Jonny Greenwood has become a wonderful collaborator for Paul Thomas Anderson. His haunting and disarming scores for There Will Be Blood, The Master and Inherent Vice are simply unshakable in their phenomenal minimalist vibes, echoing the soul of their lead characters while ratcheting up the atmosphere, tension or unsettling perversion in their airs. They're three-for-three at the moment, but they may soon be four-for-four. They've already have their next project together picked, completed and ready to premiere at the New York Film Festival (NYFF), all of this done under cinephiles' noses.
Confirmed on Anderson's fan site, Cigarettes & Red Vines, the 55-minute documentary, called Junun, explores the Radiohead> musician during his recent India exploits, where he recorded an album with Israeli musician Shye Ben Tzur and other illustrious local musicians. It's the filmmaker's first documentary, and also one of the first he's shot (at least partially) digitally. It makes its World Premiere under the Special Events category, and is described by the festival as "pure magic."
Anderson joins Christopher Nolan and Noam Baumbach in the list of high-profile filmmakers making short documentaries beyond the public-at-large's notice. It was only a few days ago when Nolan's The Quay Brothers in 35mm premiered at New York's Film Forum, while Noah Baumbach recently co-directed De Palma with Jake Paltrow, which is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival in just a matter of weeks, as well as screen at NYFF. Baumbach and Paltrow's short joins a number of recent inclusions to the New York-based film festival, including Chevalier, Heart of a Dog, the Cannes-acclaimed Son of Saul revival screenings for Blow-Out, Ran, A Touch of Zen and an anniversary showing of the great Coen brothers film O Brother Where Art Thou, just to name a few.
This is just one project the surprisingly busy-of-late Anderson worked on recently. He also directed a Joanna Newsom music video earlier this month and signed on to write, and potentially direct, Robert Downey Jr's upcoming Pinocchio re-telling the month prior. Hopefully this isn't the end of Anderson's contributions at the moment. The director's known to take extended breaks, but he's apparently gotten himself in a pretty good groove.
Image courtesy of INFphoto.com