The trailer for Phantom Thread, the top-secret Paul Thomas Anderson project starring Daniel Day-Lewis in his final role, has been unveiled.
Based on the glamorous world of 1950s haute couture, Phantom Thread—which has thus far been shrouded in secrecy—is about a celebrated London dressmaker who finds his carefully tailored life unspooled by a rather intense-looking love affair. Three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis, who announced his retirement from acting in June, will round out his own celebrated career playing Reynolds Woodcock of The House of Woodcock, alongside Lesley Manville as his sister Cyril and Vicky Krieps as Alma, his strong-willed muse and lover. Page Six reports that Day-Lewis may be taking up dressmaking professionally, having fallen in love with the art while enmeshing himself in the world for the role.
The trailer is as exquisite as the dresses it features, with shots of expensive rooms and glamorous dinner parties alongside gray 1950s London streets. A delicate but intense Day-Lewis is sewing mysteries into his gowns and is obsessed with the idea that “love is doomed for him.”
“Reynolds has made my dreams come true. And I have given him what he desires most in return: Every piece of me,” says Alma, as he stares creepily through peepholes.
The film looks to be cloaked in threads of beauty and obsession, high culture and ambition, and it seems very possible Day-Lewis—who earned his second Oscar in Anderson’s There Will Be Blood—will go out with his fourth Best Actor Oscar, making his record almost untouchable.
The full synopsis, revealed yesterday by Focus Features, is as follows:
Set in the glamour of 1950s postwar London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) are at the center of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames with the distinct style of The House of Woodcock. Women come and go through Woodcock’s life, providing the confirmed bachelor with inspiration and companionship, until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love. With his latest film, Paul Thomas Anderson paints an illuminating portrait both of an artist on a creative journey, and the women who keep his world running. Phantom Thread is Paul Thomas Anderson’s eighth movie, and his second collaboration with Daniel Day-Lewis.
The trailer promises a Christmas release: Phantom Thread will open in select theaters on Dec. 25 before its wider release in January 2018.
