The Alfred Hitchcock classic that inspired 'Phantom Thread'

(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)

Saturday 19 October 2024, 6:45 pm, UK

Paul Thomas Anderson’s work is full of complicated relationships with dark undercurrents – look at the toxic pairing of Daniel Plainview and son, Lancaster Dodd’s manipulation of Freddie Quell in The Masteror the age shock of Licorice Pizza. But there’s one film in Anderson’s oeuvre that particularly revolves around a destructive marriage between two people, and it seems to have been influenced by a Hitchcock classic about an equally doomed love.

Talking to Rolling Stone in 2017, Anderson spoke about the genesis of Ghost Wire and its story of fictional British fashion mogul Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis in his last role before retirement), a meticulous man embroiled in a power struggle with new model Alma, played by Vicky Krieps. It’s the story of a woman gaining power over her oppressive lover – a story that Anderson apparently considers absent from one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best films.

by Hitchcock Rebeccabased on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, shares some DNA with Ghost Wire in the story of a woman who marries an aristocratic widower who remains haunted by his previous wife of the same name. But where Soul of Krieps explores mycological methods to regain power, the unnamed main character of Rebecca never has this agency.

The film resonated with the filmmaker in a particular way: “I love Hitchcock’s film Rebecca so much, but I watch it and halfway through I always find myself wishing Joan Fontaine would just say, ‘Okay, I’ve had enough of your bullshit,'” Anderson said. He continues, imitating the dismissive Joan: “‘I think I’ve had more than my fair share of your bullshit, so let me get out of here.’ And yet poor Joan has to keep putting up with it.”

But the heart of the intrigue is not his anguish, but his willingness to deal with that anguish on such a regular basis. Anderson said he was drawn to the idea of why Fontaine’s character hooks up with Maxim de Winter, played in the 1940 film by Laurence Olivier. “The question is, why is she staying with this guy? Because she loves him and they are deeply connected. This idea intrigued me.”

The duality of both despising a certain area of life but being unable to do anything other than travel towards it was a concept that excited Anderson. “There is an exchange Ghost Wire I always go back to, where Reynolds says to Alma, ‘Is it because you think I don’t need you?’ She says, ‘Yes.’ He responds: ‘I don’t.’ And you want to say, ‘Of course you don’t need her, you idiot, but that’s beside the point. You totally lost focus.‘”

Ghost Wire is a film that revolves around the complicated connection between its protagonists, with the audience never quite sure who to root for. Anderson said it was the natural chemistry between Day-Lewis and Krieps that allowed the complexity of their on-screen relationship to really take root. “You know what you can’t write? How comfortable these two are sitting together in silence. You can provide them with dialogue that indicates how close and codependent they are. But I think if you just filmed Daniel and Lesley, you would get a sense of intimacy between them, just because of their natural comfort with each other.”

It’s not the only time Anderson has compared his period drama to Rebecca. In an interview with Weekly entertainment before the film’s release, he hinted that his new project could be seen as a take on the gothic classic. “It’s not your standard love story. It’s more quirky, for sure. Many directors have tried and failed to do so. Rebecca . I’m probably next in line, but that’s a different story. I’m a big fan of those great gothic romance films, like the old masters did. What I like about these types of love stories is that they are very suspenseful. A good dose of suspense with a love story is a good combination.”

While Anderson’s vision as a filmmaker is unique, there is no doubt that the long shadow that is cast over Ghost Wire It’s one we’ve seen many times and it belongs to Alfred Hitchcock.