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The opening of Magnolia (1999) is a masterwork of storytelling. Are there any other films that share its style? Does it pay homage to other works, or was this a new spark of genius?
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The opening of Magnolia (1999) is a masterwork of storytelling. Are there any other films that share its style? Does it pay homage to other works, or was this a new spark of genius?
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View Reddit by treemeizer – View Source
I think Magnolia is like the biggest fusion of PTA’s Robert Altman and David Foster Wallace education
After Magnolia, i think the beggining of Amelie Poulain sort remind me this type of intro, with a quick storytelling before the true story begins. Before Magnolia, I can’t think in nothing exactly like this, but the short documentary movie [“Island of Flowers”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQcdXh9v0pA) sort of remind me of Magnolia, in the way it starded with a lot of short pieces of trivia in order to prepare the
viewer to the major point of the movie.
The part about the suicide jumper getting shot on the way down is a reference to a hypothetical case presented to the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. The story originated in 1987 and was published to the internet in 1994, and shared widely ever since. [Here’s a Snopes article](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/1994s-most-bizarre-suicide/) which mentions the story’s inclusion in Magnolia.
This movie was incredible when it came out. This movie, and American Beauty were major standouts that year, both with excellent intros.
Definetly miss his Altman/Scorcese inffluenced era.
But it was neat to see the growth in style from this to PDL to TWBB.
Jon Brions score + Aimee Manns songs were quintessential to the overall feel of the film. Theres like a period of 20-30mins where music plays non-stop.
This is the greatest movie ever made
Yes, it pays homage to an old tradition (dead now probably) of anthology comic books focused on multiple “strange tales” (no idea if there’s a proper name for the genre) in one issue. The last title I remember is DC’s Wasteland from the late 80s. Sometimes the stories had a partial basis in reality, but often were just interesting or horrifying or anxiety inducing ideas with less of a fantasy or sci-fi element than earlier similar comics.
Tv shows like Tales from the Crypt did something similar on television a few years before Magnolia and X-files to a certain extent (not every x-file was about aliens).
Obviously The Twilight Zone did the same thing long before but with obvious unreal subject matter of aliens, time travel, etc… though there a few Twilight Zones where these “coincidence?!?!?” type stories would have fit.
Wait, Patton Oswalt was in Magnolia?
This intro immediately followed by the opening song is some of the best cinema has to offer!
Maybe “it’s such a beautiful day” by don hertzfeldt
So good.
The whole of idea of coincidences and strange occurrences was something that rubbed off on PTA from his friend Michael Penn. Robert Altman of course was an influence, especially his film Short Cuts. Plus PTA was influenced by many musicians at Luna Lounge in L.A. at the time like Aimee Mann and Jon Brion.