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Rating:
Ladies and gentlemen, the new masterpiece by PTA. It's hard to know where to begin when discussing such a perfect film, a monolith of talent encompassing direction, writing, acting, and music. Yet, there's not a single moment of self-reflection, no indulgence in self-referential cinema. On the contrary, here talent goes hand in hand with humility, with the desire to always be understandable, without being simplistic.
With a buildup as slow as it is unstoppable, PTA starts with the character of a bad-tempered fashion designer and goes on to define – with heartfelt clarity – the meaning of love, of coupledom, of being together. Like an imposing and wonderful garment, the director starts with small details, sets almost banal premises, and then broadens the scope to a comprehensive view of life.
There's the man, an unyielding dictator, an autistic genius absorbing and annihilating his "companions." A man who is forever a child in love only with his mother, a boy playing with clothes because he doesn't know how to live. There's the woman, a fresh-faced girl obsessed with conquering that fascinating and unreachable designer. Two incomplete, deviant figures that somehow must find a way to complete the circle. There's all the worst – and the truth – of male and female figures in this story, and there's also the solution to their deficiencies, to the stumbling of their personalities. A mean solution, of morbid interdependence and acceptance of each other's deceit, just to find a form of tranquility.
It's unnecessary to dwell on the talent of a very thin Daniel Day-Lewis, as charismatic as he is fragile. However, worth highlighting are the excellent performances of Lesley Manville and Vicky Krieps, whose characters create a triangle of discord and reconciliation, which over time loses any logical sequence of cause and effect. Life's poison seems to take over, but the outcomes remain surprising – and normal – until the end.
Slightly grainy cinematography and direction of pure class, never showy yet lively, full of fascinating but always sensible and comprehensible shots. What amazes with its power and terseness is especially the editing, which decisively influences, along with Jonny Greenwood's soundtrack, the film's atmosphere. Highly elliptical, ready to cut the narrative's dead branches. There is never a true moment of dilation and suspension to allow the viewer to reflect; everything flows quickly, or rather, slowly but intensely, without empty endings. And the cuts are decisive also for setting the film's moral and emotional filigree: it's as if PTA wants to avoid the most intense moments of the events, sex, pain, the conflicts of the couple. His is a numbed vision, revealing more of the alienating routine than the rare and not truly representative emotional peaks of life. And then, even the fiercest love battles, in this perspective, smooth out for peaceful coexistence, for interested symbiosis between the parties.
And finally, the soundtrack, which transforms everything into a complete, definitive work of art. It takes the particular dimension of events and places them on a pedestal, like a classical sculpture forever representing this ruthless vision of love. It seems like Jonny is there playing live for us, tuning his piano strokes (and the sound clouds of his orchestra) minute by minute to the emotional pitch of the scenes. Music is almost omnipresent in this work, never remaining in the background. It is a persistent, enchanting presence that elevates everything and sends a precise message: this is art, primarily, a representation that does not end with what you are seeing but carries with it many filigrees, which you, as a viewer, must strive to grasp. Don't stop at the immediacy of the vision.
8/10
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