In front of the words:
When I watched "Phantom Thread" for the first time, I became very curious about the plot structure and character status. Maybe it was my long-term research on people that I had to start to treat each line carefully. and the facial expressions of each character. I don't want to try to analyze the text of a movie based on vague evidence alone, that may be sensory close to many, but is no longer what the movie itself is trying to articulate. My interest in reading comprehension was piqued when I was confronted with DDL's hilarious work and my favorite director, PTA. After the second pass, I was very clear that I was going to be out of place again, and the next point of view is probably different from most people's viewing experience, but I can guarantee one thing, everything is interlinked and leads to the final need. The answer - the true meaning of love
Reynolds Woodcock Reynolds Woodcock
1. Character appearance
The appearance of Reynolds inevitably explains the identity of the environment, and PTA tried to emphasize the state of the characters through space from the very beginning. From Reynolds' personal space to the public space of the tailor's shop, the photography uses different focal lengths and lens angles to emphasize the emphasis. An opposing idea - narrow and wide. Here, the first-level relationship of the character part is spread out.
Next is the display of the concept of characters. The signs of clothes and the interaction of characters just define the nature of this factory-like tailoring workshop. People are treated as objects. The way Reynolds treats people is out of proper emotion. Bowing her head in gratitude to him, her sister habitually looked at the public appearance behind her clothes instead of him. During their chat in the restaurant, they discussed getting rid of Reynolds' ex-girlfriend like clothes, and the key word to measure was the materialized comparison of getting fat, which was combined with the concern he had when talking about his mother later. , it is the contrast between things and emotions, the contrast between the two is a little surprising.
2. The two meet
Reynolds returned to the country where he was comfortable, and in the face of Alma, who was as shy as a child, Reynolds had a big appetite. He deliberately left the girl's handwriting, which echoes his later mention of the handwriting putting his mother's hair on the chest of his clothes. And then when Reynolds asked Alma, there was a complete understanding here, and Alma had prepared a small note for him in his apron. During the dinner that followed, Reynolds briefly passed on his concept of mother and family, and the two began to remove all the outer masks of adults, with Reynolds dipping her fingers in mayonnaise like a child, and Alma having her lipstick removed. Later, the meaning of the lining was revealed by Reynolds, and the lining of clothes became a way of expressing himself, and this way began in his childhood.
Next, PTA can't wait to reveal the history of the characters. Here we know that Reynolds lost his biological father very early. When his mother remarried, he and his sister did not care about the so-called superstition and sewed wedding dresses for their mother, and the nanny became his family. dividing line with outsiders. He used a lot of lines to describe the nannies, the only reason being superstitious and not participating in their sewing. When it comes to marriage, Reynolds begins to show his vulnerability, the hypocrisy and supposed heartache he perceives as the reason he shuts himself down. By the end of the part about measuring the girl, all of Reynolds' problems are exposed, providing a detailed basis for all subsequent episodes. And it's probably Alma who confuses most people.
Alma Alma
1. Character appearance
Compared with Reynolds, the character of Alma has a lot of corresponding information that is almost blank. How we capture the PTA's definition of it is the key to the whole film, such as why he starts a story in the way Alma tells it, such as why at the beginning of the film, the heroine tells her that she is in this relationship gave his all. Adopting an individual, combined with the lack of a lot of information about this person, constitutes a result that it is easier to empathize with Reynolds when the audience projects personal emotions, which makes Alma more vulnerable to attack. So, in this love-themed movie, how we evaluate Alma reflects our personal perception of love.
The actual point of Alma's appearance should be the moment when the two meet, and the first sight is a boyish erring blushing waiter. The identity of the waiter can be said to be deliberately designed by PTA. Because there are enough people in contact, Reynolds can see through it with a little thought. Alma directly prepared a note for Reynolds. During the dinner, she quickly saw him and his mother. When Reynolds mentioned marriage problems, she slowly approached the core of the problem - marriage. During the dinner and the subsequent conversation, she keenly captured Reynolds' mood changes and changes in the way he spoke, and she unceremoniously said that Reynolds was pretending to be strong. In contrast to Reynolds' evasive eyes, Alma looked him in the eye every time she spoke to him. When Reynolds and Alma were walking on the beach, Reynolds bluntly expressed the love in her heart, while Alma was more like a persuader. She seemed to vaguely perceive that her relationship was more dependent than rationality and prudence. .
2. Moments of character transformation
The PTA is a clear reminder of the character change, Alma has always lacked confidence, and when she wears the clothes Reynolds made for her, she becomes perfect. Here's a hint that the little girl who went from being shy to playing without blinking is finally a woman. We immediately see a special scene in the film, where Alma eats with the clothes Reynolds made for her, and she is no longer a model showing clothes but a character who is her own identity in a life scene. She adjusts quickly to her new identity and insists on expressing her own opinions when evaluating fabrics and clothing, but she quickly feels that she belongs to Reynolds' hard shell and has to compromise on several collisions. And at the moment when Reynolds was tired, Alma discovered Reynolds' brief tenderness. The opposition between the state of the country and the city tailor shop made her realize that in those beautiful moments between the two, Reynolds became himself, Reynolds, whom she describes as a "spoiled baby," can only fully express herself when she is resting in the country. The woman who broke through the last layer of psychology began to slowly try to change the pace of the two.
what is love?
In the past, the description of love in PTA's films was not systematic. In "Secret Love Disorder", it was more about style, while "Phantom Thread" put love in the undisguised primary position. The focus of the interpretation of the text is on the cognition and actions of the two in love, but it is nothing more than an analysis of the two.
1. Reynolds' cognition and behavior
To analyze his behavior, it should start from meeting Alma. In short, after falling in love at first sight, he quickly explained his feelings, ate dinner like a child, and quickly took her back to a relatively private home in the countryside. Tell about your life. The feelings and actions taken are very simple and innocent. He also took care of Alma in a gentlemanly manner at first, helping her dress and undress, and put a blanket on her when taking her clothes. Compared with his sister's more words and suitable descriptions, he only knows to say simple words such as "good" and "beautiful" in most cases. Alma used the "spoiled baby" to express her opinion of Reynolds, and the reason is very clear. Reynolds mentioned that his parents who lost his parents at an early age remarried, and he needed more love from a more intimate mother. Then he mentioned that precious lace was rescued in the war, and the photos of his mother in his early years can probably infer that he should have been away from his hometown due to joining the army, and then may have witnessed or heard about his mother's death. These two points have jointly affected his attitude towards family and other feelings, distinguishing between family members and outsiders, outsiders are regarded as things, and clothes and family members are recognized as life and worth paying.
The way Reynolds expresses desire is very strange. His love for girls is related to eating, whether it is the hungry boy when they first met, or the extremely hungry after that, every meal in private occasions is inseparable from these. However, the tailor's shop is not a private occasion for him. The people and objects in the tailor's shop constitute a thick shell for him to face the outside world, so all the objects in this shell can be summed up in one sentence - they are not Human beings in the full sense are instead intentionally objectified. His beloved Alma is not so much a model as a tool at home. Alma deliberately insists that the "endless standing" during dressing and the friction during breakfast are all because of his concept, this uncontrollable mental state. Therefore, he who is not good at words chooses to express his emotions through objects, and the lining of clothes that appears repeatedly in the film is exactly his way.
However, as he felt from his dreams and hallucinations, what a man who needs great emotion needs after work and fatigue is the emotion of life itself, and the intensity of this emotion is only capable of love. And the result of love is the affection that marriage leads. The status of his mother in his life is too high, and it is certain that no one girl brought into the tailor shop will replace his mother's impression. If work is a great help to his mother, and then no one in the family taught him how to live, how to face love and marriage. The "pretending to be strong" that Alma saw at a glance was exactly the shell he chose to escape from. His shell could not be easily changed, including his sister, including no one at home to create surprises, including the departure of female employees. But Alma's presence broke all the balance, or she tried her best to break Reynolds' shell in the most direct way she felt.
2. Alma's cognition and behavior
For a long time, I was in awe of the observation skills of the waiters. Alma's keen observation and action skills are admirable. After she understood Reynolds' mind, she did not strive to be stable and obey like a girl married to a wealthy family. After she was grateful to Reynolds for changing it, all her actions were trying to break Reynolds' shell. After discovering that he was pretending to be strong, she asked Reynolds to be cautious after facing Reynolds' intentions. She could see his state and mood through Reynolds' eating. It can be said that she understood Reynolds thoroughly and thoroughly after a while. His behavior was arranged, but he repeatedly hit a wall (couldn't enter his room and was accused by him of various kinds).
She sets out to lead Reynolds, reclaiming clothes at Barbara's banquet, choosing a romantic dinner as a surprise, and even emphasizing her place in front of the princess until she understands that it's having little effect. Poisonous mushrooms were her only hope in desperation, and her last resort. She tried to get rid of all the rules he had defined, but she still did the same job, and even tried to think more about the need to face the tough him when he proposed to her. That's why Reynolds' sister Cyril recognized her and her marriage to her brother. The funniest part here is her confession at the end, where Reynolds notices her cooking and tastes the greasiness of the double butter, but eats it. She felt that she needed to say everything at this point, and there was no need to hide it, because Reynolds had made a change, the biggest change in a long time. It was here that the two truly handed over to each other, so Alma could say that she and he were soulmates.
Reynolds brings her back to reality as she envisions life after herself and Reynolds. Life cannot escape the basics, and Reynolds once again said that he was a little hungry... Although the way of expressing emotions and desires is the same as before, just like imagining those moving scenes in the future, the relationship between the two has completely changed.
3. Love?
Perhaps because of empathy, it's easy to project our existing experiences and perceptions onto characters. In fact, the complexity of love happens to be its instability, which is made more elusive by the inclusion of complex realities. Alma's approach is to keep things simple and straightforward, which is pretty much the same as when Reynolds first got along with her. The film is actually an attempt to break the materialized concept of love, which is of course diametrically opposed to the materialized desire for control and possessiveness in most interpretations. The panic and discomfort when looking at the actions of the characters in the film is just a reflection of this concept in our hearts.
PTA provides the family relationship related to love as a comparison, and tries to explain all the process of love. The slight emotional changes and states of the two people are explained very clearly in the length and space control of the camera. Compared with the first time watching The doubts that arise at the time made me have to put aside all external factors to devote myself to this story, and I think so too, and I got my answer.
Audiovisual analysis (simple list here, do not want to over-analyze)
1. The contrast between personal space and group space and external space when Reynolds appeared. (Camera position, lens focal length, movement mode)
2. Similarities between Endless Superstition and Moonlight Sonata.
3. The camera angle, movement and character status display during breakfast many times.
4. Push shots of the marriage proposal.
5. The ambient sound of the New Year's Eve dance changes.
etc...
Conclusion:
I don't agree with the accusations many people have made of the film's mediocrity, just as the small gestures of the two men are identifiable and interpretable, they work with the audiovisual language to perfect the text and expression of the film. After DDL played the role of Reynolds, he announced his retirement. I think it may also be related to this role. Maybe he thought about his work-life balance later, maybe he realized whether his love and life were affected like Reynolds. , but none of this is known. I am delighted that PTA uses such a film to seriously talk about love, where everyone can discover themselves, what love looks like in their hearts, and what the future might look like...
(Personal interpretation, no reference to any information)
View more about Phantom Thread reviews
