Punch Drunk Love: the Budding of an Auteur 10/31/10 5:22 PM
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Punch Drunk Love: The Budding of an Auteur 10/31/10 5:22 PM contents great directors cteq annotations top tens about us links archive search Punch Drunk Love: The Budding of an Auteur by Cubie King P. T. Anderson Cubie King is finishing a noir play entitled Untitled 44. He also recently completed and co- directed a pseudo-documentary, Triple A Town: Tucson, U.S.A. (33 mins). This one came from my stomach. It's referenceless. When you start out, you latch onto other styles, to help you get across what you're trying to say. But this one is mine somehow – and I'm proud of that. – P. T. Anderson (1) … for every part of the life of man has need of harmony and rhythm. – Plato, Protagoras It has been firmly established by now that Paul Thomas Anderson is a formidable young director at the forefront of American cinema, but with his most recent film, Punch Drunk Love, it can be argued that Anderson has taken a seminal step into the realm of auteur. Prior to Punch Drunk Love Anderson's first three films – Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), and Magnolia (1999) – dealt with themes of alienation, regret, dysfunctional families and, ultimately, a character's search for someplace to call “home”. Each film ends with slight optimism that is nonetheless overshadowed by its transience. Punch Drunk Love is an evolution of these films, while sharing similar thematic issues; it attempts to tell its story semantically. Unlike the others, Punch Drunk Love creates its own distinct cinematic vocabulary (shedding influences, whom he cites, such as Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme) becoming the first film he can call distinctively “his own“. With trenchant use of mise en scène, Anderson integrates cinematography, sound, production design, costumes and locations to offer a purely subjective experience seen through the eyes and emotions of his protagonist Barry Egan (Adam Sandler). Punch Drunk Love is by far Anderson's most complex film, challenging its audience to consider choices of colour, to battle through unconventional sound design, and to find meaning in objects that may initially appear to be irrelevant. One could suggest the central image of the film is the abstract artwork of Jeremy Blake. These abstract montages immediately introduce the audience to a more venturesome, ambiguous approach unseen in Anderson's works thus far, an emergence into a more conceptual form of storytelling. The uneasiness of these montages, and their sheer beauty, within seconds captures the mood of the film. They serve not only as brilliant segues within the film's narrative but also contribute to a larger purpose of imbuing the viewer with an intense, discombobulated sensation that can only be described as “punch drunk”. http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/05/35/pt_anderson.html Page 1 of 6 Punch Drunk Love: The Budding of an Auteur 10/31/10 5:22 PM Anderson also uses colors as key indicators of Barry's psychological battle; blue, red and white being the most prominent. Blue is largely seen in Barry's workplace and home; it is also the colour of Barry's suit that he curiously begins wearing the day the film begins. Barry is literally blue throughout most of the film. Red is used more frequently, most obviously as the red dress worn by Lena (Emily Watson); but it is also placed strategically throughout the film to take on a very important meaning, as I will show. White is not used as strategically as red, but its usage is just as important. It can almost be said that red and white are in contention with one another due to their polar purposes. Red serves as the colour that leads to Barry's happiness. Very precise red objects throughout the film visually direct Barry out of his damaged life (or psyche) and point him in the direction of escape and/or change. Take for instance the first scene in the supermarket. Barry walks down an aisle whispering to himself, “What am I looking for?” As he utters Fig 1 this, in the far background, a woman in a red dress is visible. When Barry turns his head and notices her watching him she quickly walks off (fig 1). This woman could be seen as Lena, but more importantly a manifestation of the “idea” of Lena, what Barry is actually “looking for”. Because the woman is never identified, the colour red becomes the most important aspect of the sequence. Anderson answers Barry's “What am I looking for?” visually (there is no motivation otherwise to explain this), thus showing us tangible elements of Barry's subconscious in an environment which we assume is entirely real. The usage of the colour red goes well beyond Lena's dress (which she wears in all but a few Fig 2 scenes), a red arrow can be spotted pointing the way to escape from the four blonde brothers (fig 2) or in the supermarket a red arrow points in the direction of where Barry will find the pudding (the pudding offers a way out for Barry). Fig 3 Another scene has Barry leaving his workplace in pursuit of Lena who is in Hawaii; a red diesel passes the frame (fig 3) as he runs in the same direction. In the foreground of the following shot, Barry walks down an airport terminal; two stewardesses dressed in red Fig 4 await him (fig 4). White, on the other hand, takes on a much more sophisticated role. White is the colour that coats many of the barren rooms throughout the film. If red works towards Barry's mirth, then white works in the opposite, as his oppressor. Throughout the film Barry travels through all white environments http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/05/35/pt_anderson.html Page 2 of 6 Punch Drunk Love: The Budding of an Auteur 10/31/10 5:22 PM that are Fig 5 sparse, isolated, nondescript, and cold. Instances such as Barry's workplace resembling a large white box, or scenes of Barry running like a trapped mouse through white mazes while attempting to escape the blonde Fig 6 brothers, or finding Lena's apartment door, demonstrate its recurring influence. White is also the colour of the oppressive blown-out light which floods in and suffocates Barry from the outside world, thus emphasising a greater suppression Barry feels in all his environments (figs 5-7). This suppression correlates to the film's many compositions that imprison Barry within the frame. The tale of a young Barry throwing a hammer through a sliding glass window is recalled a few times in the film (at the family get- together; Lena mentions it on their first date). This motif of Barry imprisoned behind a glass barrier is prevalent throughout the film, like a person trapped in a fish bowl, a strong visual Fig 7 and thematic metaphor. Barry's work office is a room entirely surrounded by glass; he's literally trapped within, continuing the repression Barry's felt since childhood. In one scene Barry actually walks straight into the glass door. Earlier scenes show Barry's frustration build to such a crescendo that the only way he knows to deal with it is through physical violence, hence the breaking of sliding glass windows at the family get-together (fig 8), and also the bathroom in the restaurant, but as he begins to fall for Lena he learns to restrain his rage. Not coincidentally, when Barry finally resolves Fig 8 his problems with the D&D Mattress Man, Dean Trumbell (Phillip S. Hoffman), a low shot reveals the mattress warehouse is made up of large glass windows. Barry has now freed himself from his mental and physical imprisonment (fig 9). A constant duality is always at play in Punch Fig 9 Drunk Love: the oppressive white light that constantly engulfs Barry is contrasted by the warm yellow light which emanates from the harmonium the first time he attempts to play the instrument. This same warm light appears again atop a telephone booth the moment Barry hears Lena's voice in Hawaii. Anderson, in the role of cinematic painter, does not use his colour palette arbitrarily, but fastidiously, utilising colour as a vital component of his story, indeed a modern Expressionist. Beyond colour Anderson also uses objects such as unpacked boxes, pudding, diesel trucks, and a harmonium to lend meaning as well. A vacuous, empty space is present in almost all locations throughout the film and successfully captures the enormous lack of love Barry feels. The austere, almost “unlived-in” homes (and workplace) of Barry and Lena are peppered with unpacked boxes lying in various corners. The boxes reinforce Anderson's preeminent theme of wandering, of being unsettled, characters always searching for family, home, and/or http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/05/35/pt_anderson.html Page 3 of 6 Punch Drunk Love: The Budding of an Auteur 10/31/10 5:22 PM love. The Fig 10: Hard Eight Fig 11: Punch Drunk Love drifting diesel trucks can also be read in a similar fashion. These are vehicles that move boxes from place to place and are never stationary a perfect symbol of his characters. In fact, the opening shot of Anderson's first film, Hard Eight, is of a diesel truck passing the frame seconds before we are meet his first wanderer (see figs 10 and 11). Other vehicles play an important role as well: airplanes represent an escape for Barry, and a red taxi drops the harmonium in the middle of the road for him. The harmonium is the most multifaceted of objects in the film, open for several interpretations, and the mystery of it is essential in understanding its purpose.