Lesley Manville - Phantom Thread [316 points / 29 votes]
“Daniel Day Lewis and Vicky Krieps have stolen the spotlight of Phantom Thread, rightfully so given their incredible onscreen dynamic of tortured artist and tortured muse, but it is Lesley Manville lurking at the edges of the frame that underscores the film’s tension with an eerie, necessary precision. Manville plays Cyril, the elder sister of fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock (Lewis). She is a prim uptight figure whose attitude is in tune with the times, 1950s England where post-war order seems to lie upon the surface of most interactions. Cyril is used to being the woman of the house as lovers of Reynolds’ bloom and fade, much of her job revolves around the removal of these wilted affairs. Yet when Reynolds’ most recent conquest arrives in the form of Alma (Krieps), Cyril takes a liking to her, defending Alma’s strength and letting go some of her firm grasp on the controlled, calculated goings on in the House of Woodcock.
“Throughout the film two facets of Cyril’s character haunted, her sexuality and her steadfastness. Cyril plays the part of the spinster, perpetually single, living alongside her brother in an unhealthy, watchful way. Yet it is her slight infatuation with Alma that hints towards a much larger, hidden facet of her life. Like Mrs. Danvers’ relationship to the title character in Hitchcock’s classic Rebecca, hints of a suppressed lesbian lifestyle surface in Cyril’s character. This innuendo allows for the subtleties of Lesley Manville’s acting to shine, each knowing smile holds the potential for so much more as the audience becomes an active interpreteur of her weighted gestures. Her sexuality hovers over her motivations with a foreboding sadness that allows the audience to relate; her steely, self-assured harshness a defense mechanism that leaves her impenetrable yet safe from matters of love, sex and beyond.
“Each frame Cyril appears in treats her as both a prop and a force, her importance becomes prominent through her strong presence but sometimes overshadowed by the fecundity of a flower arrangement or the lushness of a flowing garment. It is as though Cyril is treated as a flourish among the beauty of the court of Reynolds but a flourish that is as necessary as a zipper or a hem; Reynolds the bombastic fashion, Cyril the equally as willful function. Lesley Manville’s character within Phantom Thread mirrors that of her role within the production; a pointed foil to the whims and terror of an artistic genius, a refined performance needed to complete the intense artistry of a fragile cinematic masterpiece.” ~ Donna Kosloskie
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