The Alfred Hitchcock classic that inspired Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Phantom Thread’
The work of Paul Thomas Anderson is rife with complicated relationships with dark undercurrents – take the toxic pairing of Daniel Plainview and son, the manipulation of Freddie Quell by Lancaster Dodd in The Master, or the age clash of Licorice Pizza. But there’s one film in Anderson’s oeuvre that particularly hinges on a destructive match between two people, and it appears to have been influenced by a Hitchcock classic of similarly doomed love.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2017, Anderson spoke about the genesis of Phantom Thread and its story of fictional British fashion magnate Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis in his last role before retirement), a fastidious man drawn into a power struggle with new model Alma, played by Vicky Krieps. It’s a story of a woman seizing power over her oppressive lover – a story beat Anderson apparently sees as missing from one of Alfred Hitchcock’s finest films.
Hitchcock’s Rebecca, based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, shares some DNA with Phantom Thread in its story of a woman who marries an aristocratic widower who remains haunted by his eponymous previous wife. But where Krieps’ Alma explores mycological methods of reclaiming power, the unnamed lead character in Rebecca is never quite afforded such agency.
The movie resonated with the filmmaker in a particular way: “I love Hitchcock’s Rebecca so much, but I watch it and about halfway through, I always find myself wishing that Joan Fontaine would just say, ‘Right, I have had enough of your shit” Anderson said. He continues, imitating the disregarded Joan, “’I think I have had more than my fair share of your bullshit, so let me just get the fuck out of here.’ And yet poor Joan has to keep putting up with it.”
But the crux of the intrigue is not her anguish but her willingness to deal with that anguish so regularly. Anderson said he was drawn in by the idea of why Fontaine’s character stays with Maxim de Winter, played in the 1940 film by Laurence Olivier. “The question becomes: Why is she staying with this guy? Because she loves him and they are connected in some profound way. That idea intrigued me.”
The duality of both despising a certain area of one’s life but being unable to do anything but travel towards it, was a concept that excited Anderson. “There’s an exchange in Phantom Thread that I keep going back to, where Reynolds says to Alma, ‘Is it because you think I don’t need you?’ She says, ‘Yes.’ He replies, ‘I don’t.’ And you want to say, ‘Of course you don’t need her, you dummy, but that is besides the point. You have missed the point entirely.‘”
Phantom Thread is a film revolving around the complicated connection between its leads, with the audience left never quite sure of who to root for. Anderson said it was the natural chemistry between Day-Lewis and Krieps that allowed the complexity of that on-screen relationship to really put down roots. “You know what you can’t write? Just how comfortable those two are are sitting together in silence. You can give them dialogue that indicates just how close and co-dependent they are. But I think if you just filmed Daniel and Lesley, you would get a feeling of intimacy between them, just because of their natural comfort with each other.”
It’s not the only time Anderson has compared his period drama to Rebecca. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly before the film’s release, he intimated that his new project could be seen as his take on the gothic classic. “It’s not your standard love story. It’s more peculiar for sure. A lot of directors have tried and failed to make Rebecca . I’m probably next in line, but it’s a different story. I’m a large aficionado of those large Gothic romance movies as the old masters might do them. What I like about those kinds of love stories is that they’re very suspenseful. A good dollop of suspense with a love story is a nice combination.”
While Anderson’s vision as a filmmaker is unique, there can be little doubt the large shadow that is cast over Phantom Thread is one we’ve seen many times, and it belongs to Alfred Hitchcock.
