For Your Eyes: The Master

"The Master" was definitely nowhere close to "There Will Be Blood" but we did like these parts about P.T. Anderson's new film... 1) Freddie Quell's upper lip - something about it made the character completely perfect and made us wonder how much time Joaquin Phoenix had to spend practicing that curl/lift? 2) Jonny Greenwood's soundtrack - here's a run on sentence about what made the soundtrack so fucking good... the heavy plucking of strings and eerie, somber syncopated march rhythms combined with lengthy, high pitches created an anxious feeling in the viewer so that he/she can: A) get a sense of the difficulties people faced post-WW2 from having to rebuild the physical and mental state of things and B) feel the darkness of a group of people who have fell under the spell of the ideas and vision of one man. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9oZDKFoCqAw 3) Mihai Malaimare Jr.'s cinematography - it was all put together pretty amazingly but we have two favorite cinematographic moments: A) the depth of field created by a top down shot of Freddie Quell passed the fuck out, up high on top of the navy ship and his shipmates are throwing things up at him to try and wake him up. B) the smooth, tracking shot of Freddie Quell sneakily getting onto Lancaster Dodd's boat not only communicates Quell as a stowaway but also allows the viewer to get acquainted and understand the layout of the boat itself. This teaser clip is a good example of the Romanian cinematographer's brilliance... http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=q9dxtOjCwOM 4) colors, colors, colors - creamy, tonal, soft, muted, pale colors contrasted with heavily subdued, drab, darks make up the gorgeous palette that helps carry the tone of the movie.