Paul Thomas Anderson & Illustrating Separation

A visual motif in Punch-Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood.

Anderson frames Barry and Lena's first encounter in a two-shot, with ostensibly natural lighting that nearly obscures Lena's face from view. Upping the sense of anxiety Barry is experiencing having to interact with a new, attractive woman, Anderson manages to capture a streaking lens flare right in between them, visually demonstrating the barrier between them. When Lena finally walks away, the camera follows and the light-barrier is removed.

Here, Anderson places the camera on top of an occupied table, using the menu in the foreground as a wall to separate the father and son on a two-dimensional plane. This foreshadows the extreme estrangement between the two characters that we see several years later. While the light-barrier in Punch-Drunk Love was ultimately broken through Barry finding real love, this wall is both literally and figuratively more concrete, and proves unbreakable as Daniel Plainview descends into insanity.