.
The pool-party scene in “Boogie Nights” is effectively a long reference to the opening shot of “I Am Cuba,” without adding much to the iconic scene.
Though not the first example of the new genre, Deep Throat (1972) was certainly the best known and most important.
The era of "Boogie Nights" -- lovingly invoked in the movie's witty, wall-to-wall Top 40 soundtrack, Mark Bridges' costumes and Bob Ziembicki's production design -- is a few years past the height of porno chic, when middle-class couples ventured into the theaters to see "Deep Throat" and "Behind the Green Door."
Werke wie Deep Throat, The Devil In Miss Jones oder Behind The Green Door erreichten eine ungeheure Popularität und schwappten in den Mainstream über.
The era of "Boogie Nights" -- lovingly invoked in the movie's witty, wall-to-wall Top 40 soundtrack, Mark Bridges' costumes and Bob Ziembicki's production design -- is a few years past the height of porno chic, when middle-class couples ventured into the theaters to see "Deep Throat" and "Behind the Green Door."
Having gone to see Behind the Green Door or The Devil in Miss Jones after Deep Throat the respectable middle-class audience soon realised that 'if you've seen one you've seen them all' and found other topics for their after dinner-party conversations.
Werke wie Deep Throat, The Devil In Miss Jones oder Behind The Green Door erreichten eine ungeheure Popularität und schwappten in den Mainstream über.
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The omnipresent soundtrack– Nights is a combination of American Graffiti (the prolific use of songs), Goodfellas (the way music is used to move a scene) and Saturday Night Fever (the general feel of the first hour… and look for the Staying Alive reference in the film’s second half)–the soundtrack draws so much attention to the way the film looks, it’s almost like Anderson is telling the viewer the story doesn’t matter too much.
Features like The Immoral Mr Teas (1959) and Blood Feast (1963) which exploited sex (or rather nudity) and/or violence were played in proper movie theatres and their willingness to show audiences things that the mainstream cinema would not often proved very profitable.