Last Thursday, the Malibu Film Society and a capacity crowd welcomed award-winning director and writer Paul Thomas Anderson following a screening of his newest film, “Phantom Thread,” starring Daniel Day-Lewis. It’s the eighth film that Anderson has both written and directed, and his second collaboration with Day-Lewis. The film, which takes place in 1950s London, is about a top couture fashion designer and confirmed bachelor who falls in love for the first time. On Tuesday, it was announced the movie was nominated for Academy Awards in six categories, including best picture.
Anderson began his film career in 1993 with the short “Cigarettes & Coffee,” which he made for only $20,000; that got him established at the Sundance Film Festival. Since then, as a writer, director and producer, he’s received six Academy Award nominations total for the films “There Will be Blood,” “Boogie Nights” and “Magnolia.”
Anderson described how closely he and Daniel Day-Lewis worked together on “Phantom Thread.”
“We really wrote the film together. I’m not sure why we didn’t share credit,” Anderson said. “I went to him with the premise for the film. He was integral in the furnishing of the entire story, and he helped shape and ground the story. We were strong collaborators together not only for the story, but also the casting, production design and costume design.”
He joked about how intensely Day-Lewis focused on every detail of the set.
“He would look at the wallpaper, the china, the furniture. I finally told him, ‘Tell me when you’ve finished picking out the 500 books for your library,’” Anderson laughed. Day-Lewis even came up with his character’s name—Reynolds Woodcock.
“The film reflects the state-of-mind of the characters—it’s all meticulous and all theater. There’s a grandeur that takes over,” Anderson continued.
In terms of writing the story together, Andersen said, “We didn’t like tortured genius stories, because they only go so far.
“Alma became the center of our story—the woman that comes into [Day-Lewis’s] life,” the director continued. “She’s very selfish and child-like, but they have a connection. Telling this as Alma’s story is what made it interesting to us.”
“Phantom Thread” marks the first time Anderson has ever filmed outside the U.S.
“We started shooting one year ago in Yorkshire [U.K.], and first showed the film the day after Thanksgiving,” he recounted. “We put the final ‘stitches’ in right before show time,” just like the Day-Lewis character before a fashion show.
“The premiere was nerve-wracking, as it always is when you see your film with an audience for the first time,” Anderson continued. “You panic that nothing in the movie will make sense to them, until you finally hear them laugh or cry in reaction to something.”
The music in “Phantom Thread” was often prominent.
“I rely deeply on music, Anderson told the audience. “Jonny Greenwood, the composer (from the band Radiohead), was involved from the very beginning. He’d send me a piano demo for a scene, and we collaborated back and forth.”
Although not a musician, Anderson often has his own ideas about the kind of music he wants, and tells that to the composer.
“I listened to loads of Nelson Riddle and sent that to him, because it’s so lush. I wanted to combine English and American romanticism,” he said. “We’d watch dailies together and write in more music. We’re writing music throughout the entire filmmaking process.”
Anderson says, “I don’t want to see a movie with no laughs, no matter how dark the story.”
He decided to set the film in the ‘50s, because “that was the golden era of dressmaking and couture.” Day-Lewis’s character was loosely based on the life of Cristóbal Balenciaga, a Spanish designer with a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and immaculate taste. Day-Lewis actually worked as an intern for a ballet costume maker in NYC for a year to learn the craft.
