Paul Thomas Anderson's epic There Will Be Blood had its first public screening tonight as the Closing Night Film (and as a super secret screening) of Fantastic Fest 2007. Make no mistake, this is an amazing work of art. As one of the Fantastic Fest programmers, I've known this film was coming our way for a while now, so don't chalk this up to sheer surprise or excitement or bias: There Will Be Blood is one of the best films of the year. Daniel Day-Lewis is obviously a major component of it, but Anderson's poetic treatment of the material cannot be dismissed. Plus, in a pleasant turn of events, co-star Paul Dano delivers a delicious and demented performance that could earn some serious award consideration a few months from now. God Bless P.T. Anderson, for making his fifth consecutive slam dunk. I'm just so stunned and impressed and shaken by this film.

For the first 15 minutes or so, there is no dialogue. Just men at work, and a swelling violin by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. And then, oil! Before long, Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview is doing what he can to uncover more of it, at any price. This leads to the discovery of a small community sitting "on an ocean of oil." Plainview sets up shop, but ends up warring against Dano's Eli Sunday, a young evangelist out to preach God's will and save souls. It soon becomes a battle between the two enterprising men, and each actor explodes with charisma and terror. Anderson is the architect of some great American stories, and this is one of his finest. Loosely based on Upton Sinclair's book, Oil!, the film is all Anderson. There are flourishes of Stanley Kubrick, Terrence Malick, and Robert Altman (to whom the film is dedicated) but Anderson steps up his game as a master filmmaker beautifully telling a very scary story.

It was a great way to end the third annual Fantastic Fest. I think it was a great year. And, at the Closing Night Party, fellow organizers Tim League and Harry Knowles both looked at me and we just had a moment of pride. Here are some pictures I took in the final few days:

(Paul Thomas Anderson, left, greets the ecstatic audience after the first public screening of his amazing new film, There Will Be Blood. Alamo Drafthouse chief Tim League is on hand to moderate the Q&A.)
(Nacho Vigalondo, left, had one of the biggest hits of the festival: Time Crimes. He's here, chatting between screenings, with Chris "Massawyrm" Cargill of Ain't It Cool News. )
(The Orphanage crew had a terrific screening that they said topped their experiences at Cannes and Toronto. Here's the director, Juan Antonio Bayona, on the left and writer Sergio Sanchez. Interesting tidbit: while both filmmakers live in Spain, Sanchez spent one year of high school in Abilene, TX.)
(Liz Brambilla, from Picturehouse, cuts a smile at Fantastic Fest, in-between taking care of the Orphanage guys.)
(Cinematical writer Scott Weinberg hosted one of the festival's more unique and popular live events: Fantastic Feud. It was a game show style scenario, pitting the North American horror "experts" against those from Europe. It was a raucous and entertaining event, that soon gave way to a debaucherous karaoke session.)

Rush Blogg > Første anmeldelser av There Will Be Blood - Vi har flere ganger skrevet om det utrolig gode filmåret 2007, som begynte med filmfestivalen i Berlin i februar og som summeres opp av det amerikanske Oscar-kappløpet. There Will Be Blood er en av filmene vi har omtalt opptil flere ganger, og in... (09/29/07)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Name
Email
URL
Comments

Remember personal info?