Phantom Thread

Started by wilder, June 02, 2016, 08:21:51 PM

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Drenk

Who recently said that he was impressed by how much PTA knew about technical stuff? With The Master, I'm sure he was kind of his own DP already. The Master and IV look the same even if Elswit came back in between.
Ascension.

axxonn

Quote from: Drenk on November 02, 2017, 05:28:13 PM
Who recently said that he was impressed by how much PTA knew about technical stuff? With The Master, I'm sure he was kind of his own DP already. The Master and IV look the same even if Elswit came back in between.

I don't agree.

Little Ronnie Howard

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG10275681/The-mysterious-Cristobal-Balenciaga.html

Quote from this article:

"Balenciaga did not appear at the openings of his collections. Nor did clients see him for fittings as a rule. He watched the shows from the doorway to the ateliers, peeking through a small hole in the curtains."

I guess the scene from the trailer where Reynolds is looking though a hole is directly taken from this article.

Also, Lesley Manville's character seems to be based on Mlle Renée, whose character is Reynolds' sister in the movie.

wilberfan

Quote from: Little Ronnie Howard on November 02, 2017, 06:04:19 PM
http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG10275681/The-mysterious-Cristobal-Balenciaga.html

What a fascinating article.  I especially enjoyed this:

QuoteFor many, a Balenciaga show was the closest fashion gets to a religious experience. As the Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland put it, 'One fainted. It was possible to blow up and die. I remember at one show in the early 1960s... Audrey Hepburn turned to me and asked why I wasn't frothing at the mouth at what I was seeing. I told her I was trying to act calm and detached because, after all, I was a member of the press. Across the way Gloria Guinness was sliding out of her chair on to the floor. Everyone was going up in foam and thunder.'

There's another marquee quote:  "Everyone was going up in foam and thunder".   

wilberfan

Wonder if DDL will be wearing "himself" at the premiere?

csage97

Quote from: Drenk on November 02, 2017, 05:28:13 PM
Who recently said that he was impressed by how much PTA knew about technical stuff? With The Master, I'm sure he was kind of his own DP already. The Master and IV look the same even if Elswit came back in between.

They don't look the same at all.

velociraptor

Important side observation on that EW article: PTA keeps getting better looking.

Drenk

Quote from: csage97 on November 02, 2017, 10:32:10 PM
Quote from: Drenk on November 02, 2017, 05:28:13 PM
Who recently said that he was impressed by how much PTA knew about technical stuff? With The Master, I'm sure he was kind of his own DP already. The Master and IV look the same even if Elswit came back in between.

They don't look the same at all.

Do people agree with me? I'm saying it as a gut feeling. Of course, IV has different colors, but there is a mood in the pictures that isn't only linked to his new directing style. But maybe I am wrong.

Ascension.

DocSportello

"I'm a large aficionado of those large Gothic romance movies as the old masters might do them. What I like about those kinds of love stories is that they're very suspenseful. A good dollop of suspense with a love story is a nice combination."

Anybody care to take some guesses as to what films PTA might be referring to here? What are some good, large Gothic romance movies with a hint of suspense from old masters? I think I've got some catching up to do.

wilder

He mentioned Rebecca (1940) in that very interview.

DocSportello

Well, yes, caught that. Suppose I should have asked if anyone knows of any other large gothic romance movies with a hint of suspense from the old masters. I'll google it.

wilder

http://www.imdb.com/list/ls005169472/


Val Lewton fits. And I think he may have talked about George Cukor's Gaslight (1944) once.




Maybe Fritz Lang's Secret Beyond the Door (1947)




And Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Dragonwyck (1946), which is coming to blu-ray from Twilight Time soon. Rebecca is straight up mentioned in its trailer:



A simple Connecticut farm girl is recruited by a distant relative, an aristocratic patroon, to be governess to his young daughter in his Hudson Valley mansion.

For Miranda Wells (Gene Tierney), moving to New York to live in Dragonwyck Manor with her rich cousin, Nicholas (Vincent Price), seems like a dream. However, the situation gradually becomes nightmarish. She observes Nicholas' troubled relationship with his tenant farmers, as well as with his daughter (Connie Marshall), to whom Miranda serves as governess. Her relationship with Nicholas intensifies after his wife dies, but his mental imbalance threatens any hope of happiness.

Yes

PTA confirmed those rumors from months ago that DDL was heavily involved during writing process

Lewton

I didn't watch the trailer but I heard there's a line about Woodcock threading secrets into the dresses he makes? I imagine someone else has already made this connection, but that recalls Freddie Quell mysteriously referring to the "secrets" that go into his alcoholic concoctions.

csage97

Quote from: Drenk on November 03, 2017, 02:27:57 PM
Quote from: csage97 on November 02, 2017, 10:32:10 PM
Quote from: Drenk on November 02, 2017, 05:28:13 PM
Who recently said that he was impressed by how much PTA knew about technical stuff? With The Master, I'm sure he was kind of his own DP already. The Master and IV look the same even if Elswit came back in between.

They don't look the same at all.

Do people agree with me? I'm saying it as a gut feeling. Of course, IV has different colors, but there is a mood in the pictures that isn't only linked to his new directing style. But maybe I am wrong.

OK, when talking about specifically just the "physical" look (the film stock, lighting choices), I would consider The Master and IV to be generally different. But then once we start talking about framing choices, mood, depth of costume design, etc., I think they do become similar in lots of respects (although IV did employ some handheld shots and things like that, unlike The Master). I DO definitely think there is overlap in some of the immediate shots. For example, in The Master, when Freddie is undergoing some testing (he's shown pictures and asked to say the first thing that comes to mind), he's sitting in a drab, sparsely furnished room. Doc's office in IV is a sparsely furnished, drab-colored old doctor's exam room. They look really similar across the films. (I consider this to be a pretty PTA touch because, in the book, Doc's office is upstairs, has a sign on the door with a giant eyeball on it that has green and magenta veins around the iris and "LSD" written above it, an old modular booth from a restaurant or diner with a formica-topped table in the middle, and papers and stuff spread all over the table, including old match boxes, tickets, a typewriter, joint roaches, an ashtray, etc. So the office in the book is a much more cluttered, hippy-styled affair.) One thing I'm struck by with both is the kind of simultaneously realistic but cinematic look. Many of the compositions are framed simply and the cuts very long, so there's a sort of realistic, tactile feel to things -- yet they still feel a bit more hyper real or dream-like than, say, a French new wave film. Most of me wants to chalk this up to the direction and the choices of film stock, cameras/camera settings, and lighting. And also the acting/directing combo.

Of course, this is all splitting hairs between The Master and IV. There are similarities and differences between the two within many frames. I think both have the recent PTA drama vibe, though, if you know what I mean.

P.S. I really recommend reading IV to anyone interested in a thought-provoking psychedelic romp. Pynchon is my favorite author and one of the few artists who I can wholeheartedly say changed my life.