I’ve just got back from the pictures where I saw the new Daniel Day-Lewis flick, “Phantom Thread”. Day-Lewis threatens that it’s his final film. I hope not. He’s at the top of his game in this one as Reynolds Woodcock, a dressmaker living in Fitzroy Square in the early 1950’s.
It was in an early scene in the Square, as a very smart blue vintage Rolls Royce pulled up outside Woodcock’s house and dropped a client off, that I realised I’d seen it before. Not the film but the car. I’d been walking across the Square in my lunch hour back in March 2017 and watched that very scene being filmed, oblivious as to what movie was being made. The car is in the featured photo, above. The Square was littered with other period motors and even an old fashioned double decker bus awaiting their turn in front of the camera.
The film crew then set up a new shot. They were hanging the Belgian flag outside the house. Woodcock makes a frock for a Belgian Princess in the film and he greets her outside and the flag is visible in the shot.
It’s a very good film, and, as I have mentioned, Lewis is exceptional among a top quality cast. He’s up for an Oscar as is the film itself, the Director, co-star Lesley Manville supporting him as Woodcock’s sister, the Costume Designer and Jonny Greenwood’s noticeably excellent score. I shall be rooting for them all having been in at its making.
The Belgian hangs from Woodcock’s house
The vehicles loiter waiting for their big scene
The crew prepares to film the Princesess’s arrival