Word: make
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...they are absolute fact. "These strange things happen all the time," he offers with an invisible smirk. Inventive and charmingly frank as this introduction is, what's even craftier is that no such odd confluence of circumstance proceeds to occur in any one of the eight intersecting storylines that make up the rest of the film. In fact, in all three, thoroughly engaging hours, it's amazing to note that almost nothing happens...
Perhaps that's a misleading remark; after all, Magnolia never drags, and it bears no resemblance whatsoever to immobile talkfests like My Dinner with Andre. But while its characters do make choices, take actions and find themselves in precarious positions, none of these happenings brings about an "event"--a predicament that alters the course of the story or distracts from initial situations. Which is perfect, since the characters' situations are already so rich and deeply human to begin with...
...screenwriting, mainstream or otherwise, is to surprise the audience by constantly introducing obstacles that prevent a character from achieving his goal. Anderson defies expectation specifically by refusing to produce such hurdles. While he has the opportunity to create critical wins or losses in each story, he refuses to make plot take over and refreshingly redirects these moments, remaining faithful to character and allowing conflicted desire to obstruct itself. The mosaic storytelling of the film, handled with exquisite skill by editor Dylan Tichenor, is well formatted for this type of examination because in the absence of event, it keeps our interest...
...call telling me that these private individuals had a Mondrian and were interested in placing it in a museum in the U.S. that didn't have a Mondrian and would make good use of it, that would take a careful and scholarly approach and not just put it in storage," said Cooper, who wrote his dissertation on Mondrian...
With this style, Mondrian explored the structure of oppositions, but tried to make them fuse into unity and balance...