Credits: Siebbi (Thore Siebrands) / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY 3.0.
This Monday evening, Arte devotes its night to British actor Daniel Day-Lewis, airing one of his most striking films, There Will Be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson, followed by a brand-new documentary on this actor’s particular working method, who has won three Oscars. A rare chance to rediscover someone many consider one of the greatest living performers, while exploring the shadow side surrounding his career.
A Total Immersion, Crowned With Success
Released in 2008 in France, There Will Be Blood earned Daniel Day-Lewis his second Academy Award for Best Actor, consolidating his reputation as a prodigious artist. The film, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Punch-Drunk Love), tells the rise of an oil prospector whose pursuit of wealth becomes a destructive obsession. Praised by critics, it is described in Première as a “masterful” performance, portraying a character whose “shifts of humanity move us with remarkable accuracy.”
This intensity stems from the famous Day-Lewis “method”: total immersion in his roles. To play a Mohican Indian, he learned to hunt and build canoes (The Last of the Mohicans, 1992). For Gangs of New York (2002), he took butchery lessons to be convincing as a New York butcher. Each time, he remains inhabited by his characters even off set, an exacting approach that fascinates as much as it exhausts those around him.
A Career Marked By Retreats And Returns
The screening of There Will Be Blood will be followed by a documentary titled Daniel Day-Lewis: The Heir, made in 2021. Rich in unreleased archives, this film attempts to pierce the mystery of an actor who maintained an almost aristocratic distance from fame. While Hollywood crowns him a living legend, Day-Lewis regularly chooses to step away from the spotlight: apprenticing as a shoemaker in Italy in the 1990s, exile in Ireland, and media silence between his films.
Each return is nonetheless an event. After announcing his retirement with Lincoln (2012), he returned in 2017 for Phantom Thread, another collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson. This time he stated it would be his final role, retreating again into carefully maintained anonymity. But in 2024, rumors mention his participation in his son Ronan Miller’s next film, titled Anemone.
A Troubling Personality
Born in 1957 in London, Daniel Day-Lewis claims a free career, outside the star system. His relationship to notoriety is paradoxical: he does not hesitate to take part in prestigious productions, like Gangs of New York (2002) alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, yet he shuns any form of cult of personality. His fine features, piercing gaze, and slender silhouette rarely lend themselves to tabloid exposure.
Love And France: The Adjani Imprint
One of Day-Lewis’s few public relationships remains his story with French actress Isabelle Adjani. Their union, as passionate as it was discreet, marked the late 1980s. Their son, Gabriel-Kane, was born in 1995, after their separation. Unlike his parents, Gabriel-Kane chose a career in music and modeling, far from film sets.
After Adjani, Daniel Day-Lewis married director Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur Miller. Together they settled in the Irish countryside, opting for a peaceful life and relative seclusion.
A Most Precious Legacy
Arte’s choice to air There Will Be Blood followed by a documentary is a tribute to Daniel Day-Lewis’s unique place in cinema. Rarely has an actor so profoundly impacted audiences through his psychological investment and ability to vanish into his roles. While Paul Thomas Anderson prepares his next film with Leonardo DiCaprio, Day-Lewis’s presence still hangs over Hollywood like a mythical figure.
This Monday night, Arte offers a chance to approach this paradoxical actor through a punchy role and an illuminating documentary. A program that perfectly reflects the rigor and mystery of an artist whose imprint on cinema is, indeed, indelible.