Phantom Thread
Reynolds Woodcock: The tea is going out. The interruption is staying right here with me.
To quickly answer CR's above post about enjoying this more a second time around: on my first watch I was enchanted - from afar as if gazing in through a window. This time, engulfed, immersed and adrift.
There is a terrifyingly delicate composition to this film. A fragility that, at any moment, this attention to minutia may fracture and fall away. The turbulence beneath bearing an equal sublime delicateness that is a mirror surface. Both delicate natures creating an unbreakable bedrock.
Such is the regimented, refined world of couturiers set in the 50's that Paul Anderson Thomas has brought forth with such diligence as one would in creating a masterful tapestry. Creating a Wonder that traverses both the beautiful and the darkness of creative exposition.
Before starting, Daniel Day-Lewis spent a year learning how to sew, his final work was to recreate a Balenciaga sheath dress so that he would be able to immerse himself into a Couturier's mindset. Creating this astounding character that is a brooding lake that, at times, will erupt upon itself and those nearby when it is disturbed.
This is enhanced and beautifully complimented with the formidable triangle of Reynolds' sister, Cyril, played with such a disciplined armor protecting the warmth beneath by Lesley Manville and his muse, Alma, a disturbance to the calm with measured determination by Vicky Krieps.
Their creations of life and characters seemed SO intensely real I firmly believed that they were based on specific people and not an interpretive conglomeration of people and their occupation. That kind of intricate creativity sends my mind reeling and I am intoxicated by it.