There hasn’t been a shortage of praise for Paul Thomas Anderson‘s gorgeously twisted romance “Phantom Thread.” Aside from the film’s six Oscar nominations, Christopher Nolan has shared his admiration for the movie. Now, another one of Anderson’s fellow Best Director nominees, Jordan Peele, reveals his adoration for “Phantom Thread.”
During a Q&A at the the Santa Barbara International Film Festival where he picked up a trophy for Outstanding Director of the Year Award, a prize shared with fellow Best Director nominees Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird“), Guillermo del Toro (“The Shape of Water“), Nolan (“Dunkirk“), and Anderson, the director “Get Out” related just how much of an impact “Phantom Thread” made on him.
” ‘Phantom Thread’ really fucked me up….I should point out that when I met Paul about three weeks or a month ago, I was like, ‘Dude, I loved Phantom Thread so much!’ And he was like, ‘Really?! How did you see it?’ I was like, ‘On a screener!’ And I just saw his face go, ‘Ohh,’ and I realized that I’d lost Paul, forever,” Peele said.
“There’s a scene in the movie where Woodcock is at the New Year’s Eve party, and the emotion, the psychology and the visual beauty of that moment are working in harmony, in a way that is just a pure cinematic moment that you almost can’t describe,” he continued. “I get choked up, thinking about the character, who is looking for the woman he loves and he realizes there is a rift between them that may never be mended and may never make sense. This beautiful moment of searching for this person he loves and simultaneously realizing that he needs to let go of her in some way, I’m not sure if that’s how he was thinking about it because that might be my shit, but it was one of those moments of realizing, ‘This is cinema!’ ”
It’s a lovely anecdote from Peele, that gets about as close as you can to describing that feeling when a movie truly leaves you feeling bowled over. “Phantom Thread” is now playing. [Collider]
