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Friday, January 19, 2018

ESSAY
A Comedy Of Manners And Etiquette In 1950s London

Vicky Krieps as Alma in Paul Thomas Anderson's drama "Phantom Thread".  Leslie Sparham/Focus Features
       
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Friday, January 19, 2018

Warning: This essay contains spoilers.  If you plan to see "Phantom Thread", and I highly recommend you see it in theaters (and in 70MM) then please be advised not to read any further.

(This is the fourth in a series of essays on "Phantom Thread".)

There are times Paul Thomas Anderson's "Phantom Thread" is hilarious.  Laugh-out loud funny.  In this masterful film the comedy is conspicuous, albeit in awkward moments, silences or downright raucous outbursts and confrontations. 

There is a lot of mocking from Mr. Anderson and his characters, mainly the women, mock the very formal proceedings on display.  The choereography of larger uniform movements and episodes yields to inapposite ones.  When all of the working class women enter the House Of Woodcock for the first time everything is so well synchronized.

Contrast that with the clumsy collision into a chair by Alma (Vicky Krieps) for her proper introduction to Reynolds (Daniel Day-Lewis) and "Phantom Thread" (she already appears in the film's opening frame in a conversation.)  Alma freely embraces the lighter side of the embarassing mishap in a restaurant, then adds some amusing flourishes after taking Reynolds's order for food.

In "Phantom Thead" women supply the majority of the laughs.  During an argument Alma ridicules and decries rigorous order and protocol.  Even in serious scenes comedy shines.  It is due to the poise and chemistry of each of the film's committed performers in relation to each other.

Manners, or lack of them, are a constant theme in "Phantom Thread" and the comedy in response to these breaches of order is priceless. 

There are a catalog of provocations, digs, rudeness, jabs and annoyances that get under Reynolds's skin.  And the constant flirtation with food as love, fun and worse, makes manners and etiquette -- and comedy bordering on tragicomedy -- quite the experience.


Related: Patriarchy, Resistence And More In 1950s London

Related: Previous essay - A Boy's Best Friend Is The Dresses He Designs

Related: Original essay - Fashion and Fascism in "Phantom Thread"

Related: "Phantom Thread" review
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