The Phantom Thread’s Lesley Manville Talks Range and Fragile Masculinity 

Among the several delights in Paul Thomas Anderson’s consistently surprising new movie Phantom Thread is its incisive explication of how fragile masculinity can be. Daniel Day Lewis, in what he has announced will be his final film role, plays Reynolds, a couture designer in 1950s London, whose world is propped up by the fleet of women he employs. Along comes a muse, Alma (Vicky Krieps) who challenges his ritualistic way of life and teases out the fetishistic extents of his relationship with power. The trailer makes it look like some sort of a thriller, but Phantom Thread is a romance that is funny more often than not—of all the films in PTA’s oeuvre, it shares the most with 2002’s Punch-Drunk Love [ . . . ]

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Lesley Manville on Working With Daniel Day-Lewis and Acting’s Long Game

LONDON — Despite the horrifying headlines of the past few months, there are still a lot of nice guys working in film and theater. Just ask the 61 year-old actress Lesley Manville, who stars opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in “Phantom Thread,” the new film by Paul Thomas Anderson.

“Beautiful, inside and out, both of them,” says Manville of her costar and director, adding that, on set, she would often think to herself, “I’ve got a pretty good job. There’s some good eye candy in this room. Working with these two gorgeous men every day — I can’t complain.”

Manville, one of Britain’s most versatile and hard-working actresses, say

Manville, one of Britain’s most versatile and hardworking actresses, says she took the role because she wanted to work with Anderson [ . . . ] More: Lesley Manville on Working With Daniel Day-Lewis and Acting’s Long Game

Peterloo: Mike Leigh film releases first photo

Mike Leigh’s first film in more than three years is shaping up to be a marked change of pace for the celebrated English filmmaker.Released early Thursday, the first official still from Leigh’s historical drama Peterloo — a dramatization based on the titular massacre — sets the stage for a grim turn of events, one that ultimately leaves roughly a dozen people dead on the streets of Manchester in 1819.Starring Rory Kinnear, Christopher Eccleston, Maxine Peak, and David Bamber, Peterloo follows [ . . . ] More: Peterloo: Mike Leigh film releases first photo