Of Blood and Beards
by Giampaolo Bianconi
If only Philip Seymour Hoffman looked like Heather Graham (Anderson directing "Boogie Nights")
Variety broke the news yesterday about Paul Thomas Anderson’s next feature, which it describes as exploring “the need to believe in a higher power.” The film will star frequent Anderson collaborator and now-portlier-than-ever Philip Seymour Hoffman as the founder of a fictitious religious movement in the 1950s. Hoffman’s character, according to Variety, is referred to in the film as “the Master,” (in the sense of a master of ceremonies) which gives me hope that Anderson might delve into the art of stage magic and slight-of-hand trickery–a concept not so foreign to the idea of religion in the twentieth century. Anderson, for those of you who don’t know, is the son of this man. He’s also collaborated with the great Ricky Jay. (more…)