PHANTOM THREAD: Paul Tomas Anderson, Daniel Day-Lewis, Fifties London

it's a cute analogy

Film Comment feature

https://www.filmcomment.com/article/paul-thomas-anderson-phantom-thread-love-after-a-fashion/

Q: Is it violent/sadomasochistic? Anderson is so effective w/ scenes of pain and suffering I actually have to be careful which of his films I watch in theaters. During TWBB and TM I came close to panic attacks...

this movie is incredible

i finished watching it and immediately bought a ticket for a 70mm showing

soda: not in a way you would expect, but yes, discreetly.

costume designer Mark Bridges:

I always do try to keep in mind how things are going to photograph. That’s why there’s not a ton of black in the film. I don’t love how black photographs. We made a tux for Daniel that was black. I had hoped it would be like a midnight blue, but at the end we decided on black. So I’m always mindful, as a cinema costume designer, how things photograph, but then I also try to use fabrics that would have been used at the time and be realistic about that. We had a lot of sources: Some of the fabrics came from Italy, some from America, some from London — just trying to get all of the fabrics that evoke the 1950s that were still around....

I always try to take a backseat to what the actor is doing. Especially Lesley Manville: I love it that you’re referring to her dresses as black because Paul wanted them black, and I said, “No, no, no. We have to do them in gray, so they photograph with a little bit of life to them.” It can’t be like running around in a nunnery or something. It’s already a tough, mysterious character who’s solitary. I originally wanted her to be a navy, but Paul had the idea of black. So we settled somewhere quite comfortably in this gray motif for her work clothes. We were informed by the women who were, essentially, the saleswomen at Balenciaga, and you see it all the way through any reference to that period: They would wear navy and pearls, very simple, and allow the fashions to stand out, and I think that’s what we did with Lesley. Of course, she has impeccable tailoring, she is representing the house, but the darkness of her business attire was really something Paul wanted to go with Lesley’s pale skin. There’s also charting “fisherman’s daughter into designer’s muse” as far as Alma goes. But then there’s also trying to be time and place appropriate, and not upstage or take you out of the story with something fancy that’s going to distract you. The things that do distract you in this story are story points, so I feel OK about that.

http://filmmakermagazine.com/104097-clothes-make-the-man/

I loved this, of course

Basically a romantic comedy

I enjoy PTA’s seemingly central concern with the relationships of emotionally stunted monomaniac weirdos

Anyway since I’m a weirdo I thought this was the most romantic thing I’ve seen since the Mad Max Fury Road blood donation scene

Johnny Greenwood exceeded himself here I think.

Quite a remarkable film. Per Morbz's comments earlier, you sense the cinematic bedrock but it doesn't stay there. Score, costume and cinematography all standouts but the shifting dynamics between the central three actors carried them all even further.

I liked that despite being a “period piece” this could easily have taken place in the future

Yeah the trappings and setting are far from unimportant, but this isn't a _Crown_-style hyperfetishization and formalism.

Has anyone here yet seen it in a 70mm screening? If yes, is it worth a surcharge? (Will probably see it tomorrow in 70mm.)

Yeah that was the screening we saw -- it looked great and the brochure's nice, but make or break, I dunno. There's enough gorgeous shots happening to make it all work in that format, though.

i didn't pay a surcharge... however, by the 10th day of projection, there were already hairline scratches in the print.

PTA actually shot it in 35, it was blown up to 70.

I absolutely loved this and plan to see it again ASAP.

Going for round 2 tomorrow

excuse my ignorance but what would be the advantage of seeing it on 70MM rather than on digital which, presumably has the same ratio and will be projected at the same size? will it be discernably different?

texture, babe

grain

scratches

PTA's best film.

very possibly!

I can't tell whether the gowns are any good though.

I didn't expect the last 15 minutes, I gotta admit. I'm still thinking about it.

I'd say the opening sequence, first breakfast scene, Victoria Hotel (rarebit!), and through Alma's full integration in the business is the most sustained, exciting of PTA's career. I was holding my breath.

"chic"

FILTHY littlte word

Manville as Cyril smoothing her hair over her temples was great throughout.

Every time PTA held Manville's face in close-up I froze. What a marvelous camera object. She gave the best performance.

I liked that despite being a “period piece” this could easily have taken place in the future

― The Bridge of Ban Louis J (silby

like A Quiet Passion, it shows the Archers' influence.

Every time PTA held Manville's face in close-up I froze. What a marvelous camera object. She gave the best performance.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, January 20, 2018 4:00 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed, she is quite something.

I may go to Memphis next week to see this on a large screen. There's no way it will come to my little rooty-poot town.

seeing this tomorrow morning, v excited

me too. can't wait!!!

I really liked it. Nevertheless I'm not sure I'd rate it higher than Boogie Nights, Punch Drunk Love, Inherent Vice, or The Master. I loved There Will Be Blood at the time but its meme saturation in the decade since its release has diminished my memories of it. Magnolia was my favorite movie when I was 11 and I don't think I've sat it thru the whole thing since, so I'll reserve judgment. Still, this was a fantastic film. Unfortunately Sofia Coppola beat PTA to the punch with the poisonous mushrooms device in The Beguiled last summer. The "arthouse 50 Shades of Grey" comment ended up being pretty otm! Their tastes were indeed unconventional. Love wins.

spoilerz!

The Beguiled is actually from 1971 btw

in the last cooking scene, during which DDL chews so meticulously, I thought his much-loathed butter would knock him over.

oh hoy haw, you know what I mean. lighting & atmospherics of PT & Coppola's movie were very similar, especially in the mushroom scenes. not a knock, just an unfortunate coincidence. took some of the dramatic edge off for me, but didn't matter in the end when it was just a kink for them.

"I'm hungry"

I can't tell whether the gowns are any good though.

They're gorgeous. I'd say they were true to the period, but do they ever specify when in the 1950s this is supposed to be?

And I was reminded of The Dragon Painter (1919), regarding the relationship between an artist and his muse...and the idea that it may be the muse's responsibility to shake up the artist's life in one way or another.

do they ever specify when in the 1950s this is supposed to be?

No, and I was trying to make out details in the New Year's Eve radio address, no luck.

If you like the dressmaking part of this, definitely worth seeing the Dior & I documentary from a few years ago about Raf Simons putting together a couture collection over two weeks. Many resemblances, and also time spent with all of those lifers doing the sewing.

ughhhh i loved Dior & I, gorgeous doc that

I think decoding the climax requires thinking of it as a "mother" movie to the core (hence the explicit Norman Bates peephole quote). I don't entirely buy it, but close enough. Plus, people are fucking weird.

I still haven't seen it, but intrigued by the idea that it's a mother! movie

The mother material was unnecessary, an attempt to flesh out a man who needed no fleshing -- the man loved work and was his job. Goodness knows we know plenty of people like him.

I still haven't seen mother!, but don't be sassy, Simon.

Almost everybody I know hates their job afaik.

This is a vocation.

well sure, and one that could plausibly be traced to Momism.

and PTA's shortest since Punch-Drunk Love.

― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB)

ha yeah by 35 minutes

Def gonna see this again, sitting really well with me. Really feel my opinion of it will only go up.