Phantom Thread by Paul Thomas Anderson

47st International Film Festival Rotterdam

24 January- 4 February 2018

Rotterdam, 21 December 2017

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and Universal Pictures International Netherlands are teaming up with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra to present a unique screening of Paul Thomas Anderson’s highly anticipated new feature Phantom Thread in ‘de Doelen’. With additional key musicians from London Contemporary Orchestra, the score by longtime Anderson collaborator and Radiohead member Jonny Greenwood will be performed live on 2 February 2018. Paul Thomas Anderson will attend the screening. 

Phantom Thread is set in London during the 1950s and revolves around a renowned dressmaker, Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis), whose work-obsessed life is rattled when he is introduced to the strong-minded Alma (Vicky Krieps). The Guardian called the film “delicious in its strangeness, its vehemence, its flourishes of absurdity, carried off with superb elegance.”

The film’s score was recorded by the London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO), and for the occasion, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra will merge with key players from the LCO, including their conductor Robert Ames, specially for the occasion. The event will take place in the main auditorium of concert hall and conference centre ‘de Doelen’, festival partner since 2001 and IFFR’s central venue and meeting point.

The Rotterdam Philharmonic celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2018. Over the years, this orchestra has grown to international prominence and become renowned for its innovative approach to audiences. This collaboration with IFFR is not completely new. In 1988, the orchestra played the score of Buster Keaton’s The General on the final day of the festival.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson

Phantom Thread marks Anderson’s second collaboration with Day-Lewis, after There Will Be Blood in 2007. It marks Day-Lewis’s first acting role in almost five years, and he has stated it will also be his last. Anderson, one of the most original and acclaimed American writer-directors of the last 20 years, was previously in Rotterdam in 2003 to present Punch-Drunk Love. IFFR also screened his features The Master and Inherent Vice, as well as his recent collaboration with Jonny Greenwood, Junun.

Festival Director Bero Beyer: “There’s nothing quite like the magic of watching such a highly anticipated film with live music by such a great orchestra, especially when screened in a grand space like ‘de Doelen’.”

Tickets for the event are available here.

Universal Pictures International will release Phantom Thread in Dutch theatres on 1 March 2018, and from 1 February in other European territories. 

The Rotterdam Philharmonic is a modern orchestra with roots deep in the classical music tradition. It embodies the temperament of its home city, Rotterdam. It ranks among Europe’s foremost orchestras, being internationally known for the intense energy of its performances, its acclaimed recordings and its innovative approach to audiences. With performances from local venues to concert halls worldwide, the orchestra reaches an annual audience of 150,000 to 200,000 people. The orchestra is also known for its 'movies in concert' series in ‘de Doelen’.