And, of course, this also happens with moments of love, such as when Barry opens a door, rings Lena’s doorbell, and immediately kisses her; when there is a pinhole (or small circle) around the interlocked hands of the lovers; when the telephone booth lights up at the sound of Lena’s voice (echoing the earlier instance of Barry’s face lighting up while playing the harmonium); or when, in perhaps the most famous sequence, the two walk towards each other and have a swaying kiss while people walk in front of them.
This film’s cinematography, by DP Robert Elswit, is stellar. The film has incredible compositions, spreads, and long takes. It also has the amazing “constantly moving camera,” that is made reference to by the IMDb and Wikipedia bios (among others) as being "typical of Paul Thomas Anderson." Also, I like the techniques used such as zoom-ins (used against walking to make the prelude to the “swaying love scene” seem a little more awkward) and turns (repeatedly used in the first scene).
The editing, by Leslie Jones, I find also important. For example, instead of just cutting to the garage door opening and back to Egan reacting, she adds a couple more cuts to intensify the moment.
The script, by Paul Thomas Anderson himself, has certain facets that one could miss without giving more thought to the film. First off, I think Anderson does an interesting think with parallels and doubles. Barry first encounters the harmonium and Lena, his harmonies, in the first two opening scenes. This is mirrored by the fact that he and Lena are gathered with the harmonium at the very end. I think this is superbly done, even though the last line of dialogue “Well, here we go,” is a little off-putting.
Also, we have fake love and true love in this film, in the embodiments of the phone sex operator and Lena. The operator puts on the identity of “Georgia”. Barry, lies by calling himself Jack. Fake love ends up leading to trouble in this film, as “Georgia” repeatedly asks for money and then makes him take it out of his account against his will.
Whereas, true love leads to happiness and love. Lena and Barry are complete opposites, as Barry has multiple siblings and Lena is an only child, and as Barry has never flown on a plane and Lena has many times. To show that it is perfect, Anderson grounds it in the stereotype of “opposites attract.” It is a love truer than that, though. Lena always tells the truth, and eventually gets Barry to, too. And the power that she gives him is supreme, enough to tell off his sisters and to scare off Dean the Mattress Man. (On a side note, did you know that Anderson actually based Dean off of a real “mattress guy”? Or that he emblazoned Barry’s knuckles on one hand with “love,” in a reference to “The Night of the Hunter”?)
The art direction/set decoration by Sue Chan, Jay R. Hart, and Lori A. Noyes I also much appreciate. I really enjoyed the set of the warehouse, which involves objects that could fall (or break) at any given moment, just like inside of Barry’s head. It’s an indelible image to see any one of the characters strolling by the tons and tons of plungers.
Shots from the film (if you would like to view the images without the blog stuff on top of them, click on them):
A random car crashing almost immediately followed by the drop-off of the harmonium. This is somewhat echoed later on by the vehicle speeding past breaking Barry's solitude and provoking him to carry the harmonium away.
The spinning car crash, which echoes the blue close-ups above.
The pinhole on the hands.
Maybe "I am Love" referenced this one?
The swaying kiss.
These three shots, especially the latter two, echo each other. Pink vs. blue, red vs. blue, white vs. blue.
Grey vs. blue, in a confrontation.
Blue vs. red, and with weird angles like the one below.
Opening shot of the film. Barry is isolated. This plays against the fact that when he's with Lena, his solo shots are constantly framed with her.
In these two shots, as well as in other instances, Barry is framed in a door.
Framed here between streamers.
The above shot is followed by this spread, in a nice editing move. This represents Barry's ever broken equilibrium.
Amazing spread, one of 3 different angles of this solitude (that's broken in the moment noted above).
Very nice spread.
A friend tells me that this nice composition is referential of Andres Gursky, and it is.
Part of "line of heads" sequence.
Amazing shot that's part of a very well done take.
Camera turns sideways as Barry is falling.
Famous nice composition of despair. Knuckles of love like Mitchem's.
One of the shots of someone walking by plungers. As said above, indelible.
Barry's dive. A memorable moment that stays with me. Notice the red arrow, directing him forward.
Thanks to David Bordwell (and Christopher Bourne for showing me to him) and Glenn Dunks for inspiring me with their similar "visual essays."
