There’s always about twenty five or thirty times when I’m making a movie where I stop and just ask myself: “how would Jonathan Demme do it?” – Paul Thomas Anderson.

With PTA’s One Battle After Another hitting us soon, we’re screening three Jonathan Demme movies from the 80’s that influenced Anderson’s work, and in particular his most recent outing. Demme is best known for The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia, but the director had a distinctive run of films in the previous decade that blended crime themes with comedy and drama, infused with a humanist touch only Demme possessed. Demme was the ultimate collaborator; loyal to actors (Charles Napier is in all his movies), his cinematographer Tak Fujimoto and always making sure his passion for the craft was conveyed to the audience in every frame. To warm up for our big PTA retrospective in August and September, followed by One Battle After Another, we’re excited to screen three Demme gems that haven’t been on the heaviest of rotations for many people but are worth your attention and hopefully, appreciation.