FRESH AIR
For Paul Thomas Anderson, moviemaking is not just an art; it’s also about time management. “At its best, a film set is when everybody knows what’s going on and everybody’s working together,” he tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “At its worst, [it’s] when something’s been lost in communication and an actor’s not sure how many shots are left or what’s going on, and the makeup department’s confused.” Anderson wrote and directed the new film The Master, which stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a cult leader and Joaquin Phoenix as a troubled World War II veteran who makes his way into the group. Navy veteran Freddie (Phoenix) falls under the influence of cult leader Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in Anderson’s film, which critic Ella Taylor describes as “one of the most twisted father-son tales ever told.” Navy veteran Freddie (Phoenix) falls under the influence of cult leader Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in Anderson’s film, which critic Ella Taylor describes as “one of the most twisted father-son tales ever told.” For the film, Anderson conducted research about Dianetics — a metaphysical theory created by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard — and its early followers, including one couple’s newsletters about yoga, new diets and past-lives therapy. He says that poring over these writings was “the best way to try to hold hands with the past and get to know these people,” and that “there was a kind of wide-open feeling to a lot of things, reading, and a lot of investigation and openness to anything, which felt like a pre-hippie thinking.” MORE
PREVIOUSLY: Dan Buskirk’s review of The Master