Serious Film Review #41: A look at "The Phantom of the Seamstress", there is no doubt that the best of 2017 – 10/10

Naomie 2021-12-03 08:01:45

The Phantom of the Seamstress

For haute couture clothing, perhaps most people's understanding will stay on their luxurious surface. These tailor-made and unique products in the fashion industry, these banquet dresses with exaggerated skirts that make others avoid them, these hundreds of thousands of art works, although exquisite, often give people a superficial, even insignificant feeling. .

Superficial, even irrelevant. This will probably be the evaluation of "The Phantom Sewer" by many viewers in the future.

This outstanding American contemporary director—Paul Thomas Anderson (hereinafter referred to as PTA)’s eighth full-length work, this three-time Oscar-winning Daniel Day-Lewis’s closed work, may be seen by many audiences It is regarded as a superficial film because it tells the story of a fashion designer in London in the 1950s. In the eyes of another group of viewers, it may be so irrelevant. There is no so-called political correctness and no current sensitive topics. What qualifications does it have to become a hot topic of discussion and fight against the hottest awards season movies at the moment?

But this is not what PTA considered when making this work. Become a hot spot and win Oscars, these tasks will be left to the "Call Me by Your Name" and the "Washington Post" in 2017 (of course, these two works are very good, even excellent works). For most filmmakers, putting the work in front of the audience so that it can become a topic of the moment, it would be great if you can win awards by the way. But PTA, especially the PTA that gradually matured after "Disharmony of Private Love", every work he produced seems to be remembered by everyone after 5, 10, or even 50 years. Discussed. Of course, not every time he can be successful, for example, the previous work "The Evil of Nature" made fans, including me, puzzled. But whether it is "The Blood Is Coming" ten years ago or "The Master" five years ago, it seems to be the undisputed masterpiece of film history in the eyes of many fans and film critics today.

In my opinion, "The Phantom of the Seamstress" is also such a work. It will be discussed in 5, 10, or even 50 years from now. It is destined to become a masterpiece that will not be swallowed up by time.

This seems to be somewhat similar to Gaoding. In the eyes of most people, the handmade production required by Haute Couture seems a bit too luxurious. But in the 1950s, this was the most necessary way to make clothes, because designers' ready-to-wear garments were not yet on the market. Gaoding was just the only way for women at that time to obtain the most perfectly wrapped clothes around their bodies.

Under the seemingly empty plot and the seemingly overly gorgeous production design, "The Phantom of the Seamstress" can easily be mistaken for a work that cannot stand scrutiny. But this is also just the only way PTA can make great movies, right? He is always so luxurious, and his movies are always like a grand event that movie fans are looking forward to-high light, but not fleeting, but can last forever.

Director and screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson

"The Phantom of the Seamstress" is the first time PTA has made creation far away from its hometown of the United States (or even California), but it has not lost many of the signs of PTA's work. Like PTA's other works, repeated viewing is the only way to get an interpretation of "The Phantom Sewing". The fascinating characters require in-depth thinking and understanding. Johnny Greenwood’s superb soundtrack requires constant and serious taste, while the seemingly overly static picture exudes a certain mysterious and classical feeling (such as a rare two-person positive). Driving to the camera), enticing the audience to watch it again.

Similarly, just like his other works, "The Phantom of the Seamstress" talks about a simple topic on the surface, but in fact it explores another topic that is closer to human nature and more resonant to the audience. Just like Boogie Nights, which on the surface is about the porn industry, it is actually about family, about movies, about the change of the times, and about the desire to be loved; just like "Magnolia", it seems to be about coincidence and about this There are unexplainable supernatural forces in the world, but they are actually about regret and forgiveness; just like "The Blood Is Coming", it is the history of the oil tycoon on the surface, but the core is about the engulfing of capitalism, about religion, about domination, about Family affection, about loneliness; or "Master", which looks amazingly similar to Scientology can not help but evoke imagination, but in the final analysis it discusses the relationship between two people who are impossible to be together; "Sexual Evil", the noir film that I can't read so far, seems to be a detective drama, but it actually explores the anxiety of that era and the predecessor who can make you give up everything. When it comes to "The Phantom Sewer", the gorgeous clothes are destined to be a story about couture designers on the surface, but it does not really focus on couture clothing. It is about a sadomasochistic relationship, the relationship between the artist and his muse, the game between two lovers trying to control each other by all means, and a strange consideration about how love is.

Of course, we can still see PTA's consistent love for the characters he created, and the angel who rescues the protagonist that always appears in his works. Just like Lena in "Incompatibility" is to the freak Barry Egan, like the police officer Jim in "Magnolia" to Claudia who can't get out of the past, just like the son in "The Blood Is Coming" HW is to Daniel Plainway. PTA knows how to create these plump characters, so these characters in his works have bad roots and flaws all over our lives; but at the same time he loves the characters he created so much, so he is always in movies Arrange the appearance of angels for them. But in "The Phantom of the Seamstress", who is the rescued and who is the angel? Probably the paranoid and demanding creator Woodcock (off-topic, how many people would think this is a joke? Woodcock?) is the one who was rescued, and the ignorant Irma has become his muse. Besides, it's his angel. But on the other hand, is it not a reasonable interpretation? The tit-for-tat love between them is destined to experience a twisted experience that is impossible to see in ordinary love movies before it takes fruit. But what is strange is that this abnormal view of love, while breaking our vulgar views, can actually bring us an extremely strong move.

This is probably due to PTA's ultimate ability to control video and sound. He understands that the most important thing about film as a medium is to rely on images and sounds to convey emotions to the audience, and even stories are secondary. So we have the long soundtrack of the beginning of the movie, which allows us to feel the tone of the movie and constantly reminds us that this is a movie, no matter how real it looks; at the same time, we also have the scene of the dining table before the end (in I think it is the best scene of all the movies in 2017), the scene without dialogue creates endless torture and suspense for us through the screen, but the moment when the symphony soundtrack is played, the accumulated emotions impact the audience.

Actor Daniel Day-Lewis and the little-known Vicky Cripps

Of course, referring to the scene of the dining table at the end of the movie, or even talking about the movie "The Phantom Sewer", it is impossible to leave Daniel Day-Lewis. The actor, who has been crowned king by Oscar for three times, finally announced his resignation after the filming of the film. I firmly believe that the production of "The Phantom of the Seaman" is responsible for this. After all, as a representative of the methodist actor, he continues to be immersed in the world of the high-definition designer Woodcock, but Dai-Lewis is in the filming process. The easiest step to complete. Visiting museums, learning this knowledge with the art director, and even sew these haute couture skirts by hand, fans who are familiar with Dai-Lewis will think this is just a routine for him. But what really made him decide to quit the film world was probably the mental journey that the character of Woodcock went through in the movie. It is no exaggeration to say that just as an audience, after watching the movie, I will feel overwhelmed and suffocated by the performance. It is conceivable that he who is immersed in this role has experienced how much psychological pressure. Of course, taking "The Phantom of the Seamstress" as the curtain call of his acting career can be said to be the most satisfying result for him and the fans who love him. In my opinion, this scene on the table is also the pinnacle of Day Lewis's acting career. He doesn't need any makeup, he doesn't even need dialogue. As long as a close-up, only the facial expressions are needed, he can transmit strong feelings to the screen.

And the one who unexpectedly confronted him on the screen was the little-known Vicky Cripps. There are probably not many actors in film history who can guarantee that they won’t fall behind when playing with Day-Lewis, but Cripps can unexpectedly share the same score with him. In this respect, the PTA script gave Irma the ability to fight Woodcock. But on the other hand, this is probably also due to Krips's slender and masculine posture, which allows her to fight against Day-Lewis without losing the first battle.

PTA+DDL, such a golden combination will never be seen again

When discussing with a friend who didn't particularly like "The Phantom Sewer" a few days ago, I struggled with how to express why I have such a strong love for this work. He agreed that the production level of this work is extremely high, but after all, it is only a relatively superficial work. I'm not commenting on this, after all, everyone has a different sense of empathy for different topics. But like other great works in the late PTA period ("The Blood Is Coming", "The Master"), he gave me enough materials to think about the film works and even life itself. No matter how simple the story he tells (especially in comparison with his previous works, such as "Boojin Night" and "Magnolia"), his persistence in character creation, and how he can make the weakness of these characters corrode and move You and I can be said to have taken great pains. It is precisely because of this insistence on character creation that these characters that should have disappeared from the crowd can transcend the story itself, transcend the limitations of small-format stories, and even make us feel that the conflict between these characters can transcend the frame of the screen. , Giving the feeling of an epic movie.

Or, I just like to see PTA keep trying to take new routes. Among contemporary filmmakers, David Fincher is a visual genius, Richard Linklater can write poetic dialogue, Alexander Payne is good at creating outstanding characters, and Sofia Coppola knows how to use Music controls emotions and tone, Quentin Tarantino has encyclopedic film knowledge, and Stephen Soderbergh knows how to recreate themes. What about PTA? All the above praises for different filmmakers can be said to be his merits. Yes, his excellence is not limited to a certain aspect of the production, but all. But even so, he will not stand still, but keep trying. So we will see the chaos and energy of Ultraman and Scorsese in "La Gambling", "Boogie Nights" and "Magnolia", so we will see "Private Romance" with Adam Sander Le and ancient musicals like romantic light comedy elements, so we will see the Skubrick-style exploration of human nature in "The Blood Is Coming", "The Master", and "The Evil of Nature".

So we will see the strong Hitchcock style in "The Phantom Sewing", the suspense like "Vortex" and "Butterfly Dream", and the crazy pursuit and opinions about certain things. Maybe one day, he will become Terrence Malick-like philosopher and bring us more abstract movies. We can’t even tell. But as a movie fan, PTA's continuous self-transcendence is probably our highest requirement of him.

It is for this reason that the "Phantom Sewer", which has been surpassed once again, is, at least in my opinion, the undoubtedly best among the many excellent movies in 2017.

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Extended Reading
  • Webster 2022-03-21 09:01:53

    From the very first shot, the film proclaimed itself as a classic masterpiece. As the title says, the beauty and horror of this love, in the form of a montage, invaded every corner of the film like a ghost. Every character, even more surprising is the weird sense of humour brought by the performance, and the ending is stunned. Master PTA, I surrender to you.

  • Anibal 2022-03-23 09:01:53

    If you don't discuss a theme similar to "Venus in Fur", just talking about the plot is really weird. The female protagonist's appearance is amazing.

Phantom Thread quotes

  • Reynolds Woodcock: I really wish I hadn't heard this until later on, Cyril. It's very unsettling.

    Cyril: Well, chin up.

  • Alma: That dress doesn't belong here.

    Reynolds Woodcock: Don't start crying.

    Alma: I'm not crying. I'm angry.

    Reynolds Woodcock: Don't start blubbering, Alma.

    Alma: I'm not blubbering.