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Review of Phantom Thread (Jonny Greenwood)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you are already familiar with and accepting of Jonny
Greenwood's often tortured, string-dominated music for the big screen,
this score exhibiting that familiar style but with more accessibly
romantic inclinations in its final third.
Avoid it... if you take no pleasure in starkly atonal, dissonant approaches to miserable, abrasive romance, especially as they use resolving harmony to suggest an oddly attractive acceptance of spousal abuse.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Phantom Thread: (Jonny Greenwood) Love can make
people do some pretty damn strange things to one another, and Paul
Thomas Anderson's 2017 art-house drama, Phantom Thread, explores
the troubled but fascinating relationship between a famed English
fashion designer of the 1950's and the unexpected love of his life: a
waitress from the countryside who eventually tames the otherwise wild
personality of her man. It's a rather sick film, the power struggle
between the two determined leads yielding physical abuse that is by no
means normal or healthy, but the beauty of Phantom Thread is in
the journey of the two characters and the execution of the film itself.
Romantic tension abounds here, and much of it is unpleasant due to the
rather rough nature of everyone involved, potentially causing some
viewers to simply wish everyone on screen an untimely demise.
Critically, the movie was an immense success, especially in response to
actor Daniel Day-Lewis' superb portrayal of the designer. (The actor
claimed that he would retire after this picture.) But despite a bevy of
awards consideration, Phantom Thread didn't become a fiscal
success, its rather grim subject matter possibly too challenging for
most. Among the aspects of the film to defy the traditional moulds of
romanticism is Jonny Greenwood's original score, itself a subject of
widespread acclaim and nominations for awards. This is Greenwood's
fourth collaboration with Anderson, the most famous long being his
mainstream introduction with There Will Be Blood in 2007. While
Greenwood is best known for his involvement with the English alternative
rock band Radiohead, he is also an active classical composer, most
notably for BBC Concert Orchestra, and he has a particular taste for
avant garde string compositions and the theremin-like Ondes Martenot.
His film scores maintain a similar character of atonality and dissonance
that make for striking partnerships with their films, but these scores
often suffer on album outside of a very limited audience. By its end,
the romanticism in Phantom Thread is a little more easily
accessible, but the core style of the work is still rooted firmly in
Greenwood's comfort zone. Film music such as this does not exist to stir
the souls of the masses apart from its few highlights; it's music of
troubling constructs and stark isolation that reflects the repugnant
characters on screen with appropriately unpleasant mannerisms attempting
to achieve harmony where possible but often falling short by
design.
If the music of Phantom Thread seems strangely abrasive even in its more fluid, romantic portions, then that's precisely Greenwood's purpose. He is adept at writing extremely unfriendly meanderings for plucked and struck instruments, and the personality of his music is as dry as the heavily constrained recording ambience. His ensemble of choice consists primarily of strings, harp, and piano, with occasional contributions by other elements. The strings and piano are up front, however, the former ranging from solo strains to a fuller ensemble. The placement of the strings is often frightfully stark, the chamber environment potentially grating the nerves of the listener even without the atonal constructs. Although Greenwood does explore thematic variations for the two leads (the "Phantom Thread" recordings for the designer and the "Sandlewood" cues for his wife), don't expect any of the composer's motifs to imprint upon your memory due to their inherently broken nature, their chords frequently unforgiving and twisted as needed for the torment of their targets. Greenwood doesn't write these passages to sooth the characters' unlikable personalities until the very end; rather, he reflects their impulsively controlling and obnoxiously inflexible habits in his prickly, rhythmic passages. The score's key to success on screen is its transition from loneliness, dissonant shades of despair early to a more conventionally romantic, readily harmonious conclusion in several late cues. Ironically, as the abuse on screen becomes more acceptable, the music follows to traditionally lush ends, the dichotomy of romance and sickness exacerbated by the music. There is salvation to be had in four late, highlighting cues, but even here Greenwood does not completely lose the torment of his string lines. The merging of the two thematic veins in "For the Hungry Boy" is disturbingly psychotic as it functions in the movie but makes for easier listening on album, where it achieves almost a classic, Golden Age sense of elegance at the very end. Still, the majority of Phantom Thread is, by necessity and design, an extraordinarily vexatious and even sometimes unlistenable experience. Some of the strictly plucked rhythmic moments, as in "The Hem" and "Barbara Rose," are viciously annoying, supplying an environment of madness that cannot translate to album effectively. This score is indeed one to appreciate in context. There will be redemption with the fuller string ensemble and piano performances in "Phantom Thread III" and "For the Hungry Boy," but the mass of the work is a miserable journey as it struggles to align its romantic inclinations in the final third. Greenwood continues to offer a unique musical voice to the industry that serves emotional discord well, but such music requires potentially painful, intellectual patience on album. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 55:40
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a list of performers, and the vinyl release contains a massive booklet
with the actual score.
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