Watch: Paul Thomas Anderson and Richard Linklater Reflect on the Late Jonathan Demme

According to a local website, filmmaker Jonathan Demme, who sadly passed away last year at the age of 73, "was considered a patron saint of Texas film." To honor that notion, fellow filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson was given the Texas Film Awards' first annual Jonathan Demme Award on March 8th.

For the occasion, Anderson, who developed ties with the Texas film community while filming There Will Be Blood in Marfa, sat down for a half-hour discussion with Austin native Richard Linklater, paying tribute to and reminiscing about Demme, the man Anderson claimed to be the director who most influenced his own work. Anderson has long been vocal about being a Jonathan Demme superfan, so much so that in an article for the Criterion Collection, the director listed The Silence of the Lambs and Something Wild as his two favorite films. 

In the conversation above, Anderson makes reference to the many music videos Demme directed in the 1980s. The two had appeared on panels before, and at the recent awards ceremony, the Phantom Thread writer/director expressed awe at Demme's run of films, from 1984's Talking Heads' concert film Stop Making Sense, to Married to the Mob, The Silence of the Lambs, and 1993's Philadelphia, asking, "I mean, wouldn't any director want a career like that?"

He also noted that Demme's definition of pure cinema was "when a filmmaker films a musician," and cited his own film, the 2015 short documentary Junun, as being, "my Demme movie." 

What's your favorite Jonathan Demme movie? Let us know down in the comments below.

Source: Austin Film Society