Phantom Thread & All About Eve: Two Films, One Decade
If you’ve seen this years Academy Awards you’ve probably heard about Phantom Thread, auteur Paul Thomas Anderson’s lauded 8th feature film. Phantom Thread follows the twisted yet lovely romance between a couture fashion designer and his young and mysterious muse. If you want to be immersed in some old school allure, I would highly suggest catching Phantom Thread in the cinema.
Paul Thomas Anderson has always had a seemingly never ending interest for period dramas and he doesn’t seem to be planning on stopping to create them any time soon (5 out of 9 of his movies take place in the past and Phantom Thread is his 4th consecutive one).
Now, this is a film made in 2017 about the year 1954, no one who has been alive then had anything to do with this movie. Phantom Thread, and nearly all period dramas for that matter, are odes to a time that we could only see in our dreams. And of course a film made in the 50’s won’t be the same as a depiction and interpretation of the decade but I found that it does have some similarities with a critically-acclaimed film made in 1950, a film which was ahead of its time, Best Picture winner All About Eve. All About Eve is about… well Eve, a young woman desperate to become a theatre actress. Now these two might sound nothing alike but here are some interesting similarities I’ve spotted.
Honorary Royalty
Both film include a family or a group of friends that are not royals, but lead equally, if not more lavish lives. In Phantom Thread Reynolds and his sister Cyril run London’s hottest fashion house, The House of Woodcock. It’s safe to say that their lives are not less glamorous than the royals they dress. In All About Eve, another art is at the forefront, theatre. Margo Channing, renowned actress and title character Eve’s idol and her group of friends wear the best clothes, eat in expensive restaurants and sulk around in their gorgeous manors. It is not rare to see a film set in the 50’s where the characters are filthy rich and drowning in diamonds, Hollywood certainly has a fascination with that aspect of the era.
Gorgeous Gowns
The premises of both films (especially Phantom Thread’s) require them to dress their characters in the finest garments and these two definitely don’t disappoint. In our 2017 releaseReynolds’ muse Alma dons many of the designers creations and shows us the blurred lines between Reynolds’ art and personal life. Fashion is a more central part of the story in Phantom Thread and it’s easy to appreciate the fancy dresses (the Academy certainly did) when we see the creative process behind them but the clothes in All About Eve aren’t any less impressive. The characters wear gowns that reveal how they want to be seen by the world and tell us a lot about their personalities. In the picture above Eve is seen wearing a classy white dress, perfect for her desire to be seen as pure and humble.
Feminist Themes
Alma Elson. Margo Channing. Two subversive femme fatales. A young, poor girl meeting an older, rich man and him sweeping her off to his prestigious life is a very familiar and overdone premise, but essentially it is the surface plot of Phantom Thread. But instead of making its female lead shy, meek and eternally loyal to the male character, Phantom Thread gives this trope a much needed twist. Alma does not let herself be stepped on and refuses to repress her desire for power and dominance. In All about Eve Margo, an aging actress is used as a vessel to criticize societies obsession with a woman’s age and beauty. She is also sarcastic, funny, sometimes rude and she never tries to make herself more lady-like. The narrative accepts her as a confident and flawed character and while it criticizes her arrogance it never doubts her as the most charismatic and cool character in the whole movie.
Yasemin Kopmaz
