Phantom Thread

The way Alma looks at Reynolds in the car, my God. I love that moment when Reynolds looks at Alma through the peephole. It's a reference to Psycho for one but the extreme closeup of his eye is what i'm talking about. It's such an unusual shot. I take it to mean Reynolds, who's watching Alma, is suddenly watched by Alma. Reynolds likes to gaze at his 'beautiful muses' as his own work but Alma subverts this by looking through the peephole back at Reynolds again. We become painfully aware of the fact Reynolds (and the audience too) is peeking at Alma. It characterises Alma through her need to always one-up the other person. We already see this tendency when Reynolds asks Alma out to dinner but she's already prepared a note introducing herself. Or when Reynolds later asks Alma to marry her, but she directs the question right back at him by asking the same question. Her looking through the peephole is the exact same thing. She's levelling out the hierarchy and dynamic in the relationship. *"For the hungry boy, my name is Alma." * "If you want to have a staring contest with me, you will lose." PTA Ranked