
The ending feels to me like
diamonds wrote:SpoilerShowI seem to recall that Alma's fantasy of their future is interrupted with Woodcock saying, "But right now we're here," or something along those lines, with a shot of the him clearly ill lying on her lap. In other words, there was no ambiguity; the scenes with the baby carriage were explicitly a fantasy she was relaying to him, over which he expresses reservations.
mfunk9786 wrote:SpoilerShowIt's also the best window we get into the tenderness between the two of them when the wind is out of his sails. One of the lovely touches of the film, which takes a repeat viewing or two to sink in fully, is how much of that is kept sort of private between the two characters. Whatever it is Alma enjoys so much about her time alone with Reynolds is not only "none of our business," but we probably wouldn't find it all that dramatic, either, because no correctly functioning romantic relationship ever is.
Roger Ryan wrote:I'm curious how others interpret these two things...SpoilerShowWhen Alma is first explaining Woodcock's "spells" to the young doctor, are we to assume she has already started poisoning him and only reveals that fact later in the conversation? Or, are his depressive episodes/emotional breakdowns real and Alma seeks to "recreate" the effect of these episodes by poisoning him? Also, how much is the doctor complicit in the continuing poisoning of Woodcock? As I understood the film after a single viewing, Alma has already explained to the doctor what she has been doing prior his examination of Woodcock in the film's short penultimate scene.
She does test him at lots of points in the film but I didn't see that dinner as a test. I believe her motives are more innocent at that point. She wants alone time with him, something she repeatedly says she's frustrated about, and she's insecure because she's just observed him lavishing lots of time and attention on the Belgian princess, by whom she appears to feel threatened. She believes that a sincere and conventional romantic gesture (romantic dinner for two) will win him back. It's only when this fails that she turns to other, less innocent means of forcing a bond between them.mfunk9786 wrote:testing his limits with the private dinner to see if he'll send her packing
I don't believe Alma and Reynolds ever discuss the poisoning, or that he even realizes what she has been doing, until the omelet scene, which feels epiphanic. Reynolds puts the pieces together while watching her cook with the mushrooms and "tests" her by stretching out that first bite. He even asks her, "Am I going to die?", and she indicates that the poison is not strong enough to kill him. That makes it sound like this is the first time they've talked about it.mfunk9786 wrote:Presumably, somewhere between that incident and the next time we see her cooking with the mushrooms, she and Woodcock have had a private discussion where he has given some sort of consent to it, or at least has been made aware that she's going to have it in her arsenal if he flies off the handle.
Interesting - I absolutely read it as sort of a band-aid being ripped off - push him to the very edge of his comfort zone to see if his feelings are genuine and are still there. She very nearly says as much during the dinner.ianthemovie wrote:SpoilerShowShe does test him at lots of points in the film but I didn't see that dinner as a test. I believe her motives are more innocent at that point. She wants alone time with him, something she repeatedly says she's frustrated about, and she's insecure because she's just observed him lavishing lots of time and attention on the Belgian princess, by whom she appears to feel threatened. She believes that a sincere and conventional romantic gesture (romantic dinner for two) will win him back. It's only when this fails that she turns to other, less innocent means of forcing a bond between them.
Special Features:
Camera Tests – With audio commentary by Paul Thomas Anderson
For the Hungry Boy – A collection of deleted scenes. Music by Jonny Greenwood
House of Woodcock Fashion Show – Fashion Show narrated by Adam Buxton
Behind the Scenes Photographs – Photographs from the film by Michael Bauman with demo versions of Jonny Greenwood's score
Technical Specs:
Audio: English DTS:X and Dolby Digital 2.0, French and Spanish DTS Digital Surround 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
I'm certainly not seeing that here.mfunk9786 wrote:So there’ll be UHD in Canada but not the U.S.?
Insta-buy! On a related note, Buxton just released two new episodes of his podcast intervewing Anderson and Greenwood. Among the highlights of the former is discussion of probably my favourite scene in the film (Julia Davis' cameo).FrauBlucher wrote:House of Woodcock Fashion Show – Fashion Show narrated by Adam Buxton
Wasn't this great? Honestly didn't know what to expect seeing him doing an interview PTA just based on how kind of irreverent he often is, but I didn't expect them to just be chatting essentially as friends and it was just really enjoyable. I can't remember hearing PTA sound that relaxed during a long interview before, even with Maron it had a different feeling cause Maron's style is quite aggressive sounding, this was just fun.JamesF wrote:Insta-buy! On a related note, Buxton just released two new episodes of his podcast intervewing Anderson and Greenwood. Among the highlights of the former is discussion of probably my favourite scene in the film (Julia Davis' cameo).FrauBlucher wrote:House of Woodcock Fashion Show – Fashion Show narrated by Adam Buxton
I’ve now seen this a second time in a much better (though still digital) presentation. It’s much clearer to me now thatWerewolf by Night wrote:Now I feel like a dotty old woman because I missed any indication thatHitchcockLang wrote:I imagine the women just didn't realize what kind of a film they were in for and were trying to make the best out of it when they could as when they were leaving , I overheard one of them say, "It was so boring, and I don't getSpoilerShowthe ending. Was she dreaming or was that for real? (I have spoiler-tagged this not because it's really a spoiler but because its ludicrousness may suggest more of a spoiler than what is actually here and I suppose it does spoil the fact that a somewhat surprising ending does exist).Also, I want to make an apology for questioning the value of a 70mm presentation of this film. I saw it with an extremely lousy DCP presentation (lines on the screen) and wished desperately that I was seeing it in 70mm where, regardless of the necessity of the large format, some care at least might have been taken with the quality of the image. I plan to see it again soon somewhere else. It’s awfully sad that I have to look forward these days to Blu-ray releases of films so that I can watch them in a viewing environment better than most local cinemas.SpoilerShowthe ending is imagined by Alma. I see the Wikipedia entry for the film also states quite authoritatively that the ending is imagined. Is that everyone’s interpretation? What did I miss in the film that indicates this?
There's good news, in that a UHD release of Darkest Hour has now been confirmed for the UK in June. It seems very likely that disc will come over to the US at that point (Get Out did the same thing from Uni.), and it's very likely the same thing will happen for Phantom Thread on UHD at or near the same point. So it might be a bit more of a wait, but the signs are good.mfunk9786 wrote:There is a UHD listing on Amazon UK with no release date now
I am seeing it suggested on Twitter by people with far more knowledge of the UK home video market that preordering this, despite it being [in essence] a placeholder, will increase the odds and speed with which it becomes a reality. Even if you don't have a 4K Blu-ray player - if you love this film, I hope you'd consider placing a risk-free preorder just to get the numbers to tick up. Would love to see it actually released, and apparently there is a precedent of Universal releasing 4K titles overseas months before they do so in the US in some cases.
And UHD/4K Blu-ray is completely region free.
So yeah, that's my pitch! Pre-order it! Do it for................. me! And other people!