"Yes!" Moment #9

"Yes!" Moment #1 will fill you in on how I started this series inspired by a meme initiated by The Dancing Image and Checking On My Sausages. With Moment #8, I thought I was done, but this obsession with the power of the cinematic image goes on and on.

Moment #9 is a dissolve from Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (2007).





This magnificent dissolve connects two significant phases in the life of the dynamic Daniel Plainview, as played by Daniel Day-Lewis. In the first phase Plainview digs out the earth's mineral wealth in isolated places. This part, shown with virtually no dialogue, covers four years and ends with Plainview's adoption of an orphan baby. The extremely artistic, tender moment on the train dissovles to a point nine years later - the second phase in Plainview's life when he is a self-sufficient, thriving oil tycoon who ruthlessly takes charge in order to beat out all competition. "Ladies and gentlemen, if I say that I am an oil man, you will agree." And in this image, there is the suggestion of a dark side to this gripping, disturbing tale of the rise and fall of a man of power and wealth.