Phantom Thread

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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Daniel Day-Lewis may be our greatest living actor. But he’s quitting. Or so he tells us.

“Phantom Thread” will be his last film.

“Before making the film, I didn’t know I was going to stop acting,” Day-Lewis said.

His official statement read, “Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer be working as an actor. He is immensely grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences over the many years. This is a private decision and neither he nor his representatives will make any further comment on this subject.”

Protective of his private life, he rarely gives interviews or explains himself. For Tropic Cinema I once interviewed his wife Rebecca Miller about her film “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” by Skype. I knew he was standing just off camera. Despite my clever questioning, I could not lure him into joining the conversation. He has described his life as a “lifelong study in evasion.”

Day-Lewis can’t give a reason for his decision to give up acting. “I haven’t figured it out,” he said. “But it’s settled on me, and it’s just there.” He blames it on a “sadness that came to stay.” Making “Phantom Thread” depressed him. He said he had no intention of seeing the finished film.

But you can. “Phantom Thread” is currently showing at Tropic Cinema.

Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (“Magnolia,” “There Will Be Blood”), “Phantom Thread” tells the story of Reynolds Woodcock, a couturier who dresses “the royal family, film stars, heiresses, socialites, debutantes, and dames with the distinctive style of The House of Woodcock.” Anderson became interested in the fashion industry by reading about designer Cristobal Balenciaga. 

As his habit, Day-Lewis put an intense amount of preparation into his role as Reynolds Woodcock. This included apprenticing under the head of the costume department at the New York City Ballet. And he actually sewed a Balenciaga dress to get the hang of it.

Set in ‘50s post-war London, the story explores the triangular relationship between Woodcock (Day-Lewis), his sister and business partner Cyril (Leslie Manville), and Alma (Vicky Krieps), a waitress who becomes muse and lover to the renowned dressmaker.

A longtime bachelor, Woodcock’s life is disrupted by this strong-willed woman. As much as he is obsessively drawn to Alma, she also irritates him. She butters her toast too noisily, pour her tea too splashingly. And she asserts her rights within the household — setting up a battle of wills between her and the two Woodcocks.

When Alma feels Woodcock drifting away, she decides to poison his lapsang tea with mushroom shavings. Does he recognize this dark side of their love? Just maybe.

The film’s title comes from Woodcock’s habit of sewing secret messages into the linings of his dresses. “Never cursed” is the blessing stitched into a wedding gown commissioned by a princess. These hidden words signify that the dresses are more than extravagant commodities, that they in fact are works of art.

So is the film.

Day-Lewis is the only performer ever to win three Best Actor Oscars – for the title role in “Lincoln,” as the oil man in “There Will Be Blood,” and as writer-artist in “My Left Foot.” He scored two other Academy Award nominations for “Gangs of New York” and “In the Name of the Father.”

Let’s hope he changes his mind about quitting.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com