The subterranean world of cult and worship

Paul Thomas Anderson is a filmmaker of extraordinary imagination and power. Think Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), There Will Be Blood (2007) – there is not a dud among them. 

His latest is The Master, which was greeted with great anticipation at the recent Venice Film Festival and where it won best director for Anderson and a shared best actor prize for Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The film, which Anderson admits is about the early days of Scientology, is set in the years after World War II. Freddie