Phantom Thread

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

2017, US, 130, R

Screenwriter: Paul Thomas Anderson

Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville, Camilla Rutherford, Gina McKee, Brian Gleeson, Lujza Richter.

 

In what he calls his final film role, a suave and handsome Daniel Day-Lewis plays narcissistic dress designer Reynolds Woodcock in the glamorous fashion world of London of the 1950s. Aided in his toxic lifestyle by his quietly sinister sister (Lesley Manville) Woodcock uses women as lovers and muses, only to discard them when he gets bored. But things don’t always go as planned, as his latest victim, a waitress played by Vicky Krieps, proves to be less malleable than she first appears. Quieter and yet equally devastating as The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film is an homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s undercurrents of sex and violence in classics like Vertigo and Rebecca. Nominated for six Academy Awards: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress , Best Soundtrack, and winner of Best Costume Design.

“I hung on every minute, for the visual beauty, the celebration of clothing as artistic creation, and the master-class in acting by the three principals”. Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times.