The son of an actor working in Hollywood, Paul Thomas Anderson was a turbulent child and a difficult student. Receiving his first camera at the age of 12, he decided very early on to become a filmmaker, making numerous amateur films and later refusing to enter film school, preferring to learn by himself. At the age of 23, his short film Cigarettes & Coffee was noticed at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival and enabled him to obtain financing for his first feature film, Hard Eight, which was a success and was screened at Cannes. He then went on to have a string of successes…