"Reynolds made my dreams come true, in return, I gave him what he wanted most," says Vicky Krieps, the protagonist of the blissful face, in the opening shot of Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film. "I also gave him the last piece of myself," Mrs. Woodcock says with a somewhat reluctant, possessive expression of a face that arouses ominous suspicion, giving knowledge to the viewers that we certainly don't expect 130 minutes of boring conventional love story.
In the spirit of past work, P.T. Anderson has composed yet another music-driven film whose action focuses on an eccentric protagonist sentenced to unconscious moral and intellectual degradation. The central figure of Phantom Thread is Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis), a recalled British fashion designer whose dresses are the dream of every girl from a high society.
At the beginning of the film, we follow Reynolds's daily routine, gentle, grandiose, almost ritual dressing, shoes cleaning, combing, and then breakfast with sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) which they mostly spend in silence so that he can create in peace. Everything leaves the impression of precision, systematic design, Woodcock's life simply exudes its sophistication. And then it's time for Cyril to fire Reynolds's former muse, and the designer finds a new source of inspiration. There appears Alma, a waitress from a small country hotel, the perfect material, eager to become the next Reynolds model.
Anderson designs his film as an endless cyclical series of daily meals, among which there are life changes. As Woodcock is punctual, so the change in his life can be seen only when he is sitting at a table during a meal. Since the first breakfast with Cyril, which has a cool, peaceful atmosphere, the film makes progress towards chaotic breakfasts in which his mummy Alma freely pours tea and loudly lubricates butter on the rough surface of toast, destroying the day of the creator. "You are what you eat" the proverb that Anderson tried to prove by personifying the character through the food they eat or prepare, which seems quite interesting. Thus, the simplest dish like asparagus in the movie shows how it can be sophisticated and elegant, or simply blurry and irritating.
In the background of the film Anderson carefully entangles Woodcock's past, that is, in the form of a mother, gives us an explanation as to why Reynolds became a fashion designer. The protagonist early in the film talks about his first muse, his mother for whom he personally designed and sewed a wedding dress for her second wedding, when he was only sixteen years old. Observing the look of his mother and the emotions he express when talking about her, one gets the impression that Reynolds suffers from the Oedipus complex.
Anderson ominous narrative thread wraps itself into a fantastic atmosphere that extols through all aspects of the film. This is complemented by music composed by longtime associate P.T. Anderson, Jonny Greenwood, guitarist and keyboard player Radiohead. The sounds of the piano and the violin are twisted through the entire film, revealing the atmosphere, the moments of evil, the moments of dreams. All this brings together beautiful costume, production design, framing and color palette that contrasts two characters throughout the film.
When references to other directors and works are concerned, what is noticeable is the visual identity that can be reminded of Kubrick's Clockwork Orange as well as on Powell's The Red Shoes, while the movie's own casting has Hitchcock's elements, perhaps reminiscent of Rebecca.
This was my translation from Croatian to English from Ziher.hr