Phantom Thread - Interviews

Started by velociraptor, November 27, 2017, 11:50:34 AM

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jenkins

(the c+p of the interview)

Paul Thomas Anderson is the stitcher behind 'Phantom Thread'

Q: Daniel Day-Lewis has talked about the preparation and the writing of "Phantom Thread," and how it was a lighthearted process with a lot of laughter between the two of you. And then, maybe typical for him, after shooting had finished he was profoundly sad and basically wanted to leave the profession.

A: Right. (laughs) Right. Well, I hope of course that it's a temporary feeling of melancholy or exhaustion. It's really hard for me to believe he's not going to do it again. While we worked on this movie we had a lot of ideas we thought were funny, but then at some point we stopped laughing. What we were laughing at, initially, was the character's own preposterousness. Just the kinds of things he'd say in a fight with Alma at the dinner table, for example. When he's put in a corner he doesn't want to be in, Reynolds starts fighting like a child. He's ridiculous. But when you place the character in three dimensions, and have someone else there, a real person, Alma, those words change. They become mean. And that's something else entirely, isn't it?

Q: My favorite line in that regard is when he's faced with Alma's breakfast: "I'm admiring my own gallantry for eating it the way you've prepared it."

A: Yeah. Yeah, that line is still funny to me.

Q: Also, I didn't feel "Phantom Thread" was letting Reynolds off the hook, ever. I feel as though you're well aware of just what a pill this guy is in some scenes.

A: Absolutely. A lot of the editing of the film became: How much of a (jerk) is too much of a (jerk)? It's a tricky question when you have a character like this, who puts clear boundaries around himself, and announces that he will not change, and good luck to anyone who tries to change him. We really had to keep an eye on just how alienating he can be, and make sure we never tipped an audience into checking out.

Q: The counterweight to all that is the elegance of this man's world.

A: The world these guys lived in ... it was like factory showroom living. Everything looks straight out of a magazine, or a fairy tale. The martinis they get, they're never without a coaster. That's part of the theatrics of this world. It was like being on stage, and that was very good for our story. When our heroine comes in, real flesh and blood, she doesn't want to behave like she's in a play. And that's when the story starts cooking.

Q: In the Directors Guild of America podcast you did with director Rian Johnson ("Star Wars: The Last Jedi"), you talked about the time you were laid up with the flu, at home, watching a lot of Turner Classic Movies. And that, indirectly, led to "Phantom Thread"?

A: People deal with illness in different ways. My initial response to getting sick is, (a) I'm angry, because I don't want to be slowed down, I want to have all my wits about me. And (b), pretend I'm not sick and refuse any kind of help, because to admit I need help would be admitting I was sick. Anyway. I got sick. I stayed in bed for three days, and the movies I watched were really helpful: "Rebecca," "The Story of Adele H.," the old Jean Cocteau "Beauty and the Beast." And I remember seeing how much my wife was enjoying having me relatively helpless. Then I started thinking, wouldn't it kind of ... suit her to keep me this way, you know, from time to time? (laughs)

(WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW)

Q: What I love about the first strategic poisoning in the film is that you don't really know what Alma's intentions are — if they're lethal, or just punitive.

A: Exactly right (laughs). You, know, it's just a thimbleful, so ... we shot some good close-ups we ended up taking out that made her intentions a little clearer. She's looking at the mushroom book and you see the words "not lethal," and "extreme stomach pain," that kind of thing.

(END OF SPOILERS)

Q: I know you considered David Lean's "The Passionate Friends" to be a big influence on the movie, especially the New Year's Eve scene and the scenes set in the Alps. I also caught more than a little Max Ophuls in the way you move the camera, and activate all these tight, claustrophobic physical locations.

A: Well, Ophuls is my hero when it comes to blocking the actors and blocking the camera and the dance they do together. He's just the best. By the way, have you seen "The Post"? I'd say Steven Spielberg is as good with the camera as anybody in film history. I saw it the other day, and I couldn't believe how good he is at dealing with a lot of people in that small a space. He's got 10 people in a living room, and everybody's moving around, and everything seems natural, and the camera's dancing around them, and that thing is a miracle of staging and camerawork. I can't wait to see it again, to really look under the hood and watch how he did it.

wilberfan

Quote from: greenberryhill on January 12, 2018, 10:09:12 AM
New Interviews with Jimmy Kimmel!

Thank God he seems very relaxed and non-awkard here.  Often appearances by non-performers can be somewhat cringe-worthy.  I'm sure the bazillion interviews he's done of the past 6 weeks have helped...  Unless, he's naturally at ease speaking in front of people--with television cameras present.

modage

Quote from: Something Spanish on January 11, 2018, 04:52:18 PM
https://youtu.be/wvmQkS-tg6g
Interesting to hear Krips say (at about 21 min) that DDL improvised a lot as Woodcock. Especially interesting because PTA says in the Nerdist interview that there's not really any improv with DDL. Or maybe there was just less compared to the amount of stuff they tried on Vice and The Master with Joaquin.

Krieps says going into scenes like the dinner scene without an ending but PTA anticipating that she would eventually blow up at him because it had to go somewhere.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

csage97

Quote from: Mogambo on January 14, 2018, 12:19:58 PM
Paul Thomas Anderson is doing an AMA on tuesday.

https://twitter.com/Phantom_Thread/status/952604850969239552

I've never participated in an AMA before. Are there any rules? Do I just post and see if he responds to my question? I'll probably ask something cinematography-related.

wilberfan

Quote from: csage97 on January 14, 2018, 12:26:53 PM
Quote from: Mogambo on January 14, 2018, 12:19:58 PM
Paul Thomas Anderson is doing an AMA on tuesday.

https://twitter.com/Phantom_Thread/status/952604850969239552

I've never participated in an AMA before. Are there any rules? Do I just post and see if he responds to my question? I'll probably ask something cinematography-related.

Never done one live, but my sense is we just type our questions and the guest selectively answers them. 

Got to give the dude credit:  He's working his ass off to promote this film.  I guess it's part of the way The Biz works, but it really sounds exhausting.  Wonder if it's "mandatory", ie a legal requirement of the deal signed with the financiers, etc, or if he's doing it because he's passionate about getting the film seen--or both. 

Drenk

Exactly. He'll pick questions, will give answers. Will disappear forever. I like AMA. I like when writers write.
Ascension.

d

That is so awesome! Never participated in any of those live but seems like the best interview-related news we could hope for.
Any questions you are already thinking about? I wonder how many people will participate and how difficult it will be to get his answer. Hope PTA die-hards will not disappoint and that will be the first Phantom Thread interview with no questions about DDL retirement.

csage97

I've got my question(s) picked out! It's sort of a bunch rolled into one, but I'm hoping the techie in Paul comes out and he's willing to write about these things. My address will be:

What choices did the team make about lighting? Did you use tungsten indoors? Were there any points where you bounced HMIs into the house through the windows (there are some shots with an evening blue sky coming in, so maybe this was from the balance to the tungsten interior)? Was there a general approach to lighting conversation scenes (e.g., two-point, three-point, overheads, etc.)? How did the tight indoor spaces affect the decision process for lighting?

Hopefully that's not too much to ask since they're all questions about lighting. :P

Drenk

Ascension.

axxonn

Quote from: csage97 on January 14, 2018, 12:26:53 PM
Quote from: Mogambo on January 14, 2018, 12:19:58 PM
Paul Thomas Anderson is doing an AMA on tuesday.

https://twitter.com/Phantom_Thread/status/952604850969239552

I've never participated in an AMA before. Are there any rules? Do I just post and see if he responds to my question? I'll probably ask something cinematography-related.

No rules, no guarantees about what he sees or replies to. There'll be thousands of posts.


csage97

Cool. Thanks, everyone. Yeah, I'm not expecting him to even see my post if I do submit it. Looking forward to the discussion and questions, though.


max from fearless

"I have a very strong idea of what I will do next," he says. "I have to corral it into existence, because there's a lot of material that I've written over the years, dating as far back as 1998-99, that's been many different things, over many different years, that now it would be great to go back to." Of course, he declines to elaborate.

*

And yet even at the height of a celebrated career, he is troubled by self-doubt. "You're watching something and you really feel like you got up to the top of the mountain," he says, referring to the moment when he completes a film, "and you cannot wait to show it to the world. And then those two hours waiting before the screening starts . . . you just wanna take it and throw it in the ocean."

I later express a degree of scepticism at his frequent displays of humility. Anderson has never made a poorly reviewed film; this summer There Will Be Blood was ranked by The New York Times as the greatest movie of the 21st century so far.

"As Kendrick Lamar says . . . " he says, drifting off and lounging back into his seat.

I finish the sentence, quoting the rapper's song from last year: "'Bitch, be humble.'"

Anderson points a finger at me and grins.


PTA in the Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/content/4745f4a8-fb14-11e7-a492-2c9be7f3120a

wilberfan

Quote from: max from fearless on January 19, 2018, 04:38:31 PM
Anderson has never made a poorly reviewed film;


PTA in the Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/content/4745f4a8-fb14-11e7-a492-2c9be7f3120a

Not to quibble excessively, but that can't possibly be true.

Also:  That link opens to a subscribe page for me.