Review of The Phantom Thread

 

Film about a dressmaker to the very rich and his very complex relationship with a young European woman (German?) that he meets at a seaside town where she's working as a waitress. He's very stuffy and posh like his clients, and selfish, childish, and self-obsessed, and encouraged in this by his sister who lives in the huge house (which also contains his business and workshop) and works in the business with him. 

He's brilliantly played by Daniel Day-Lewis. Impossible to describe the relationship without spoiling, but it makes the relationship depicted in The Duke of Burgundy look straightforward.

Was tempted to write this review as if I'd watched the film by mistake, thinking it was The Phantom Menace, but honestly this is much better.

The workshop scenes put me in mind of my grandfather's furrier workshop in Brighton, also full of women sewing, work in progress, fitting dummies and of course heaps of furs, which used to smell wonderful. 

Watched on BBC iPlayer.