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Phantom Thread (2017)
Anderson and Mozart
With my rewatch on Paul Thomas Anderson's classical masterwork, Phantom Thread, I actually cannot remember the last time I was stuck on writing the first several words here. Literally the first things I was thinking about putting out here first was just me saying "I love 'love'". The most cringeworthy crap I would've put on here since the earliest "reviews" I had on this platform. But I have always known the basic idea of what I have wanted to say after this rewatch because not only did it get even better on this viewing but also made me have a revelation on what I saw in Phantom Thread, definitely because of my own personal basis but I really felt like the experience that Paul Thomas Anderson brings here especially reminds me of another artist hundreds of years before him. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Of course I have known WAG more than PTA but now that I am familiar with both of their narrative works, it like Anderson has brought Mozart's charm, expertise, and humor into a visual celluloid form in the 21st century. What I feel with Mozart's narrative operas and Anderson's feature films are them taking these stories from different times and making something incredibly profound and universal beyond their dates. The stories could be seen as something specific that comments on their times but I believe Mozart and Anderson trying to explore an emotion. A very simple instinct that is human to all of us. These are stories about people not of ideals, people that we can see some part of ourselves in. Especially when it comes to their humor.
The one opera I can make the most direct comparison to Phantom Thread is The Marriage of Figaro. Two stories on love and how complicated they become. With Mozart, equal credit must go to Lorenzo de Ponte. Perhaps one of the greatest collaborations. Same with how Paul collaborates with everyone in the cast and crew to create something creates. And both works have that 'manners' humor that is so delightful to see. This humor can be found with both couples that have their own mental battles. Figaro & Susana and Reynolds and Alma both are in a constant battle. I would say it looks a little childish. Both partners can be seen as "childish" in each other's perspectives.
It is through both Mozart's and Anderson's craft that bring it all together. I noticed in this rewatch how absolutely perfect on a basic level the opening 15 minutes. With the right amount of dialogue and with every single shot, he has already established every single element of the main character, the setting and the upcoming growing relationship that is to come. And it only gets better from there. Much like how most of Mozart's overture's and opening scenes feel so perfect in laying out all of what the story has to offer. It's meticulous but also infectiously playful in it's presentation. It is valid to call Anderson "Kubrickian" but now all I see when I watch a movie especially one at this stage of his career as capturing that essence of a composer like Mozart or Haydn. Sophisticated but unafraid to show the brilliant humor and fun underneath.
Which brings me into why this movie in particular really grabbed me and that is because at the end of the day, it was an experience that felt complex but very much one that is so inviting and "romantic". Daniel Day Lewis and Vicky Krieps are so convincing in their parts as characters that my mother (when she first saw the movie with me) simply put it, were "sick". Sick, twisted individuals that feel so real. The spoiled, entitled, flawed people that just so happen to find each other. It feels like a match made in hell or heaven in their own demented terms, but the brilliance comes in how every part of the presentation is mature enough to know the immaturity of humanity. Especially these two characters. Both are "childish", both are passionate and both have their own ways of how they view this complex relationship. It is what made me so enthralled as someone that frankly doesn't believe that much on romantic activities for myself. So perhaps I can only be interested when it is a story that is deceptively as "sick" as this one. Maybe that is just my taste, my own different taste that I like.
Throughout every shot in this exquisite piece of filmmaking, it feels just right and perfect for a story of an imperfect relationship. It is not the most "showy" film ever nor is it the most "showy" in Paul Thomas Anderson's career, but it might be his most carefully crafted work. Through its acting, cinematography, editing, narrative, etc, it is like every piece is there no part goes on longer than it should. It is like every shot just looks better the more times I watch it. Just a gorgeous film all around. All for a story that I feel should be told more often. Especially when Mozart has proven a few times that such stories have been told before.
Zerkalo (1975)
Existence...
Death. It is a process that is as old and as natural as Creation itself. Forests burn down, Oceans dry out, and Mountains crumble to dust. But such progress is not immediate as it takes key elements to be placed in result. For every action there is reaction, and for every decision there is consequence. And living at the very beginning cannot exist without dying at the very end. Throughout this duality, one goes through challenges and decisions that can be life changing to unimaginable degrees. Life changing in a way that can sometimes be a complete shift in reality. A shift that can be as beautiful as a nearby forest, or as terrifying as a small barn engulfed in flames. This is what I see in existence, This is what I see in Andrei Tarkovsky's 'Mirror'.