Phantom Thread 2017

     The setting of this film is post-war London of the 1950’s.  Reynolds Woodcock is a renowned dressmaker.  Woodcock and his sister Cyril are at the center of the British fashion world.  Woodcock dresses royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, débutantes and dames with his distinct style of gowns.  Woodcock is a confirmed bachelor and women come and go through his life.  They provide him with companionship and inspiration.  He is dining out at a restaurant and his waitress is Alma.  Woodcock is attracted to her and she becomes a fixture in his life as well as a muse.  Woodcock likes and needs the atmosphere around him to be calm and quiet to enhance his work.  Alma makes too much noise at the breakfast table and Cyril warns her that these distractions will continue to irk him throughout the day!! 

     What Woodcock’s personality really screams total self-absorption and he’s a pain in the behind for everyone!!  The world revolves around him and his needs!!  One of the lines film is, “The tea is going out; the interruption is staying right here with me.”  This is because Alma brought him tea in the morning!!  Vicky Krieps did not meet Day-Lewis until her first day on set.  She was instructed to refer to him as Reynolds for the duration of filming.  The pace of this film is very slow and there are times of uncertainty about Alma and what her feelings are about Reynolds.  Cyril states in a later scene that she loves Alma but you are also unsure about her feelings about Alma?  There are many times this film is a real DOWNER!!  2 1/2* (so-so)

  

130 min, Drama directed by Paul Thomas Anderson with Vicky Krieps, Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville, Julie Vollono, Sue Clark, Joan Brown, Harriet Leitch, Dinah Nicholson, Julie Duck, Maryanne Frost, Elli Banks, Amy Cunningham, Amber Brabant, Geneva Corlett, Juliet Glaves.

Note:  Imdb 7.6 out of 10, 91% critic 69% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 4*, Amazon 3.2* out of 5* with 334 reviews, Metacritic 90 out of 100 with 51 critics 7.7 out of 10 with 379 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in North Yorkshire, Lancashire and London, England, UK.  Director Paul Thomas Anderson was inspired to make this film when he was home sick in bed.  His wife, Maya Rudolph was tending to him and she gave him a look of intense tenderness and love.  Daniel Day-Lewis watched archival footage of the 1940’s and 1950’s fashion shows.  He studied famous designers and consulted with the curator of fashion and textiles at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  He apprenticed under Marc Happel and he practiced on his wife Rebecca Miller.  He tried to recreate a Balenciaga sheath dress inspired by a school uniform.  Day-Lewis has a natural English accent and this is the first time he has used this manner of speaking in a film since Stars and Bars of 1988.  Allegedly, this is the final film for Day-Lewis made the announcement was made on June 20, 2017 that he would retire?  Many of the staff of the Woodcock couture house are not actors but real seamstresses or connected with the fashion world.