Paul Thomas Anderson Chooses Five Films to View Before One Battle After Another as Tickets Become Available

      We are just weeks away from the major autumn event: the release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s much-anticipated film, One Battle After Another. The director has shared a special note about the VistaVision and 70mm screenings (check the locations here), and tickets for select "first showing" IMAX 70mm screenings on September 24 are now available ahead of the film’s release on September 26. These screenings are named “Strategically Unprepared,” with NYC’s AMC Lincoln Square listing available here, along with additional locations nationwide here.

      Anderson has also made a return to TCM to curate a selection of five films that will be shown on the opening day of One Battle After Another. Although he hasn’t specifically identified them as influences, their relationship to his latest work is evident: Sidney Lumet’s Running on Empty, which tells the story of an activist family on the run; Martin Brest’s buddy action comedy Midnight Run; William Friedkin’s The French Connection, featuring one of cinema's greatest car chases; Gillo Pontecorvo’s historical epic The Battle of Algiers; and John Ford’s western classic The Searchers, also filmed in VistaVision and revolving around the quest to find a kidnapped child.

      Check out PTA’s note and video below, as well as the trailers for his five influential films.

      

      Running on Empty (Sidney Lumet)

      

      The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)

      

      Midnight Run (Martin Brest)

      

      The French Connection (William Friedkin)

      

      The Searchers (John Ford)