For nearly as long as he’s been directing feature films, Paul Thomas Anderson has also had a low-key career as a top-tier music video director. Since Anderson’s features are often the kind of cinematic statements that the viewer is forced to wrestle with intellectually, it’s hard not to look at his music videos as just a fun thing he does on the side. However, if you look at PTA’s output as a music video director, you can see all sorts of visual touches that also appear in his films and vice versa. Also, the fact that Anderson cast Alana Haim as the lead in his upcoming Licorice Pizza makes the case that PTA’s music videos are an integral part of his evolution as an artist.
Though at the same time, they are still a fun thing he does on the side. Freed from the boundaries of narrative storytelling (for the most part), his music videos let the director indulge his more playful side while also seeing just how many different things he can do with a steadicam. If you thought his films showed a love of long takes and tracking shots, they've got nothing on the elaborate journeys that Anderson’s camera goes on in the various empty buildings and L.A. streets featured in his videos. While Anderson’s movies have become more meticulous as his career has progressed, his modestly-budgeted music videos show a place where the director can pare things down and see what he can do with just a camera, a musician, and a great song.
“Try” - Michael Penn (1997)
Known for its extensive use of ‘70s pop music set to a wandering camera penetrating the lives of some thoroughly messed up porn industry personalities, Boogie Nights also features a score provided by composer and singer/songwriter Michael Penn. Apart from this overt connection to Boogie Nights, Paul Thomas Anderson’s first music video (filmed around the same time) features all sorts of connections to his break-out film. Not only does Anderson indulge the same “long take set to music” mastery that he showed in Boogie Nights’ opening sequence, but the video also features Boogie Nights alumni Philip Seymour Hoffman and Thomas Jane. Filmed in an office building in downtown L.A. that contains the largest hallway in North America, this one unbroken shot of a video is remarkably ambitious for a 3-minute clip and serves as a taste of what was to come in both PTA’s movies and music videos.
“Save Me” - Aimee Mann (1999)
Since there’s a memorable scene late in 1999’s Magnolia where all of the various San Fernando Valley residents that inhabit the film sing along to Aimee Mann’s “Wise Up”, the singer had already left her mark on the film. However, this single (which was nominated for an Academy Award) and its accompanying music video make Aimee Mann and Magnolia feel even more intertwined. Though maybe not the most impressive of PTA’s videos, it’s still more inspired than it needed to be considering it was filmed alongside the movie itself. Opting not to go the lazy route of filming a soundtrack music video that inserts random movie clips into an otherwise unrelated video, Anderson quite literally drops Mann into the movie’s universe. We see her quite earnestly singing to the camera in these long lingering shots where she’s haunting the characters, not unlike the way her music haunts Magnolia itself.
“Paper Bag” - Fiona Apple (2000)
Paul Thomas Anderson and Fiona Apple were, quite simply, a match made in Gen X heaven. The two dated for a year or two around the turn of the century, and both inhabited a certain brand of raw, unnerving cool in their work, which would only grow less commercial after they split. Though, for that short, glorious time period that the two were dating, Anderson directed a series of memorable videos, which encompassed the dizzying black-and-white accompaniment to Apple’s cover of “Across The Universe” and the bulk of the videos from Apple’s When The Pawn album. In these videos, you see both Anderson’s bravura filmmaking (in the case of “Across The Universe”) and the more off-the-cuff nature (see “Fast As You Can”) that would inhabit a lot of his later videos.
The high point of these video collaborations has got to be “Paper Bag”, which might be Fiona Apple’s best song in addition to the video being perhaps Anderson’s best in the medium. One thing (among many) that’s so great about it is how much it stands in contrast to the pricklier nature of Anderson and Apple’s personas. It’s just a gorgeously conceived ode to Hollywood musicals, while the visual of Apple dancing with a bunch of boys dressed up like it’s the ‘40s is far cuter than anything you’d expect to see in a PTA movie. Yet here, he allows his more sentimental side to flourish, while the video’s lighter tone and use of reds and blues also point the way toward his next film, 2002’s Punch Drunk Love. But even taken out of the context of Anderson as a filmmaker, the 3-minute clip stands as one of the most perfect things he ever put to film.
“Hot Knife” - Fiona Apple (2013)
There’s plenty of room to speculate why Paul Thomas Anderson went over a decade without directing music videos. It could be because he was concentrating on cinematic opuses like There Will Be Blood and The Master that didn’t allow for the distractions of less ambitious projects. It could also be because Anderson equated making music videos with his ex-girlfriend and was more interested in spending time with his new partner, Maya Rudolph, and forging a family together in his time off from making movies. Either way, Anderson buried the hatchet with his old romantic and creative partner in lieu of him and Apple re-teaming for “Hot Knife”. It’s hard not to be reminded of the amber-tinged simplicity of The Master’s visuals when watching this video, while the silhouettes of Apple and her sister, Maude Maggart, bear more than a striking resemblance to Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman staring each other down in that film. While not on the more extravagant side of PTA’s music videos, the stark lighting and the boldness of the visuals make it one of the better examples of him doing a lot with a little.
“Sapokanikan” - Joanna Newsom (2015)
Certainly, a product of Inherent Vice, the Thomas Pynchon adaptation features Joanna Newsom in a small role and as the film’s narrator. The video has a similarly spontaneous vibe to that movie, though it’s a whole lot easier to wrap your head around since it consists of little more than Newsom singing along to the song’s bouncy melody and walking some cold city streets. It’s a little strange to see anything made by Paul Thomas Anderson that isn’t set in California, but the video embraces New York City as this place where there’s always something interesting going on in the background. It’s easy to imagine that they were making up the video as they filmed it, which culminates in the happy accident of the red lights of the fire truck that illuminates Newsom’s face as she bids Anderson’s camera adieu at the tail end of the video.
“Daydreaming” - Radiohead (2016)
Considering that Radiohead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, has been one of Paul Thomas Anderson’s most essential collaborators (he’s the composer on every PTA film from There Will Be Blood to Phantom Thread), a Radiohead/PTA music video seemed inevitable. In many of the director’s films, there’s an affinity for eccentric, elusive men, so placing Thom Yorke in the middle of another one of PTA’s signature “following a singer around” videos feels absolutely natural. There isn’t a ton that sets “Daydreaming” apart from say, the Michael Penn video or the Joanna Newsom one, as it similarly sees Thom Yorke walking through doors to different environments while scenes of everyday life (literally) pass him by. But the formula works well with the dreaminess of the song, while the sheer alienation inherent in the visuals feels so appropriate for what a lot of Radiohead’s music represents. Also, the video’s finale where Yorke hops down a snow tunnel and falls into a fire-induced slumber is the kind of wonderful weirdness you’d expect from both PTA and Radiohead.
“Summer Girl” - HAIM (2019)
Ever since meeting in the mid-2010s through a mutual friend and bonding over their shared love of the San Fernando Valley, HAIM and Paul Thomas Anderson have been nearly inseparable when it comes to making music videos. Their collaboration started with the 15-minute “Valentine” video that captures the band in the studio in one long take, which Alana Haim said evoked “something that no one else had seen before and really captured us as a band.” Since then, they’ve made a string of videos together that builds on the shaggy Los Angeles aesthetic that Haim had already established in their early music videos, but have that PTA way of making something look pristine, even if the videos were conceived and filmed in a matter of days.
It’s hard to pick a favorite of the Haim/PTA videos, but there’s something especially infectious about 2019’s “Summer Girl” video, which was cooked up while Haim was working on the song in the studio and PTA dropped by. The simple “gimmick” of the video is that the three Haim sisters are constantly taking off layers of clothing as the video progresses as they inevitably embrace the heat of an L.A. summer. We see them walking through a series of different L.A. scenery (which includes cinephile mecca, The New Beverly Cinema) and generally indulging a joyful looseness that captures the hazy vibe of a hot summer night. As far as Paul Thomas Anderson’s collaborations with musicians go, you could say that this one now stands as his most fruitful, as it led to Alana Haim starring in Licorice Pizza, and we’ll see if the movie bears any other filmmaking tricks that PTA picked up from his time shooting HAIM. Or any other musician for that matter.