Real question: is Paul Thomas Anderson reading my dream journal??? PT Anderson made the movie that seems like it was tailor-made for just me: Phantom Thread, a period costume drama starring Daniel Day Lewis as an authoritative/sexy/neurotic fashion designer who seduces a young woman and makes her his lover-muse. It’s sort of like Jane Eyre, only even more horny and with amazing clothes.
I’m into this. DDL plays Reynolds Woodcock, a dressmaker/designer in 1950s London. He’s the go-to guy for all of British society. And he falls in love and he’s obsessed and crazy and it’s also sort of hot. From the official synopsis:
“Set in the glamour of 1950s post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) are at the center of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames with the distinct style of The House of Woodcock. Women come and go through Woodcock’s life, providing the confirmed bachelor with inspiration and companionship, until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love. With his latest film, Paul Thomas Anderson paints an illuminating portrait both of an artist on a creative journey, and the women who keep his world running.”
God, I’m into this. I’ll say this about DDL too – he’s always been an underrated romantic leading man. Some actors can’t “fall in love” on screen, they can’t portray romantic relationships well, and some actors just don’t like to work that closely with actresses. But Daniel Day Lewis can do it, and I wish he had done it more often, because this is possibly the last film of his career. This comes out on Christmas Day. I’ll wait in line for this.
Poster, screencap courtesy of ‘Phantom Thread’.
DDL never disappoints me – the best actor in the world alongside the Indian actor Kamal Hassan.
Has DDL ever been bad in a role? I also love PTA. Have to see this movie.
I’m a huge fan of DDL. To the point that I have a region free DVD player, so I could have a couple of his films that were never released here in the states. If you go way back to his first filmed stuff for the BBC (look for the BBC Daniel Day-Lewis Triple Feature DVD) he’s a bit shaky and uneven, and he doesn’t have the grasp of doing accents quite yet – but he’s still believable in all of them. He’s been a a few stinkers (Stars and Bars & Eversmile, New Jersey) but trust me, it’s wasn’t because he sucked in the roles – those two films were bad because of weak scripts. Honestly, he can even do comedy if given a good script (Stars & Bars shows he could have easily been the Hugh Grant of the 1980s). Even his work as Guido in Nine wasn’t awful, it’s just that as a movie musical, Nine was weak.
Anyway, I am very (im)patiently waiting for this movie. Not only because of DDL, but the chance to see a beautifully shot PTA masterpiece. And I don’t think it will be his last. I really think that there are a very small handful of directors (ahem.. Spielberg, for one) that can sweet talk him out of ‘retirement’ for one more film.
I’m gonna take a guess here and assume you never saw Nine. But to be fair, he wasn’t the worst in that.
Ever smile, NJ was painful. Stars & Bars was a mess of a movie but his scenes involving the pond in the hotel were hilarious
LOVE DDL, and period pieces…but this bothers me. We’re ragging on men who chose age-inappropriate women, older men in positions of power with younger women, etc., and yet, because it’s DDL in this movie, the premise of an older fashion guy “comes across a younger nubile young woman” and “falls in love”, this is OK? How different is it with WA’s obsession with younger women?
Can’t wait to see this film! On a side note, do any of you know what font the movie title is in?
LOL…is it Papyrus?
Haha, not Papyrus for sure!!
This could’ve been a bomb and I would’ve seen it. But omg looks fantastic. He’s on of the rare greats. Sometimes I forget that he didn’t do a million movies a year. Just select projects he believed in
Ugh king among men please don’t leave us!
Can’t wait for this. If DDL really is retiring (and not just ‘retiring’ for a while like last time) then I’m really glad he’s going out with what looks to be a masterpiece.
I don’t think he has done a heart throb role since Last of the Mohicans a long long time ago.
Nine was closer to a heartthrob role than this.
Haven’t seen Nine but the Age of Innocence was another example of DDL in a romantic lead.
Josie, yes. An understated portrait of yearning for something that could never be.
DDL in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” was everything for me. Not a “heartthrob” role, but emotionally complex and multi-layered.
‘starring Daniel Day Lewis as an authoritative/sexy/neurotic fashion designer who seduces a young woman and makes her his lover-muse.’
Hang on. I thought we didn’t like the older man younger woman trope anymore?
I hear ya. Can’t speak for others but I’m sick of the older man/younger woman dynamic in films. I like DDL, but I watched that trailer and found it creepy.
It’s meant to be creepy.
I just made the same comment above, before seeing yours (and these below). GMTA and all that 😊
Just as it was with pretty much every Audrey Hepburn film, the “old man/young beauty” Hollywood theme is apparently still alive and unwell. I like DDL, and this trailer is beautiful to look at, but really? No progress over all these years? Unless the film ultimately exposes and tackles the trope…
Sounds like he’s old enough to be her grandfather. Baby men and their puerile fantasies…yeesh. Certainly not MY idea of romance.
Yup, grumpy older man in position of power, with young women flocking to him because of his “genius.” Cliche plot line.
Well he’s meant to be creepy. He’s obsessed with her but she actually will be having an opinion and goes against him. That’s the premise of the film, not him controlling her but him losing control and being confronted with his worst flaws. Not making any excuses for the trope but it can be explored differently which is what this seems to be doing. I expect PTA not to be stereotypical so I do want to see the film first before making final judgments.
Also the actress playing the young woman is 34 so if she’s also over 30 in the film, she’s not really a naive young girl like it often is. They may introduce her that way which reflects how we view women in her position but that doesn’t mean she’s some weak character who’s going to be controlled by an older man. If she’s making choices, she’s a strong character. Even in the film one of his fans or friends (I can’t tell) is pointing out she’s not paying attention to him which could indicate she is not obsessed with his work and fame and doesn’t kiss the ground he walks on. I hope it ends with her leaving him and him being alone with the clothes he worships but not the people and their stories that inhabit them tbh.
I think the relationship depicted in the trailer is not romantic at all! The designer character seems like a control freak.
Why are we putting DDL on a pedestal?
Because he’s a great actor and seems like a decent guy. You are right, this seems like a disturbing character, but remember he’s just a guy playing a role!
Don’t forget this movie is set in the 1950’s. Like it or not that was what it was like back then. The story doesn’t white-wash the paternalistic, post-war culture of that decade. I was born in the early 1950’s. I lived that era. Like it or not he’s representing what life was like then. DDL is an amazing actor who has taken on varied and difficult roles (My Left Foot, The Boxer, Gangs of New York) where he literally sinks into his role. He played a horrific character in Gangs of New York – why aren’t you complaining about that? If anything this movie appears to shine a light on an industry that was and continues to be rife with misogyny, paternalism and harassment, it’s not glorifying it. His character IS the fashion industry – full of gigantic egos and neurotic designers, both men and women, and his model eventually stands up for herself instead of letting herself be bullied into submission.
Jaded, I was born in 1952. Turn 65 tomorrow.
Happy Birthday!🎂 I turn 73 a week from Thursday. Feel 37.
@Third Ginger
My birthday is also tomorrow! Happy birthday to you!
Wow ladies – happy birthdays to you all, mine was on Oct. 14. Proof positive you don’t get older you get better!
Happy Birthday Third Ginger! 🎉🎂 Happy *almost* Birthday Tina and Jerusha! Mine is this Monday 😊 🎃
And Happy Birthdays Tina, Jaded, and imqrious2!🎂🎁🎈🥂
Many Birthday to all. So many fine people born in October and November!!
But what if you’re a younger woman who prefers older men?
I’ve always been attracted to older men in their 40s/50s.
I’m there.
DDL is like Radiohead. Every 3 to 4 years put out a product. It’s always a masterpiece.
Just for perspective: Taylor Swift has released 8 albums in the 2000s while RH has released 9 since 1993.
Folks, it’s quality not quantity
I think Swifty would say “The haters gonna hate, hate, hate…”. By the way, I agree with you 100%.
The comparison is like apples and dinosaurs. First of all, DDL did 17 projects between 1980 and 1989 (you know, his mid-20s and early 30s), it wasn’t until he won an Oscar and became the king of method acting that he had the luxury of being so selective with his projects. Unlike movies, three years is an eternity in pop music. Britney Spears went four years between “In the Zone” and “Blackout” and lost 2 million in album sales. When you are making entertainment for the 12-25 crowd, the key to success is to do an album at least every other year and tour in-between.
The lack of perspective around here baffles me sometimes.
Great comment
DDL is great. Paul Thomas Anderson, the director, is also mega-talented – except his films are always over-extended and could benefit from tighter editing. So, let’s hope this one doesn’t go on for too long…
Agree. I struggled to get through The Master and I gave up on Inherent Vice.
I hated, hated, hated The Master. I stuck with Inherent Vice, but it’s a film you couldn’t pay me to watch again. JP looked like he hadn’t bathed in eight months in that movie.
mesmerizing! can’t wait for this movie to come out!
It does look mesmerizing but I daresay a bit overwrought, maybe? He is amazing and the period details are alluring and I love fashion (as a spectator more than a participant, lol), so I’m into it for sure.
He is method personified. Perhaps that is why he rarely falls in love on screen – he loves his wife in real life too much to throw that bit of his soul away for his craft.
Well he sowed his oats in his younger years. He was a proper douche 🙂 He probably appreciated life more and settled down. It helps he’s not always away from home as so many actors act non-stop and are surprised they catch feelings for people when they never see their partners or don’t make any effort in communicating (see Hunnam who ghosted his own GF!). DDL can maintain his relationship with his wife because he doesn’t have other women distracting him from his real home life.
Many thanks, Kaiser. DDL has been my favorite actor since 1985. I saw him in both ROOM WITH A VIEW and MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDERETTE. He became in those films two distinctly different human beings. I have been in awe ever since. Javier Bardem, no slouch himself, once called Day-Lewis “a sculptor of the human soul.”
Me, too. I was such a DDL fangurl back then and all my friends knew it.
And it was funny because I knew he was in both films but it was really hard to decipher which character he was in Room With a View because he was such a different person in both those films. He totally loses himself in a character and he seems to be a completely different person from film to film.
He did Mutiny on the Bounty the year before those two and was a totally different person then, also. He was so good in RWAV that I sympathized with his prissy Cecil Vyse more than with the hunk/hero of the film.
Felt like Dangerous Liasons meets Black Swan.
Yaaaaaasssssssssssssssss!
Woodcock tho? Seriously? It is a comedy? Forgive my dirty mind..
Rumors are this movie is heavy on BSDM; sexy vintage fashion 50 shades of grey. So the name works on that level.
Unpopular opinion: I find DDL “method acting” pretentious and the whole “this will be my last film” narrative pretty tacky, as it seems more like a marketing gimmick than anything else. And in the same way that I can’t stand people revering Meryl Street, I can’t with the same atitude with DDL. He is a great actor, but even actors know that questioning his method is a heresy, so it never happens unless it’s anonymous commentary.
Rant over.
I’m with you!
Yes, it’s an unpopular opinion, but it’s yours, and it’s valid. That’s what makes CB a good forum.
Agreed. I’m always aware that he’s “acting.”
Sing it sister…me too.
I think Meryl is overrated. Glenn Close, Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates are far better actresses. Apparently, Katherine Hepburn hated Meryl, she called her “too cerebral”, but then again she was quite vicious toward Glenn Close – claiming that she has ” big, ugly feet”. OMG Lol.
Love Daniel Day-Lewis, hate the story-line. Hope that he isn’t nominated for another Oscar for this role.
This looks amazing. PTA + DDL = genius. His voice alone – timbre, cadence, tone – is in another league from mere mortals. SIgh.
i would watch it just for the fashion (so Dior) and the settings alone. Gorgeous.
I will too!
Not on opening day, tho. Xmas day is family napping day at chez SJ
I guess I’m a Philistine, because I just don’t see his charm. The only one of his movies I’ve been able to sit through more than once is Last of the Mohicans, and that’s only because of the rest of the cast, especially Wes Studi, Russell Means, and Eric Schweig. I do appreciate that he worked to have a relationship with RM and ES although he apparently didn’t spend time with any of the other Native American actors.
Elizabeth, taste in actors is one of the most subjective things in the world. We can express opinions, but we really can’t say yours is wrong. For example, right now in Hollywood two young actors are pushed for stardom. Miles Teller and Ansel Elgort. I don’t like either one, but I am sure that have many fans, and they could have long careers. As I say above, CB’s mix of opinion is good.
So, the “I will never ever give my money again to support a Tinseltown project where the age gap between the aging male star and his leading lady is a quarter of a century” goes out of the window if the male star is a forever crush. Got it.
Am I the only one confused by his accent? It sounds very mid-Atlantic to me at the beginning. Brits, please assist! What accent is that? It doesn’t sound like RP to me, but then I’m a humble Midwestern American.
No I’m a Brit and that’s pretty standardised, slightly internationalised RP, but then given the international world it looks like he’s part of in the film a strictly RP accent would have some of the edges knocked off it.
Thank you for the response.
DDL.. my one and only actor crush ever since The Last of the Mohicans (“You stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you! No matter how long it takes, no matter how far. I will find you! ” *swoons*). Amazing in everything he does.
Thank you once again CB for keeping me abreast of movies I MUST see.
OMG, I am sooo here for this, period piece, fashion, love AND drama!!
lord jesus, I HAVE to see this one.
love me some DDL
He broke up with the mother of his son BY FAX. Way overrated.
Nope he didn’t that’s an apocryphal story that Isabelle Adjani later said was untrue, and she should know, she is the ‘mother of the son’, Gabrielle.
Yeah, that old chestnut has been debunked dozens of times. Now DDL and Gabriel have what I see reported as a good relationship. The son is a fashion model, gorgeous young man, not surprisingly.
Bad gossip you got.
An older man obsessed with a much younger woman? What a novelty….smdh.
“Confirmed bachelor” a euphemism for homosexual? I feel like more is going on in this movie than the trailer lets on. Super excited!
DDL has been my number one actor-crush since the early nineties (yes I’m that old). So sad he’s retiring but he’s definitely earned it. He’s amazing in every role he’s ever done, I’ve seen almost all of them and will def go see Phantom Thread. . I esp loved him as a myopic fop in A room with a view and I’ll never forget the scene in In the name of the father where he learns his dad has passed away. He was that good.
I’ll wait for the reviews….
Very sad he’s given up acting. One of the best of all time.
Seriosuly hope he gets bored and acts again.
No one mentioned “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”. Swoon.
Oh, I just did! But only just scrolled down to see your comment. One of my favourite all time movies, he was spectacular in it, and Binoche was simply luminous.
I know I’m supposed to talk about DDL but OMG THE CLOTHES!
From the trailer, it looks like a retelling of the Pygmalion/Galatea story.
As for DDL as romantic lead, I think the waterfall scene in Last of the Mohicans (no matter how long it takes, I will find you) is one of the most romantic scenes of all movies. Shits all over “you complete me” from Jerry Maguire for instance. There are a few swoony scenes in “The Age of Innocence” too.