Why Paul Thomas Andersons New Film Is Called Licorice Pizza

Why Paul Thomas Anderson’s New Film Is Called Licorice Pizza

Licorice Pizza’s unusual title has roots in 1970s Los Angeles, the setting of Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest movie.

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Why Paul Thomas Andersons New Film Is Called Licorice Pizza

In November of last year, word started getting around that Paul Thomas Anderson would, relatively shortly, be releasing a new film called Soggy Bottom. Anderson is the type of writer/director who is both a critical darling and the subject of a following that’s broad and commercial enough that “cult” isn’t quite the right word to describe it. A lot of people were looking forward to whatever Soggy Bottom was going to be, especially after Bradley Cooper and Sean Penn were spotted on the set. Almost everything about the film remained a mystery until September 9th, when it was revealed that Soggy Bottom was, apparently, a working title. The actual title was Licorice Pizza.

A few lucky theatergoers got to see the trailer for Licorice Pizza when it aired before select screenings in Los Angeles, but this week, it became available to the wider public. Anderson’s latest movie is a coming of age love story that takes place in the San Fernando Valley around 1973. It stars Alana Haim, the youngest of the sisters that make up the band HAIM, and Cooper Hoffman, son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, a frequent Anderson collaborator. Bradley Cooper co-stars as Jon Peters, the hairdresser turned film producer who dated Barbra Streisand for about a decade. Sean Penn and Maya Rudolph (Anderson’s real-life partner) also make appearances. The film is due to be released on November 26th and is already garnering awards buzz.

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Little else is known about Licorice Pizza, but its unusual name has a fascinating history. Licorice pizza is slang for a vinyl record. One can imagine why based on the shape and color. In fact, there was a small chain of record stores of the same name based in Glendale, California, where the movie takes place. Its logo depicted a woman serving an album as if it was a pizza. The first one opened in Long Beach in 1969. It expanded to 34 locations before being bought out by another company, called Record Bar, in 1985. Record Bar was then sold to Musicland, which became Sam Goody. And then chain music stores largely ceased to exist.

No one’s sure how prominently Licorice Pizza the store will figure into Licorice Pizza the movie, but there’s a story to be told there depending on how Anderson wants to use it. The company was the subject of scandals and it was emblematic of the changing times. The owner was accused of selling stolen merchandise, but probably more to the point, by the end of its run, the chain was renting more VHS tapes than it was selling records. It existed at a crossroads of the music and movie businesses, and from the looks of the trailer, it’s aesthetically a good match for the kind of tale Anderson is trying to tell. It’s also likely that the soundtrack will be loaded with era-appropriate hits, making the title that much more meta.

To see how the record store factors into the movie, Licorice Pizza will be released in theaters on Nov. 26.

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Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/licorice-pizza-meaning-paul-thomas-anderson/

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