Paul Thomas Anderson's new film, The Phantom Seamstress, is also a very noteworthy recent film, not least because it was the last film before Daniel Day-Lewis died.
Set in London in the 1950s, the scene unfolds mainly in a villa. Tailor Reynolds and sister Giglio are high-end fashion designers of the wealthy class. An inconspicuous young woman, Alma, enters Reynolds' life and becomes his model and new muse in his claustrophobic mansion.
The film is about the interdependence between two people, but it is trapped in the framework of a Gothic melodrama.
Therefore, in order to understand "The Phantom Sewer" in depth, first of all, it is necessary to understand the Gothic melodrama.
The Phantom Sewer
The director himself admits that he was influenced by the Gothic melodrama represented by Hitchcock's Butterfly Dream. Or, we can first familiarize ourselves with what a melodrama is:
Melodrama is a kind of drama film characterized by plot, which is characterized by catering to the emotions of the audience. They often depend on stereotypical character development, interaction, and highly emotional themes, often using plots to deal with human emotional crises, failed love or friendship, tense family situations, tragedies, illness, and so on.
In the 1940s, a large number of melodrama was filmed in the United Kingdom and the United States, which were popular with audiences.
In the 1950s, the master of melodrama was the American director Douglas Syke, whose "Broken Bowel String Song", "Spring Wind and Autumn Rain", "Deep Lock Spring Light And Courtyard Sorrow", "Bitter Rain Love Spring Wind", "Blue Sea, Blue Sky, Night Heart", "Heaven and Earth Can't Love" listened to the name is very "melodrama", which has an impact on female audiences.
"Deep Lock Spring Light One Courtyard Sorrow"
In the 1970s, the German director Reiner Werner Fassbinder was deeply influenced by Syke, and "Fear Devours the Soul", "The Ascension of Mother-in-Law Custer", "The Merchant of Four Seasons", etc. used plots to deal with racism, sexual orientation, age difference and other issues.
American director Todd Hines is also greatly influenced by Syrk, especially "Far from Heaven" and "Carol", the former is a faithful adaptation and sublimation of Syrk-style melodrama. In terms of Chinese films, the most representative are the film and television dramas of Aunt Qiong Yao, as well as the films starring in the early days of "Erlin and Erqin".
"Far from Heaven"
Gothic melodrama is a branch of melodrama (Gothic fiction comes from the British literary genre), popular in the late 1930s in Britain, where supernatural elements may not exist, but the atmosphere of horror, ominousness, and mystery is always present – the home is usually set as the main stage, becomes a place of terror, and there are repressive stories in family life, and there are always ulterior secrets in the family.
Roger Coleman's Ellan Poe films are typical gothic melodrama from Traps and Pendulums
The family tends to be old-fashioned Gothic, with a lot of burning candles on the table and a foggy street with gas lamps outside. Themes often involve love, guilt, betrayal, or death, and often end in tragedy. Psychological and emotional aspects also depend on Freudian psychological problems.
By the 1940s, due to the advent of film noir and the emphasis on the psychological role of suspense films, Gothic melodrama had become a classical apt representation (as opposed to "film noir", which was dominated by contemporary fashion films), and appeared in films as a new form of family drama and psychodrama, the earliest examples being William Wheeler's Wuthering Heights (1939) and Hitchcock's Butterfly Dream (1940).
Butterfly Dream
In Gothic melodramas such as Butterfly Dream, which usually features a woman, she meets a wealthy, elegant middle-aged man who revolves around a troubled romantic relationship or family turmoil.
The original name of "Butterfly Dream" is "Rebecca", which is the name of the late wife of the mandley manor man Devent in the film, and the character of Rebecca does not appear figuratively, but her influence runs through the whole process, can be said to be an invisible "soul", this role is called "McGuffin" by Hitchcock, and it is used in many of his films.
"Dark Family Succession" is also a parent of gothic melodrama, and in The Phantom Sewer, Reynolds and Giglio's family business is inherited from their mother. Their mother is similar to "Rebecca" in Butterfly Dream.
A picture of his mother in the room
There seems to be some connection to Reynolds' world with his mother, who after her death became an emotionally disabled, mildly autistic man (a reference to Hitchcock's Horror).
Like his and his sister's strange attachment to each other, their understanding of each other's flaws is completely rigid. The arrival of Alma represents the rebirth of his mother's love. She took care of him, and he obeyed her, like a child.
Interestingly, the name Alma is exactly the name of Alma Reville, the wife of Hitchcock, director of Butterfly Dream. The male protagonist's name is Reynolds Woodcock, and the last four letters are the same as the last four letters of Hitchcock. Moreover, the shape of Reynolds's sister is almost designed according to the black butler in "Butterfly Dream", and the hairstyle, dress and expression are almost the same. These are certainly intentional design points.
The maid of "Butterfly Dream" actually influenced many characters in Gothic melodrama, such as the maid in Spiral Ladder (Dumb Girl Horror, 1947).
Spiral Ladder
Reynolds's setting is like a combination of Mr. Derwent in "Butterfly Dream" and Tony, the master in "The Servant".
The Servant
Add a few words about the influence of Hitchcock's films on The Phantom Seamstress:
"To Catch a Thief"
Horror Story
"Deep Doubt"
Hitchcock is also good at associating murder with food, filming love scenes like murder. These can be found in The Phantom Seamstress:
Okay, back to the topic of Gothic melodrama.
Their story matrix can be said to be derived from the fairy tales "Bluebeard" and "Beauty and the Beast" – naïve women discover that the husband they married is actually a monster.
The legend of Bluebeard is a very typical Gothic melodrama, and the door of a room in the castle must not be opened. Of course, eventually the door opens.
The fairy tale book is the little daughter, and several film adaptations have changed the identity of the daughter to the newlywed wife, and curiosity always drives her to open the room and discover the secrets inside.
Bluebeard, 1972 edition
Under the Gas Lamp
The TV series "Don't Talk to Strangers" starring Feng Yuanzheng and Mei Ting is consistent in the theme of story and emotion, but its appearance is not processed as "Gothic".
"Don't Talk to Strangers"
The Phantom Seamstress doesn't portray Reynolds as a villain, but at the beginning of the film, it does make him eccentric, assertive, dislikes anything, and seems to have an ulterior secret. After that, the man becomes vulnerable and unable to love and be loved. Alma realized that she had to "control" him as a mother, and she had a power.
Finally, Reynolds lies on Alma's lap like a child or a pet, and the film suddenly turns into a bizarre love story.
However, this is the story told by Alma, and the audience does not know whether she left the mansion or not, but it can be speculated that Reynolds is dead, or that she has left. "Butterfly Dream" also uses the heroine "I" as the opening narration to lead to the story.
The Uninvited Guest
Tim Burton's Dark Shadows and Gilmour del Toro's Crimson Peak are also Gothic melodrama, except that they are supernatural elements.
Crimson Peak
Gothic melodrama with supernatural elements has long existed, such as Louis Allen's The Uninvited Guest (1944), Jack Clayton's The Innocent Man (1961), and Roger Coleman's Edgar Allan Poe films.
The Innocent Man
Or films that fall somewhere between supernatural and realism, such as Brian Forbes's The Meeting of the Gods in a Rainy Day (1964).
"Greeting the Gods in the Rainy Sky"
I remember when Gilmour del Toro filmed Crimson Peak, he said that one of his favorite Gothic melodramas was Fritz Lang's The Secret Behind the Door (1947).
The plot of this movie is actually somewhat artificial, and unbelievable, some artificial, but it combines the successful elements of "Butterfly Dream" and "Bluebeard", and belongs to a very opportunistic Gothic melodrama.
The Secret Behind the Door
Okay, that's it for the science of Gothic melodrama.
If you start from this perspective, I wonder what new inspiration will be for your understanding of "The Phantom Seamstress"?
Interested friends can also look for several films mentioned above, and intuitively feel the charm of "Gothic melodrama".