There's a scene in Antonioni's film "Eclipse" where the heroine, played by Monica Vitti, comes to the stock exchange, which is loud and noisy, the trading operators are busy, and everyone is yelling Takes away the operator's time. The heroine stared blankly at these well-dressed ladies and gentlemen. At this time, an obituary came out on the radio, and a staff member in the exchange passed away. Please observe three minutes of silence for him. The crowd immediately quieted down, and after a short three minutes, it returned to normal again. The heroine is particularly lonely among this group of people.
The contrast between noise and silence is like the ups and downs of the stock market, and emotions are diluted into pleasure in the noise. Interpersonal alienation becomes the norm in Antonioni's films.
Paul Thomas Anderson (hereinafter referred to as PTA) in his eighth feature film "Phantom Thread", presents a state of intimacy, the costume designer is gradually controlled by his muse, the two sides reach A pathological dependency. If alienation and intimacy are the two poles of interpersonal relationships, then loneliness is a mental state outside this axis, alienation leads to loneliness, and intimacy stems from fear of loneliness. The film is very similar to an emotionally internalized "Gone Lover" in theme, but the two have different paths. Compared with "Eclipse", which looks at the whole human society, the pattern of "Phantom Thread" is not big, only limited to the love between the hero Reynolds and the heroine Alma. Compared with "Gone Lover", which is a progressive and orderly reversal of foreshadowing, "Phantom Thread" is not so suspenseful, but still thrilling. The variation of the soundtrack is conveyed, which is a more pure audio-visual work.
Compared with PTA's previous works, "Phantom Thread" is more retro, not only because the story background is set in London in the 1950s and the blessing of British fashion, but also because of the reduction of camera movement, More fixed shots, few long shots, heavy use of fade transitions, and classical piano pieces by Jonny Greenwood. This can be said to be a new attempt made by PTA, who is not comfortable with the status quo, to break through himself, or it can be said that he has chosen a way to deal with it that is more in line with the temperament of the film.
This is also the background of his films after World War II since "Master". The background of "Master" buried a dark line of post-war post-traumatic sequelae (PTSD), compared to the background of "Phantom Thread". It lacks a clear direction, and is more designed to create the gothic atmosphere of the film.
PTA adheres to the principle of "movies should serve the audience" (not costume control). Although the hero Reynolds is a top costume designer, the presentation of costume design in the film is more to promote the plot. Viewers who watch 23 sets of cheongsam or costume designs similar to "In the Mood for Love" may be disappointed. The film shows the inner world of the characters more than the clothing design, which jumps out of the limitation of a certain industry. Even if Reynolds was a carpenter, chef, musician, or even a "craftsman" like Xiao Wu, the story would hold true.
Although the title of this article is "Sense and Sensibility", it has nothing to do with Jane Austen's novel and Ang Lee's film of the same name. For Reynolds, it wasn't so much looking for a wife as he was looking for a "mother" to lean on when he was weak. Cyril is his sensible measure. He once helped him sew his mother's wedding dress for the second marriage, but he never got married as if he was cursed. The idea and possibility of Cyril wanting to get married cannot be found in the film. As a sister, her functions overlap with her mother to some extent. Reynolds gets along with her with some redemptive mentality. At the same time, he also believes that You will not be happy yourself. And Alma is his emotional balance. She is very good at what he needs and thinks. She rescues Reynolds from the predicament. When they find the right balance, Alma can be between the two roles of wife and mother. Switch back and forth. The connection between Cyril and Alma lies not in the struggle for matriarchy, but in the handover of matriarchy.
When Reynolds and Alma first met, Alma was still a waiter in a restaurant, and the dialogue between the two used an unconventional jumping axis to fight back and forth. Reynolds' shot is a close-up over-the-shoulder shot with Alma in. Alma's shot is a close-up, her face taking up half the screen. Like her endless possessiveness.
From this point on, Alma is mostly in a condescending or equal position in getting along with Reynolds, which corresponds to the roles of mother and lover respectively. And for Alma, Reynolds could only peep carefully from behind the hole.
Alma's noise at breakfast annoyed Reynolds who was working, and she used her own reasoning to raise the bar with the angry Reynolds. Reynolds left the table angrily.
When Alma and Reynolds disagreed about the fabric of the clothes, Alma continued to raise the bar, and Reynolds angrily told him to shut up.
Reynolds was defeated every time, and Alma summed up the proportions after repeated failed attempts, just like a couple's running-in in the process of love.
The fat woman Barbara remarried and ruined the clothes designed by Reynolds after being drunk. Although Reynolds was not used to seeing this, she did not dare to directly tear up with the financier who provided him with the house. With the support of Alma Next, he did what he wanted to do, the two kissed on the way home, Alma understood his heart, and the role of lover began by accident.
When Alma and Cyril met for the first time, although Alma was standing at a higher position, the composition of the picture was still used to "decapitate" Alma, which once again formed Alma condescendingly.
The handover of matriarchy begins not with this handshake, but with a measured trial.
When the Belgian princess came to visit, Alma saw that the figure of the princess was exactly in line with Reynolds' preference, and went to declare sovereignty to the princess, which was a clear account of her possessiveness.
Driven by possessiveness, Alma drove away both the servant and her sister Cyril. She wanted to create a two-person world to surprise Reynolds, but she was too hasty.
The most terrifying scene in the film is probably when making poisonous mushrooms. This is Alma's bolder test after she has a sense of crisis. Her measure is to make Reynolds weak and not poisoned to death.
When Reynolds felt unwell, he told Alma that he might have eaten his stomach. But when his sister came to take care of him and asked him if he had eaten a bad stomach, he denied it and scolded the doctor invited by his sister. Maybe Reynolds at this time has begun to doubt Alma, this is his temptation to Alma.
Alma then finds a note that reads "never cursed" in the wedding dress Reynolds sewed for the Belgian princess. The curse caused by the wedding dress, the sister and brother trapped by the curse, and the note hidden in the wedding dress in order to break free, were finally taken out by Alma. All this is strung together into a Gothic Grimm fairy tale. Alma in the role of mother is the bell-breaker of the curse, and the bell-tie is Reynolds' biological mother.
During his illness, Reynolds saw his mother wearing the wedding dress he and Cyril sewed together. When Alma opened the bedroom door and appeared in a scene with the phantom mother at the same time, Alma also opened the door to Reynolds' heart, and the handover of matriarchy also symbolized completion.
When Reynolds, recovering from his illness, proposed to Alma, that's when they found the right balance.
The two people at the wedding once again returned to the equal relationship of lovers, and the camera jumped again.
Married life isn't all smooth sailing, and Alma upsets Reynolds by making him jealous, and she knows how to control Reynolds. Combining possessiveness for his lover and attachment to his mother, Reynolds finally accepts Alma.
The film adopts the structure of a large flashback, and Alma tells the whole story alone. But the story unfolds from an omniscient perspective, not from Alma's alone. This film raises the possibility of ambiguity as to whether the entire story told by Alma is true.
The main point of disagreement is whether or not she poisoned Reynolds later on. If not poisoned, the ending of the story would be like the story she told. If poisoned, the latter would all be Alma's dreams, because the one sitting across from him listening to him tell the story was the doctor Cyril invited when Reynolds was first poisoned.
Whichever possibility points to it, it's a horrific story.
Because of the sophistication, restraint, and excellent camera sense of PTA's narrative, his films are often able to present fun through the lens beyond the text itself.
For example, in "Love Disorder", when the hero runs desperately, the camera uses a wide angle to distort the picture, distorting the buildings and streets. When the hero falls in love, the camera moves lightly and dances with the hero. When the male protagonist gets irritable and destroys things, the camera freezes, appearing extra calm and restrained, creating an interesting contrast.
For another example, in "The Blood Will Come", I really liked the scene of the exorcism in the church. It was a long shot. The camera followed the hero into the church. The priest was exorcising an old woman. The direction of the camera) is doing an exorcism, and the camera exits the church with the priest’s exorcism, as if the camera represents the devil’s perspective. He entered the church with the male protagonist, which can also be interpreted as the male protagonist's inner demon.
In "Phantom Thread", this fun disappears due to the reduction of camera movement, and it is more reflected in the composition. There are two of my favorite compositions in the whole film.
The first is when Reynolds, who recovered from his illness, proposed to Alma, the wedding dress carrying the curse function was placed in the foreground. Will their marriage break the curse, or will it become another curse like this wedding dress? This is yet another point of divergence in the film's ambiguity.
The second is when the two eat together after marriage. It is worth noting that the two ate alone twice before marriage, and they never appeared in the same frame. There were also two times after marriage, both of which appeared in the same frame, here is the second time. The two people who have found their balance but have not yet entered the tacit understanding mode contrasted with the poisonous dishes on the table.
The first feeling after watching "Phantom Thread" is that after "Forty-Five Years" and "Perfect Stranger", there is one more movie on the Valentine's Day list.
Just using the word "loneliness" is not enough to cover the sadness of mental depression in "Eclipse", and "loneliness" is not enough to describe the alternative emotional release in "Phantom Thread". Alienation becomes a necessity, intimacy becomes a luxury, and Reynolds and Alma fall in love with each other in fairy tales.
Love can be fearless to the point of "you jump, i jump", or it can be troubled enough to rely on poison to create support. It is the uncontrollable proportion under the ancient curse, the eternal curse left after the collision of reason and emotion.
It is honey and it is arsenic.
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