Phantom Thread is a very beautifully made film with a wonderful music score and great performances. Daniel Day Lewis stars as a dress designer Reynolds Woodcock, and describes himself as a "confirmed bachelor". Leslie Manville (so good in
Another Year) plays his sister and business partner. A relationship starts between Reynolds and a new young woman (Vicky Krieps), which stirs some jealously in the sister character. Strange occurrences develop throughout the film and there's some mystery as to what's happening and why. It's not an easy film to encapsulate, but the two main characters are very interesting; Reynolds is very obsessive, while the young woman wants to break him of his mold; in one scene she wants to go out dancing on New Year's Eve, but he wants to stay in and work. What would happen with the sister character kept me guessing as well. The relationship in the movie is an unusual one to say the least, and was sort of reminded of a film that I've blogged about numerous times in the past,
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
I also attended a local screening of a German-language film
Satan's Brew (1976) directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a very dark and bizarre comedy-mystery, which reminded me somewhat of
Phantom Thread. The main character in the picture (Kurt Raab, star of
Why Does Herr H Run Amok) is also an obsessive artist - a writer - who channels the German poet Stefan George to great lengths, to the point of even dressing like him and acting like him. I saw similarities between him and
PT's Reynolds Woodcock, both controlling men with an unusual marriage relationship. Like that film, this film is also a mystery, and the truth is hidden from the audience until the very end. It's also has some elements that may be considered offensive to some, as the main character is so despicable; he's a womanizing, scheming, manipulative, greedy, selfish, rude, lewd, tactless pig, so it's not a film for everyone.
