The new film “Phantom Thread” directed by Paul Thomas Anderson is also a film worthy of attention. In particular, this is the last movie before Daniel Day-Lewis.
The story took place in London in the 1950s. The scene was mainly in a villa. Tailor Reynolds and sister Silio are high-end fashion designers in the wealthy class. A humble young woman Alma walks into Reynolds’ life and becomes his model and new Muse in his closed house. The movie is about the interdependence between two people, but it was being set in the frame of the Gothic melodrama. Therefore, if you want to deeply understand the “Phantom Thread”, first of all, still have to understand the Gothic Melodrama.
The director himself also admitted that he was influenced by the Gothic Melodrama represented by Hitchcock “Rebecca.” Or, we can first familiarize ourselves with the what is melodrama:
The melodrama is a dramatic movie characterized by a plot. It is characterized by its cater to audience’s feelings. They usually depend on stereotyped roles, interactions, and highly emotional theme. They often use plots to handle the human emotional crisis, failed love or friendship, strained family conditions, tragedies, diseases, and so on. In the 1940s, the United Kingdom and the United States produced a large number of melodramas that were welcomed by the audience.
In the fifties, the master of the melodrama was the American director Douglas Sake, his “There’s Always Tomorrow”, “Imitation of Life”, “All That Heaven Allows”, “Written on the Wind,” “The Tarnished Angels,” “Magnificent Obsession,” Listening to the names is a very have the feel of “melodrama” and they have a far-reaching impact on female audiences.
In the 1970s, The German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul,” “Mother Custer Goes to Heaven” and “The Merchant of Four Seasons” use stories to handle with racism, sexual orientation, and age differences.
Gothic melodrama is a branch of the melodrama (Gothic fiction comes from the British genre of literature), Popular in Britain in the late 1930s, supernatural elements may not necessarily exist, but a terrible, ominous, mysterious atmosphere always exists. The family is usually set as the main stage and becomes a place of terror. There is the depressing story in the family life. There is always a secret in the family.
The family is often old-fashioned Gothic style. There are many burning candles on the table. There are mostly misty streets outside. There are gas lamps on the street. Themes often involve love, guilt, betrayal, or death and often end in tragedy. Mental and emotional aspects still depend on Freudian psychological problems.
By the 1940s, due to the appearance of black movies and the emphasis on psychological effects in suspense films, the Gothic melodrama becomes the proper expression of the classical style. The earliest examples of new appearances of family dramas and psychological dramas in the film are “Wuthering Heights” (1939) by William Wheeler and “Rebecca” (1940) by Hitchcock.
“Rebecca” is the name of the late wife of Derwent, the man of the Mandelli Manor. While Rebecca this character does not appear, her influence has always been there. It can be said to be an invisible “soul.” This effect was known by Hitchcock as “McGuffin” and was used in many of his films.