Phantom Thread - SPOILERS!

Started by matt35mm, November 24, 2017, 07:59:23 PM

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Alexandro

holy mother of god.
another masterpiece.
I've seen it twice and it won't stop taking more space in my mind. It's like some drug you just want to take. It doesn't feel like a movie, you get INTO it... like in another world.
I'm humbled and elevated by it at the same time. Those actors, all of them, they say so much with not more than a glance. The music... I mean this is the most beautiful score in ages, you can dive into a different kind of consciousness with it. Shit... I have nothing to add here. Just wanted to share my love for it.

Fernando

Finally saw it too.

That score should have won all the awards by a landslide, it's the equivalent of Lubezki's snub for The New World.

Anyway, incredible film, it kept me guessing where the hell it was going which is always great, and that scene of Alma cooking that omelet had me guessing until I finally realize that he's in on it!


PTA is a fucking treasure of Cinema.

Lewton

Some of the aspects I appreciated during a second theatrical viewing:

- The Silence of the Lambs connections, which totally eluded me during my first viewing. I'm not just referring to the Demme close-ups, but also Cyril's very precise sense of smell, and maybe Reynolds referring to her as his "little carnivore."

- That crossfade at the beginning. This is after Cyril encourages Reynolds to go off to the country house early. A close-up of Reynolds at the booth fades into a shot of him driving alone, and the initial close-up is suffused with blue for a sustained moment. It looks amazing. This joins other blue classics, like Sportello looking out the window with his binoculars, and the car ride in PDL. I'm really fond of this new one -- it's very pretty, and I like how it links up with Reynolds' state of mind. He feels blue.

- The way Reynolds looks out the window after first seeing Alma. Great moment of private contemplation. There are a few instances of characters looking out through windows in this film, actually...

- The close-up of the yellow drip on the teapot after the first poison mushroom preparation scene. Ominous. Good shot.

- After Alma sends everyone away, she spies Reynolds through the window, and the shot goes out of focus in this very decorative way. It's almost a PDL-esque bit of visual whimsy. That was a lovely way to sort of encapsulate Alma's hopefulness, and the intended magic of the evening, before things take a turn for the worse.

- I realized that both of PTA's movies with DDL feature some kind of conflict between doctor and patient. H.W. writhes about violently when the doctor tries to check his hearing in TWBB, while Reynolds tells off his doctor twice.

Robyn

Quote from: jenkins on November 27, 2017, 12:53:36 AM
when he meets her she's a waitress. which is low culture. later he tells her ~, "Maybe you have no taste." but then at the wedding, when she takes the dress off the lady sleeping! then they kiss on the sidewalk! oh man. that was their Running in the Rain moment. the green dress had been the Ouija board.

this was the moment I reacted strongest to. it was perfect. how the music swelled in the exact moment they turned to each other. PTA is so good at kisses (kissing too maybe? please confirm if you are reading this, maya)

I had read some spoilery comments about the ending, but it wasn't at all what I expected. I just sat there with a big smile throughout that scene, watching this huge control-freak finally let lose of everything. "kiss me now before I get sick", and then moments later he just laid there in her lap and got taken care of without any responsibility in the world. yeah, it was fucked up too of course, but that made it even more beautiful. that's love y'all! to let lose of the control you have and surrender yourself to another person like that. it was beautiful to me. 

in the end of the day it just made me happy to be alive, and that there's art like this to connect with. that's the best thing I can say about a movie, really.





wilberfan

Nice find.  Do we know the source?  Shooting script vs "For Your Consideration", etc?   Interesting it's only 83 pages.

wilder

It appears to be a scan of the FYC version

Drenk

In the pictures from the set there is a page of the script that doesn't seem to be in the FYC. Lady Baltimore hinting about a past relationship with Reynolds.
Ascension.

Alethia


Scrooby

Five reflections out of an infinity:

1. Interesting that P.T. Anderson uses Brahms in TWBB and Schubert in PT: it is as if he is aware that he is working in the shadow of a Beethoven (Kubrick), and like both of the latter composers, Anderson is thoroughly infused with his "Beethoven" (Kubrick) and gains strength therefrom.

2. The juxtaposition between a character's internal headspace and a window revealing a far distance is a common technique in Renaissance art (e.g., the Annunciation of Rogier van der Weyden). And we see it here, this dramatic contrast, in PT. The initial scene of Woodcock and Alma: seen in profile with a wall behind him, as he considers the thought of Alma he bends forward so that he is framed by the window: this is a psychological emblem of Woodcock's "horizons opening" (to put it one way).

3. As in EWS, the background elements of a shot of a sole character can reflect thematic or psychological aspects of that character. For example, when Woodcock and Alma are speaking by the fire in his home ("I am strong"), Woodcock is seen with books beside him; and Alma is seen with alcohol behind her. He is cerebral, she is the chaotic element.

4a. Early on, when Cyril is striding down the front hall to meet the countess, the door leading to the back entrance opens inexplicably: (1) this is a spooky moment, in the manner of The Shining, or Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry [PT is a genre-splice of romance film/horror film/screwball comedy/and so on]; (2) this is a thematic moment, reflecting how Cyril generally "keeps the house in perfect order" (to put it one way); (3) this is a comic moment, in which the director is deliberately sabotaging (somewhat) the "majesty" of the film moment -- adding a "random" glitch-like element to the high pitch of the filmmaking continuum.

This self-opening door is perhaps the most memorable of its kind since the faulty refrigerator door set-up and payoff in Hal Ashby's Shampoo.

4b. There is an addendum to this: (4) Cyril's character is, in a way, "closing off" the whiff of Alma's approaching entrance into the film. [Even as it is Cyril who suggests to Woodcock to leave London, which leads to his initial discovery of Alma. So Cyril is dual in this sense: she both "enables" Woodcock to meet Alma, and yet, with regard to this inexplicable door opening, Cyril is keeping the house "hermetically sealed" from disorder of any kind.

5. Woodcock: "No more stodgy things." -- This reflects his psychology, and is proleptic, and so on: his character, "stodgy", is going to change throughout the film. . . .

These are five reflections out of an infinity of reflections.


wilberfan

Quote from: Bleep on April 05, 2018, 10:37:55 AM
4a. Early on, when Cyril is striding down the front hall to meet the countess, the door leading to the back entrance opens inexplicably: (1) this is a spooky moment, in the manner of The Shining, or Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry [PT is a genre-splice of romance film/horror film/screwball comedy/and so on]; (2) this is a thematic moment, reflecting how Cyril generally "keeps the house in perfect order" (to put it one way); (3) this is a comic moment, in which the director is deliberately sabotaging (somewhat) the "majesty" of the film moment -- adding a "random" glitch-like element to the high pitch of the filmmaking continuum.

This self-opening door is perhaps the most memorable of its kind since the faulty refrigerator door set-up and payoff in Hal Ashby's Shampoo.


You're the first person, in all of the tonnage of things I've read about PT, that has mentioned this moment in the film.  I noticed it on my very first viewing, and it was so odd and specific (and looked like a random 'mistake' in that take) that I thought it would certainly be addressed later in the film.  It wasn't--specifically, as near as I could tell--but I like your take on it.  It clearly was a deliberate choice to include it (unless they had no other takes to use for whatever reason).

Alethia

Quote from: wilberfan on April 05, 2018, 11:21:45 AM
Quote from: Bleep on April 05, 2018, 10:37:55 AM
4a. Early on, when Cyril is striding down the front hall to meet the countess, the door leading to the back entrance opens inexplicably: (1) this is a spooky moment, in the manner of The Shining, or Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry [PT is a genre-splice of romance film/horror film/screwball comedy/and so on]; (2) this is a thematic moment, reflecting how Cyril generally "keeps the house in perfect order" (to put it one way); (3) this is a comic moment, in which the director is deliberately sabotaging (somewhat) the "majesty" of the film moment -- adding a "random" glitch-like element to the high pitch of the filmmaking continuum.

This self-opening door is perhaps the most memorable of its kind since the faulty refrigerator door set-up and payoff in Hal Ashby's Shampoo.


You're the first person, in all of the tonnage of things I've read about PT, that has mentioned this moment in the film.  I noticed it on my very first viewing, and it was so odd and specific (and looked like a random 'mistake' in that take) that I thought it would certainly be addressed later in the film.  It wasn't--specifically, as near as I could tell--but I like your take on it.  It clearly was a deliberate choice to include it (unless they had no other takes to use for whatever reason).

I noticed it after a few viewings too, and took it to be a deliberate, albeit very subtle and unpronounced, confirmation that the House of Woodcock is indeed haunted.

Scrooby

Shakespeare in PT, continued. [One discovery]

Weeks ago I pointed out that Woodcock's initial feeling that his mother is near, a few minutes of running time before he meets Alma, recalls a moment early in Hamlet, when Hamlet feels his father near, before seeing him, in a later scene, as a ghost. ["Methinks I see my Father . . . In my mind's eye."] And the play Hamlet features the word "woodcock" twice. . . .

. . . And at one point Woodcock says "There is an air of quiet death in this house", which, of course, recalls "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." . . .

In the shot of Woodcock sitting by the fire near a bookcase of books: books uppermost on the bookcase include King Lear, and what looks like Coriolanus, Othello, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

(FUN ADDENDUM: And Titus Andronicus at one point says: "attend the emperor's person carefully." Note the use of the word "carefully". . . )

(FUN ADDENDUM 2: Isn't it apt that Woodcock uses the word "butterflies", considering that Alma will be strongly allied with a nature theme? For example, the mushrooms; but also the wallpaper in her bedroom. And so on. . . .)


Lewton

You should be saving this stuff for a monograph on Phantom Thread.

Since this is the internet, that probably sounds snarky or whatever, but I mean it as a sincere compliment. Thanks for sharing these interesting observations.

Quote from: eward on April 05, 2018, 11:46:54 AM
I noticed it after a few viewings too, and took it to be a deliberate, albeit very subtle and unpronounced, confirmation that the House of Woodcock is indeed haunted.

I didn't notice the door opening during my two viewings, but I like this interpretation.