Research On The Beauty Of Absurd In Paul Thomas Anderson’s Films

“Absurd” came into being in people’s continuous cognition of the world,it was conceived in the embrace of irrationalism,and it emphasized the opposition between man and the world.In different historical periods,people have different understandings of the absurd,and their experiences and feelings about the absurd are also different.With the aesthetic turn of Western modern art at the end of the 19 th century,the absurd officially entered the historical stage,and gradually entered the aesthetic category after the absurdist drama appeared.In the modern context since the 20 th century,with the development of science and technology and the progress of the times,artistic expressions have gradually become richer,so the display of absurd beauty has become more and more colorful,and people’s aesthetic feelings of absurdity have become more and more diversified.Among them,film art,as one of the modern art categories,is a major position for people to express their cognition of absurd aesthetics.Based on the rapid modernization process of the United States and the film movement under the social background trend of the last century,the absurdity is an artistic feature.It is particularly prominent in American independent films.As a pioneer representative of the American independent film movement,Paul Thomas Anderson’s films focus on reflecting people’s understanding and feeling of the absurd in modern society,as well as the struggle and struggle to escape from the absurd.resist.He tries to show his grasp of the absurd in terms of the thematic conception,characterization,composition or narration of the film,as well as his continuous exploration of the presentation of the absurd beauty.This article will rely on the absurd beauty contained in the absurdist literature and the absurdist drama and the interpretation of the absurd in the existential philosophy as the theoretical basis,mainly through the narrative theme,characterization,narrative techniques and audio-visual expression in Paul Thomas Anderson’s films The absurdity contained in his film is analyzed and explained from several angles.This thesis includes an introduction part and main research content parts.The introduction mainly discusses the significance and value of the research in the thesis.Secondly,it discusses the current research status of PTA films and absurd beauty at home and abroad and makes a brief review of the creation of PTA films,and summarizes the absurd beauty contained in PTA films and its causes.The research content of this thesis is divided into four chapters:The first chapter is to sort out the theories related to the absurd beauty.By comparing it with the aesthetic categories of the sublime,tragedy,drama,and ugliness,the uniqueness of the absurd beauty is clarified.Then it discusses the representation of absurd beauty in art.The second chapter first analyzes the absurd beauty contained in the theme of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films based on the essence of the absurd: human beings feel rational and irrational,Harmony and division,eternal and ephemeral.In the confrontation with the world,people have a silent sense of pulling and frustration,and the sense of emptiness of existence arises spontaneously,which makes people feel absurd.Based on Camus’ s philosophical thinking on the absurd,his admiration for the spirit of the absurd,and the final aesthetic feeling of the absurd,this chapter classifies the different choices that the characters make in the face of the absurd:physical suicide,philosophical suicide and resistance to the absurd.Second,in the shaping of the characters in the film,Paul Thomas Anderson externalized the characters’ loneliness,anxiety and fear by showing the characters’ inner loneliness,anxiety and fear,and externalizing the characters’ depressing,absurd,extreme,meaningless and dislocated behaviors.The spiritual world,in order to analyze the reasons for the alienation of characters-absurdity.PTA reveals this philosophical phenomenon through the artistic creation of the film,thereby conveying the absurd beauty of the film’s content to the audience.The third chapter is the artistic expression of the absurd beauty of Anderson’s films.The first is the analysis of the narrative method of his films,mainly from the three aspects of plot,narrative technique and narrative space.Anderson aims to break the objective time and space constraints,and build a full of absurdity with rich perspectives and contingent story lines.The world of images tells "absurdity" with an absurd narrative.Furthermore,it discusses how Anderson presents an absurd sensory impact through figurative audio-visual effects.This is the operation link of the film director showing the film shooting technology.He uses a series of props and machines unique to the film art to create frame by frame precious visual images and an auditory feast.The shooting of the camera,the structure of the picture,the light and shadow,and the sound that promotes the emotions,all of which make up a film,are particularly important and indispensable.Through the unique picture structure,strong contrast of light and shadow,emotional music and ambiguous sound,the alienated and divided image of absurd people is created,which exposes the darkness,ugliness or confusion and boredom of the characters to the audience,and profoundly tells an absurd story.The story and the sense of absurdity are naturally revealed and diffused with the expression of audio-visual language,which makes the film have an aesthetic experience of absurd beauty.The last chapter is a reflection and evaluation of the absurd beauty of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films,in order to more clearly define his individual film absurd beauty;and compare him with directors of similar styles to clarify this aspect of the absurd beauty in the film.The different presentation methods of artistic features and aesthetic feelings under the creation of different “The author director” aim to clarify the uniqueness of this director and film art,and to locate the uniqueness of its style more clearly;finally,it is concluded that the absurd beauty in Anderson’s films is a highlight of his film style,which has a certain sense of the value of the times.When analyzing the characteristics of his film art,in the Under the premise that his films still have limitations,he affirms their extraordinary theoretical and practical significance to the development of current films.