FREE CINEMA NOW

Paul Thomas Anderson 's Phantom Thread has transformed into the damnedest of a work. While I found much to admire in it, I don't consider it to be a bonafide masterpiece . And yet, I find myself drawn back to certain elements that it celebrates, like the cinematic influences it wears on its sleeve (shit, is that a pun?). Maybe I revisit Phantom Thread in my head time and time again because I'm trying to make it something else? Perhaps. Regardless, I got this idea stuck in my brain this morning while making coffee on how I would sell what the movie really is -- a dark romantic comedy -- to a mainstream audience in the 1980s. You know, where you didn't have the luxury of clicking "disc menu" on your Blu-ray remote and had to either hit fast forward on your VCR or actually watch the coming attractions. Then I got the twisted idea of making the movie look like the kind of rom-com Julia Roberts might even have starred in back in the day. So here it is, ...

#InformedImages is a Free Cinema Now series that studies and brings to light influential films and other examples of moving images that informed and inspired specific visuals in later works. The two things that made the strongest impressions on me while watching  Paul Thomas Anderson 's Phantom Thread ( read the review ) were the music (by Jonny Greenwood ) and the costume design (by Mark Bridges ). You can practically feel the fabrics that dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock ( Daniel Day-Lewis ) cuts and and sews together throughout the film. Not to mention the fact that you can smell the soft boiled eggs and toast Reynolds has for breakfast every morning. The beautiful music keeps this all humming along splendidly. It really is an achievement in cinematic immersion. While the 1940 Oscar winner Rebecca has its fingerprints all over Phantom Thread , I wanted to bring to light a couple of other films whose heartbeats pulsate throughout Anderson's film: David Lean 's 1949 dr...

There's a section in the opening act of Paul Thomas Anderson 's perplexing and often brilliant 2012 film The Master where its protagonist Freddie Quell ( Joaquin Phoenix ) is working as a portrait photographer in the main foyer of a Marshall Fields-esque mall. It's the 1950s and the wardrobe donned by all the background extras is meticulously true to the time and the whole scenario feels very lived in; you can almost smell the apparel, the perfumes coming from the cosmetics department and the hot light bulbs burning at Quell's photography stand. I mention this particular section from The Master because Anderson's new film Phantom Thread takes those tangible atmospheric qualities and creates an entire film built around the convincing sensory experience of living and breathing during a historical time and place. This time Anderson has chosen the couture world of 1950s London and he reunites with the great Daniel Day-Lewis (the two previously collaborated on ...