Series will run from May 3 to 27 and showcase four films starring Daniel Day-Lewis
Starting today, the Princess Cinemas will be running a series fittingly titled “Daniel Day May,” which highlights the films of actor Daniel Day-Lewis throughout the month. Taking place at the Princess Original, the series will showcase four of Day-Lewis’s most famous performances: The Last of the Mohicans, A Room With A View, There Will Be Blood, and Phantom Thread. Keep reading for more about the four films you can catch this month!
The Last of the Mohicans (1992), directed by Michael Mann
Based on the 1826 novel of the same name and set in 1757, The Last of the Mohicans takes place during a battle in colonial America between the British, French, and Indigenous allies. The film is one of many in which Day-Lewis dove headfirst into his role (in this case as Hawkeye, an 18th-century survivalist). In the months leading up to the filming, he learned to build canoes, track and skin animals, and operate a 12-pound flintlock. While there’s certainly a fair share of action in the film, it’s ultimately a romance story, with an orchestral score fit for such a historical epic.
A Room With A View (1985), directed by James Ivory
Showing a very different side of the actor, A Room With A View adapts E.M. Forster’s 1908 novel. The story centres on a young Englishwoman named Lucy (Helena Bonham Carter) who must decide between the free-spirited man (Julian Sands) she meets while on holiday in Italy and the traditional but wealthy Cecil (Daniel Day-Lewis). Here, Day-Lewis couldn’t be further from the gunslinging Hawkeye — he is a fumbling, awkward aristocrat who manages to knock the glasses off his face while trying to kiss Lucy for the first time. The film itself is also well-established in the British period drama canon, with eight Academy Award nominations to its name. (It won three.)
There Will Be Blood (2007), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Yet again switching gears, this film sees Day-Lewis take on the role of ruthless silver-prospector-turned-oilman Daniel Plainview. Loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil!, the film is set during the Californian oil boom at the turn of the 20th century. Often considered a career-best performance for Day-Lewis (he picked up the Academy Award for best actor), the film takes him to new heights in terms of intensity. His portrayal of a man becoming morally bankrupt due to the promise of capitalistic success is one that continues to resonate in popular culture, particularly in the American dream.
Phantom Thread (2017), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Phantom Thread takes Day-Lewis back to 20th-century England, where he plays the distinguished dressmaker and bachelor Reynolds Woodcock. His meticulously-controlled existence is shaken, however, when he meets the young and resolute Alma, who becomes his lover and muse. The unconventional love story between Alma and Reynolds is beautifully complex, and I’d urge anyone planning to watch this film to avoid looking up the plot and just go see it. Like his character, Day-Lewis is absolutely measured in his performance, and watching this character desperately grasp at control is comical and moving all at once. Phantom Thread is also Day-Lewis’s latest film to date but don’t worry — he’ll be coming out of retirement to work on an upcoming film directed by his son, Ronan Day-Lewis.
So, there you have it. If those four films don’t showcase an actor’s range, I’m not sure what does! Be sure to check out the Princess Cinemas’s calendar for exact dates and showtimes throughout May.
