Phantom Thread

Annotation for KRRR! 2019

In 2017, Paul Thomas Anderson presented his new film Ghostbusters as a director, screenwriter and producer in one person. This unusual love story between an older man and a woman takes place outside of American soil for the first time in Anderson's films. On the other hand, it does not deviate from his series of period films (such as There Will Be Blood from 2007; The Master from 2012 was screened in 70mm material in Krnov), while this time bringing London in the 1950s to the screen. Several collaborators remain constant, such as Dylan Tichenor (editing), JoAnne Sellar and Daniel Lupi (production), Jonny Greenwood (music) or Mark Bridges (costumes), who won an Oscar for his work on this film in 2018. They say that love comes in many forms. The film's narration confirms this with the help of a twisted romantic story. Relationships, coping with character, human flaws, but especially strong emotions, is the main content of the film. The narrative follows three main interests. The first of them presents the story of the brilliant fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock, who suffers from obsessive­‑compulsive personality disorder. The main point becomes the observation of the disruption of his rituals after the arrival of true love (Alma). The second of the planes shows the complex relationships of the main character Reynolds, his sister Cyril and Alma. The last of the planes tells the story of fashion in London, which was the only strong rival to the Parisian fashion industry at that time. From a stylistic point of view, the camera movement and staging within the relative depth of the shot are especially important for the film. Paul T. Anderson continues to use his tried and tested method of using longer shots in combination with frequent reframing or the use of tracking shots. These create an important, slow, even harmonious atmosphere in the film, also thanks to the combination with the calm piano soundtrack. The narration can thus effectively follow the characters, who express their feelings much more through actions than through spoken words. These also gain strength at the right moment, but they only serve to confirm what the viewer was able to read from the actions of the main characters. It is possible to observe how a contradiction is created between the harmonious depiction and the narrative development, which hides disharmony at the level of the internal moods of the main characters. The contradiction becomes another element that, together with the colour transition from cold to warm colours, only deepens the film story.

Katarína Kunkelová