Phantom Thread is a 2017 American period drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, set in London's couture world in 1954. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as a couturier who takes a young waitress, played by Vicky Krieps, as his muse; it is reportedly Day-Lewis's final role before retiring. The film is the first Anderson film shot outside the United States, with principal photography beginning in January 2017 in Lythe, England. It is Anderson's second collaboration with Day-Lewis, following There Will Be Blood (2007), and his fourth with composer Jonny Greenwood.
Phantom Thread premiered in New York City on December 11, 2017, and was released in the United States on December 25, 2017. The film received critical acclaim, with praise for its performances, screenplay, direction, musical score, and production values. It was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of 2017's top ten films. At the 90th Academy Awards, the film earned six nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Day-Lewis, Supporting Actress for Lesley Manville and Best Original Score, and won for Best Costume Design. It earned four nominations at the 71st British Academy Film Awards, winning for Best Costume Design, and also received two Golden Globe nominations.
Video Phantom Thread
Plot
In 1954 London, renowned fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock creates dresses for members of high society. His charisma and genius are matched by his obsessive, controlling and sometimes abusive personality. Cyril, his sister, manages the day-to-day operations of his fashion house and has significant influence over his life. Reynolds is haunted by the death of their mother, and stitches hidden messages into the linings of the dresses he makes.
After designing a new gown for a revered client, Reynolds visits a restaurant in the countryside and becomes interested in a waitress, Alma. He asks her on a date, and she accepts. Their relationship develops, and she moves in with him, becoming his assistant, muse and lover. Cyril initially distrusts Alma but comes to respect her willfulness and determination.
At first, Alma enjoys being a part of Reynolds' work, but he proves aloof and hard to please, and they bicker. When Alma tries to surprise him with a romantic dinner, Reynolds lashes out and they fight. Alma wonders aloud what she is doing in his house beyond either waiting for him to pay attention to her or ask her to leave.
In order to regain her power in their relationship and to punish and make Reynolds more vulnerable and needy, Alma laces his tea with a small amount of poisonous mushroom gathered outside his country house. The next morning, dizzy and sweating, while he readies a wedding gown for a Belgian princess, he collapses, damaging the dress and forcing his staff to work all night to repair it. He becomes gravely ill and sees his mother in the room; he tells her how much he misses her. Alma nurses him through his fever; when Cyril brings in a doctor, first Reynolds and then Alma tell the doctor to "Fuck off." When Reynolds is well again, he asks Alma to marry him, telling her that there are things that he must do and he cannot do them without her. Alma accepts and they are married.
On vacation in the Swiss Alps, once again, Reynolds starts saying cruel and cutting things to Alma both privately and in front of their friends; they fight and defy each other again. As Reynolds' anxiety about his work increases, he complains to Cyril about Alma, who enters the room and overhears the conversation; neither Reynolds nor Alma is perturbed. We see Alma in the forest again, gathering mushrooms. One evening, she prepares a poisoned omelette as Reynolds watches her from the dining room table. As he slowly chews his first bite, she informs him that she wants him weak and vulnerable with only her to take care of him; after that, she wants him strong again. Reynolds implicitly consents by swallowing one bite of the omelette, responding, "Kiss me, my girl, before I'm sick." In the next scene, they are in Reynolds' bedroom: Alma sits with Reynolds, in pajamas with a pan in his lap; they smile happily and kiss before he tells her that it's time for her to leave the room to which she responds, "I'll be right outside the door."
Later in a voiceover, Alma imagines their future with children, a rich social life, and her running the dressmaking business as a partner. We see Alma pushing a baby carriage which she hands over to Cyril so that she and Reynolds can go out. In the present moment, we see Reynolds with his head in Alma's lap as they enjoy the fireplace; Reynolds remarks that he is getting hungry.
Maps Phantom Thread
Cast
Production
Anderson became interested in the fashion industry after reading about designer Cristóbal Balenciaga. The story is loosely modeled on the British fashion designer Charles James.
Filming
Principal photography began in late January 2017 in Lythe, United Kingdom, with a number of other locations in the North York Moors National Park also featuring, including Robin Hood's Bay and Staithes.
Filming also took place in 2017 at Owlpen Manor in the Cotswolds and in the London neighborhood of Fitzrovia, in Fitzroy Square, and Grafton Mews. Woodcock drives a maroon Bristol 405 in the film.
It was reported in June 2017 that Anderson would be serving as his own cinematographer on the film as Robert Elswit was unavailable during production. However, Anderson refuted the claim in November, stating that there is no official credit for the cinematography and that it was a "collaborative effort". Anderson and his lighting collaborator, Michael Bauman, pushed their 35mm film stock and filled the frame with haze in order to "dirty up" the image; according to Bauman, "One of the first things [Paul] said was, 'Look, this cannot look like The Crown.' That was a big thing. When people think of a period movie it becomes this beautifully polished, amazingly photographed--I mean, The Crown looks beautiful--but super clean, gorgeous light, and he was clear it couldn't look like that."
Music
The music for the soundtrack is composed by Jonny Greenwood, who had previously worked with the director on the soundtracks for There Will Be Blood (2007), The Master (2012) and Inherent Vice (2014).
Reception
Box office
After three weeks in limited release where it made a total of $2.8 million, the film was added to 834 theaters on January 19, 2018 (for a total of 896) and grossed $3.8 million over the weekend, finishing 12th at the box office. The following weekend, following the announcement of its six Oscar nominations and being added to an additional 125 theaters, the film dropped 11% to $2.9 million.
As of March 25, 2018, Phantom Thread had grossed $21 million in the United States and Canada, and $23.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $44.5 million, against a production budget of $35 million.
Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 91% based on 276 reviews, and an average rating of 8.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Phantom Thread's finely woven narrative is filled out nicely by humor, intoxicating romantic tension, and yet another impressively committed performance from Daniel Day-Lewis." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 90 out of 100 based on 51 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
The A.V. Club's A. A. Dowd gave the film an A-, calling it a "charitable and even poignantly hopeful take on the subject [of being in a relationship with an artist]" and said that "in the simple, refined timelessness of its technique, Phantom Thread is practically a love letter to classic aesthetic values--cinematic, sartorial, or otherwise". Guardian writer Mark Kermode gave the film five stars, describing it as "a deftly spun yarn", and praised Daniel Day-Lewis' performance, describing his role as a "perfect fit [in a] beautifully realised tale of 50s haute couture".
Christy Lemire of the LAFCA placed the film 2nd on her 10 best films of 2017, describing it as "captivating" and "one of Paul Thomas Anderson's absolute best" as well as singling out Jonny Greenwood's score as being "intoxicating".
Michael Wood, writing for the London Review of Books, saw the film as unsuccessfully referencing other gothic films such as Rebecca from the 1940s. He wrote: "Can we imagine a long future for this couple? The film can, and does, but the picture is so hackneyed - pram, baby, walk in the park - that it has to be a dream, or an irony."
Accolades
![PHANTOM THREAD - Official Trailer [HD] - In Select Theaters ...](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vIU7UPH6TTw9HOr16hZQ5P1yKnGgGUz5uOmC5fi6nBIDkKh_ODnvwxH4qRO9rQDwmU07gPlYaU_f6naF70_LkUi7zGPpIUJc4R_r7bkmLPTSQKd6KvAqCH2mzhzJakZ30WPwWBuz5u=s0-d "PHANTOM THREAD - Official Trailer [HD] - In Select Theaters ...")
Notes
References
External links
- Official website
- Phantom Thread on IMDb
- Phantom Thread at Rotten Tomatoes
Source of article : Wikipedia
0 Comments