Phantom Thread
2017 · Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Original language: English
- drama
- romance
The story
In 1950s London, a renowned dressmaker's meticulous lifestyle begins drastically changing as his relationship with his young muse intensifies.
What it’s like
Crisp, cool daylight through tall Fifties windows, then the warm amber of lamps over pinned silk, and a palette of pearl grey, bone white and muted green that makes every room feel like the inside of a jewel box. Paul Thomas Anderson frames with a patient, almost architectural symmetry, lingering on hands stitching hems and on the tidy rituals of a household run to the minute, while the camera drifts in close when tension rises over a cup of tea or a breakfast of buttered toast. The score by Jonny Greenwood is a restless, string-heavy hum that swells and then drops away into silence, and the sound of scissors, pins and clinking china carries as much weight as dialogue. The vibe is elegant, claustrophobic and faintly wicked, a sly romance with a bitter edge, best suited to a quiet evening with the lights low and full attention. Its pace is deliberate and its humour dry and sudden, following a fastidious, controlling man and the young woman who slowly tests his grip on his own life. There is cruelty in the emotional games and some sharp verbal venom, with occasional mild sexual content and a few tense moments, but no gore and little overt violence. It is for viewers who relish period craft, precise performances and the slow unsettling pleasure of a relationship turning on its own axis.
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