I’m honored to have written the cover story for the Jan/Feb 2018 issue of Film Comment. The layout looks incredible. While the essay is online, there’s nothing quite like print! You can check out the Table of Contents here, and also subscribe, should you feel so inclined. It’s a great magazine and I’m proud to write for them.
Wow! Congratulations! I will get to a book store and grab this.
Definitely want to read it (in print). Already read it on line (a wonderful essay). I must finally read The Shipping News.
And see Phantom Thread.
Again, congratulations!
I thought of that passage in The Shipping News through the whole movie! I love it because the images of love in that passage are violent and strange. Things cracking apart, goat’s blood flowing – like, what?? Phantom Thread shows the challenges of deciding to be with someone else. It’s not easy.
I don’t know anything about PTA’s personal life – except that he has been with Maya Rudolph for 17 years or something like that and they have 4 kids – so this film feels really personal, in a way his other films don’t. Not a dis on his other films. Just that he’s moving into new territory with this one.
Sheila!
Congratulations! That’s so wonderful! I just read your gorgeous review! Running out to see the movie and get a copy of this!
Regina – I am so curious to hear your thoughts.
I didn’t talk much about the acting in the review – but there’s SO much good stuff going on.
Sheila
I fell into this film at the start and thought, “Oh Goody, this is going to be great!” Something started dissolving for me and I can’t say quite what.
Possibly the poison thing.
It didn’t ring true and I don’t know why. I think you need an actress like Isabelle Huppert to pull off something like that. To go from some quiet, open face kind of bland girl to, – that.
I did think a big clue was when she said she could stand forever or the staring contest which made me think, okay, something else is going on here.
I loved the theme, the triangle, jealousy, a good one. I been through a couple of times now when a really good friend of mine will get into a romantic relationship and at first their significant others will seem subservient, deferring, quiet (my friends tend to be loud) and in time I could see how controlling and strong and how big their egos actually were. I could never tell my friend, but I would have to wait till my friend could see it herself, while their others almost wrecked their lives.
Sidetracked! But for a movie I didn’t quite like, it has stayed with me, thinking about it.
On the one hand I loved the references to Rebecca (one of my all time favorites) but it also called attention to me the power of Mrs. Danvers, Judith Anderson to the actress in this movie. What a role! What actress wouldn’t want to play Mrs. Danvers! This actress looks perfect and I liked her mask like face, but something was missing.
It was Mrs. Danvers who had that great line “Do you believe the dead watch the living?”Which would always scared the daylights out of me. But I liked it when Daniel Day Lewis says it and changes it to something like it comforts him. Also when he talks about his mother. He has a lot of strong breathtaking moments.
Also when Joan Fontaine stands up to Mrs Danvers and says “I’m Mrs. DeWinter” I always want to applaud. C always does an imitation. “I’m going to spend the summer with De Winter!”
But I liked the scenes when they argue. When she is determined to have the last word. We all know arguments like that when we refuse to give in.
Sidetracked again.
When D.D.L says “You have no breasts.” she says, “I know I’m sorry.”
You write, “You’re perfect, was his flat replay.”
C injected here again, “no pun intended.”
For some reason the actress I was blown away with was Barbara Rose. She was the one that floored me. When she wailed, “I’m ugly”. You can feel she went all the way deep with that one. And I loved how they made her just gorgeous in that dark green beauty after all that!
Regina –
really interesting thoughts!!
// at first their significant others will seem subservient, deferring, quiet (my friends tend to be loud) and in time I could see how controlling and strong and how big their egos actually were. //
This made me think of Holly Hunter in The Piano.
// C injected here again, “no pun intended.” //
hahahahaha!!!!
and ooh Barbara Rose – my friend Dan wrote a whole essay JUST about her performance (which I agree: she was just amazing) – let me go get the link for you.
Regina – I found it!! Dan is so good: Here he is on Barbara Rose:
https://nylon.com/articles/phantom-thread-harriet-sansom-harris-barbara-rose-barbara-hutton
Congrats on this! Was dying to get your commentary on this film and will have to run out and find this.
Paula – thanks!
I think the film just “opened wide” today, so hopefully more people can see it now.
Sheila!
Thanks for Dan Callahan’s review! He put into words, and so much more, how I felt. I actually would have said more about Harriet Sansom Harris but I didn’t want to appear cute going on a performance that is almost seconds next to those three. But Callahan nails it for me.
I had no idea who Harris was! Right before I read Callahan’s review I was speaking to a friend of mine who goes to every Broadway and off Broadway show on the planet but not to much movies. I thought he might like Phantom Thread and started saying, “But there is this unknown actress who steals it for me, if I were an agent I’d grab her and make a lot of money.” So I said her name and he almost had a fit, “She is not unknown, at all!” and started listing her in all the shows, and tv shows she was in (that I never saw). In fact he said to me that he is not shy to go up to any big star and start talking but the one he wouldn’t dare do that to was Harriet Sansom Harris, he is too much in awe!
When she was writhing on the bed drunk I was totally taken by that too somehow. And thinking why does this rumpled figure rolling around on a bed hold my attention more then those two in the doorway?
I noticed too when Callahan describes Harris when she stands up to DDL and demands that he goes to that wedding. How she is soft and quiet still but you feel her power. I thought, what a choice! Not to go with the usual thing. That is probably the power of a great director working with a great actress.
Also, how Callahan says Lesley Manveille is superlative but Harris is just as worthy. I would go further even. You know Manveille is giving a good performance but what the hell is Harris doing?! I felt time stop and everything drop away when she yelled, “But I’m still ugly!” I forgot about a performance. Everyone can probably know that feeling no matter what you look like. Callahan says “it’s extremely upsetting.” Yes! But why Harris is so compelling I have no idea! (I can definitely see Phillip Seymour Hoffman connecting with that strong too) That is the mysterious side of acting when someone does that. I love too how Callahan compares her to Montgomery Clift. I agree!
// So I said her name and he almost had a fit, “She is not unknown, at all!” and started listing her in all the shows, and tv shows she was in (that I never saw). In fact he said to me that he is not shy to go up to any big star and start talking but the one he wouldn’t dare do that to was Harriet Sansom Harris, he is too much in awe! //
Regina, this is amazing!! I only knew her from Frasier – I don’t think I’ve seen her onstage which clearly I now must rectify.
// How she is soft and quiet still but you feel her power. I thought, what a choice! Not to go with the usual thing. //
I so agree with this. I hadn’t been able to articulate what it was about that moment that really struck me – and then I read Dan’s piece and was like, “Oh. Yes. That’s it.”
It kind of goes along with the subtler point made through the film – which I didn’t really pick up on my first time viewing – that Reynolds is basically beholden to his clients – many of whom are silly people – who have NO loyalty to him, who could at any moment decide to hire another dress designer, and he would have no recourse. Like his temper tantrum near the end about the word “chic” – and how one of his clients was not using another house. “It hurts my feelings.”
So in that moment with Barbara Rose – he really DIDN’T have any choice.
He is an artist – but he is also a servant.
// I felt time stop and everything drop away when she yelled, “But I’m still ugly!” I forgot about a performance. Everyone can probably know that feeling no matter what you look like. Callahan says “it’s extremely upsetting.” That is the mysterious side of acting when someone does that. I love too how Callahan compares her to Montgomery Clift. I agree! //
I know – I love how you put this.
It really is a stand-out scene. What Mitchell and I call 5-minute Oscars. Like Betty Buckley in Another Woman. The movie barely recovers from her one scene. It’s not supposed to recover but still … you have only 5 minutes, and you have to TORCH the EARTH of the whole film? Betty GOES for it.
so does Harris.
She really really understands this character – even if the script doesn’t ever explain her completely. SHE has answered every single question for herself. it’s really quite amazing.
I saw this yesterday, and one thing I noticed was that Alma looked like a young Cyril. Reynolds is first attracted to her because she looks like his sister maybe?
Hm, I didn’t notice that. But interesting take!
One of the arcs I love is how Cyril comes around to recognizing Alma’s fit-ness as a partner for her brother. it’s subtle. But eventually, you get the sense that if her brother asked her to break up with Alma for him – she’d say, for the very first time, “Do it yourself.”
I’ve seen so many Mike Leigh movies with a younger Leslie. Maybe that’s why the similarity in looks struck me. And yes, Cyril looks quite content at the end to be on daycare duty.
I loved that moment. Lesley M is sooo good in this movie. Even just the way she straightened her hair …
Lots of Oscar noms! I’m a bit surprised – and happily so.
I saw this last night and was just overwhelmed with the film. It will take me a little while to say something more intelligent than “holy cow,” but right now “holy cow.” What a beautiful film.
Isn’t it amazing?