All feature films by American director Paul Thomas Anderson, from a filmography described as “concise but continuously captivating,” will be screened from April 11 at Batalha — Centro de Cinema in Porto.
The retrospective, announced today, runs from April 11 to June 13, exploring “Anderson’s cinematic universes, which always oscillate between obsession and redemption.” The programme, titled “Obsession According to Paul Thomas Anderson,” will follow a chronological order, with one exception in the presentation of the first two films.
The cycle opens with “Boogie Nights” (1997), described as a “portrait of the euphoric and decadent golden era of the 1970s pornography industry,” followed on April 16 by his first feature “Hard Eight” (1996), with Philip Baker Hall and John C. Reilly — two actors he would call upon for several subsequent works.
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“Without obvious heroes or villains, Anderson’s films centre on complex, often obsessive characters driven by ambition, desire or loneliness — figures that mirror the tensions of contemporary American society,” the Batalha notes.
Eight other films will pass through Porto, including “Magnolia” (1999), “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002), “There Will Be Blood” (2007) and “One Battle After Another” (2025), which won six Oscars last Sunday including best picture, directing and adapted screenplay.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” won Best Picture at the Oscars, last Sunday. Photo credits: AFP
Anderson, 55, has also collected top prizes at the major film festivals: the Golden Bear in Berlin for “Magnolia,” best directing at Cannes for “Punch-Drunk Love” and the Silver Lion in Venice for “The Master.” “Influenced by auteurs such as Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese, he quickly developed a singular voice, building a filmography that crosses genres and historical periods,” the Batalha said.
