Erstellt am: 9. 2. 2015 - 16:47 Uhr
Der Kult einer Ära
Paul Thomas Anderson hat am Freitag seinen neuesten Film "Inherent Vice" am Start. Nach "The Master" über den US-Sektenkult nach Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs, widmet sich PTA, wie er kurz um genannt wird, dem Kult einer Ära. Nämlich der Gegenkultur der kalifornischen Hippies um 1970. Joaquin Phoenix ist einmal mehr Andersons Hauptdarsteller. Im komischen Crime-Drama "Inherent Vice" spielt er den eingerauchten Privatdetektiv Doc Sportello, der in Kalifornien mit drogenschwangerer Paranoia ausgestattet, seine auf mysteriöse Weise abgetauchte Freundin sucht.
Eine Story, ein bizarr spaßiges Hirngespinst, das aus der Feder des sagenumwobenen US-Autors Thomas Pynchon stammt. Sagenumwoben, weil der Öffentlichkeit - außer einem einmal veröffentlichten Jugendfoto von Pynchon nichts über Aussehen und Aufenthalt bekannt ist. Die Gerüchte, dass Regisseur Paul Thomas Anderson den kultig verehrten Schriftsteller getroffen hat, als er "Inherent Vice" gedreht hat, kann er im Interview mit Petra Erdmann natürlich nicht bestätigen.
Petra Erdmann: Why do you think you are the first director doing an authorized adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel? Was it hard to get his permission?
Paul Thomas Anderson: I don't know what it was. I got no idea. I don't know if anybody asked and he declined.
Did you ask personally?
Not personally, no. I absolutely never met the man. I've loved him forever an I've always thougt he was the greatest. If the movie helps people discover his books - or makes them patient enough to try to read his books - then that's fucking enough for me. That's great.
The film is more deliriant than your other films. It is more like the structure in Pynchons novels. Are you satisfied with that?
Well, satisfied, yes. I suppose for now. I did the best I could, let's put it this way. Actually last night I had a really nice idea for a scene that I wish I had put in. But,... I am done with the movie.
Tell us a bit about this scene!
There is a great description in the book about going up to this party in a canyon. And one of the kind of darker parts of it is that there is a person who decides to see what it is like to give LSD to a dog. It is such a kind of perfect way to illustrate how fucked up things are. That these hippies, that are so kind of excited about experimenting with their minds and drugs and love and all these sort of things ... that there are a few of them that have gotten to that desperate part of humanity that think it's okay to give LSD to a dog and see what happens. It is so fucking horrible. And that's all in one little thing like that. And I thought like: Fuck, I blew it. I wish I'd gotten that in the movie.
How did you create that pictures of the hippies? Except from the novel, did you watch any other films?
There was kind of a movement of films that was trying to show hippies in the sixties. Fucking horrible, I mean, really embarrassing. At the very beginning they had love bites and big glasses and they say "peace",... humiliating to a hippy, I suppose. But what you do have outside of those kind of hollywood films and stuff like that, is: Anything Neil Young did. You know, he made a great movie called "Journey Through the Past", which is kind of like a home movie. Those are the things: When you find them shooting themselves, that stuff is really helpful.
What was the biggest challenge for you doing "Inherent Vice"?
The amount of time that it took. The energy that it took. We shot for sixty days and my wife was pregnant at that time and we were shooting very long hours... Going tired in the middle,... very practical things, very real life things. I dont have a lot of stamnia in me and this is like a sixteen hour day. You are getting tired, the crew is tired and then there is a small thing, usually nobody would complain about it, but ...
Was it important for you to stick as much as possible to Pynchons novel?
Yes, because it is good. So we were always trying to be faithful to the book. Sometimes too faithful, but we learned that lesson very early. First we didn't want to change a single word. Once we started messing with it a little bit more it got better.
Could you tell us more about the relationship between film and literature? This is not the first great novel you've made an adaptation of.
To be better for the book you have to be rough with it. Don't be so literary, don't be so referential, don't be so respectful. Actually just get dirty with it. That was always better! Every single time we tried to be referential and literary it was bad.
What do you think about counterculture, is there any left today? What is the opposite of hollywood as an establishment? Are you a part of that?
I am like completely establishment! I take the money and i pay my bills. I don't know if there is anything like a counterculture there. That's a great question actually. All the money is coming from somewhere illegal. You know, there is some human rights violation somewhere where the money is coming fo finance these films, so...