Paul Thomas Anderson Talks Dangers Of Romanticizing Cinematic History & Falling Movie Ticket Sales

Paul Thomas Anderson‘s latest film, the elegantly weird “Phantom Thread,” is the director’s most formally reserved effort yet. There are no flashy camera moves in the romantic drama, which Anderson has stated that the film owes a debt to Gothic romances of yore, such as Alfred Hitchcock‘s impeccable “Rebecca.” However, don’t mistake his adoration of classic movies (“Something about TCM and those films speak to me. I don’t even need to love a film that I’m watching as long as it’s old“) for blanket nostalgia for the past.

Speaking with Financial Times, Anderson cautions against romanticizing cinematic history, and believing that movies from the past are somehow inherently better than pictures being made today.

“I’m looking at an old newspaper from the 1950s, which everyone sort of looks back at and says, ‘God, that was a glorious time’ — and I’m like, look, I just looked at the newspaper and there’s maybe three movies that I’ve heard of which are fantastic, that are still classics. But there’s 50 movies out that I’ve never heard of — [and] each one looks like a bigger piece of shit than the last one!” he said.

If you start getting into some pile of romanticizing, like, ‘The 1990s, that’s when it all happened and it hasn’t happened since then’ . . . it kind of ends up minimizing anything that might be going on today, and you can’t . . . ” he added, trailing off. “That’s not f***ing good.”

Certainly, that’s sound advice against anyone who sniffs they don’t watch any cinema made past 1979 or some other arbitrary year. Still, it’s hard to ignore that even in this current blockbuster/superhero boom, movie ticket sales are way down. In fact, 2017 marked the lowest moviegoing period since 1995. But for Anderson, he’s not ready to throw in the towel just yet, and for the kind of arthouse movies he makes, he’s not all that concerned about the audience disappearing. He’s also come to grips that like it or not, there are some people who will first watch “Phantom Thread”on their iPhone.

“Well, yes, you know, another word for purist is ‘snob.’ So — I’m a snob,” he admits. “I’m past that ‘what the f***’ moment. I mean, that happened a while ago. That’s already become . . . it’s not ‘what the f***’ any more.”

As for moviegoing coming to end, he remains skeptical. “No. Could it?”

“Hmm, I don’t know about that one,” he added. “Tell that to Disney.”

“Phantom  Thread” is now playing.