Daniel Day-Lewis' final film, Paul Thomas Anderson directing, a score from Johnny Greenwood and the 1950's London fashion scene. What more do you want?
Writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson has once again collaborated with Daniel Day-Lewis to create one of the most beautiful, unsettling and bizarre films of the year. While more accessible than his recent films, The Master and Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread still provides enough material to chew on, almost demanding the need for a second viewing.
Set against the backdrop of 1950s London, Day-Lewis plays Reynolds Woodcock, a respected dress-designer and a very meticulous individual. He soon becomes enamoured with a young waitress he meets in the countryside, Alma (played by the relatively unknown Vicky Krieps). The film documents how their relationship unfolds; their habits becoming stranger and darker as the story progresses.
Phantom Thread is an expertly crafted piece of visual storytelling. The three main cast members, Day-Lewis, Krieps and Lesley Manville, who plays Cyril Woodcock, are all superb and often elevate the tension of a scene through subtle facial expressions alone. Although the film’s script is filled with some brilliant dialogue and sharp interactions, most of the story is carried by the actor’s physicality. These characters are tightly interwoven with the story, their motivations are explicit just by their reaction to certain events. Anderson’s characters are all fully-realised individuals and, for all their eccentricities, they seem perfectly believable, acting in a manner that seems natural to their personality traits. The clashes of character even result in some darkly comic moments that are sewn into the fabric of the film.
This is the first of Anderson’s films in which he has been the director of photography, yet the cinematography of Phantom Thread is masterfully handled. Shot beautifully on 35mm film and overlaid with a grainy filter, Anderson is able to capture the feel of 1950s cinema. Along with the often over-exposed lighting and the classical score, Phantom Thread feels like a kind of fever dream. It becomes easy to be swept away in this film; despite the lack of action, it is completely absorbing and mesmerising to watch evolve. When the final act draws to a close you are caught in Anderson’s web, the film getting more disturbing as it crawls under your skin.
A masterful piece of cinema that once again solidifies Anderson as one the best filmmakers of his generation
Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood, a long-time collaborator with Anderson, helmed the score for Phantom Thread, an imposing task considering how much music is utilised throughout. Greenwood guides the viewer through the story; his music contributing to the dream-like quality of the film. At times it is haunting and always lurking in the background, and at others it is joyous and triumphant. The varying transition in tone is helped significantly by Greenwood’s score.
The sound editing also plays a large part in the film. As people eat and Reynolds is trying to focus on his work, the volume of the sound effects is increased and end up distracting him. As Reynolds is a pedantic person with a dominant artistic personality, these distractions are played for both tension and comedy in the film. Additionally, the editing itself is similar to that of Anderson’s 1999 film, Magnolia. With lots of quick cuts, especially in the first thirty minutes, Phantom Thread feels like it doesn’t have an ounce of fat in its over two-hour runtime. Every single shot feels necessary to tell the story.
There are a couple of flaws in the editing, however. While minor, there are some continuity errors between certain shots in the opening section of the story that could have benefitted with either an overlaying sound effect or establishing shot. For example, characters change seating position with no gauge of how much time has passed or acknowledgement that they have moved. Although not enough to sour the experience of the film it is noticeable and relatively choppy in comparison to the latter hour and a half. Anderson packs a lot of information in the opening scenes, thus certain establishing shots may have been deleted to cut minutes from the overall runtime.
On the whole, however, Phantom Thread is a masterful piece of cinema that once again solidifies Anderson as one the best filmmakers of his generation. The writer-director has honed his craft and is producing films that hardly seem like they belong to the same filmmaker. The film deals with an array of themes such as beauty, relationships, the artist and even elements of a Freudian Oedipus complex, but none of these themes are at odds with one another. Phantom Thread is another brilliant entry into Anderson’s body of work. It is strange, beautiful and brilliantly executed; weaving its way into the darker corners of your subconscious.
Phantom Thread is screening at Broadway Cinema until Thursday 15th February
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