Watch ‘Phantom Thread,’ Then Watch These Movies

By Christopher Campbell

We recommend the films that inspired Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest, plus other picks.

Inspiration can come from anywhere, and from multiple places, but Paul Thomas Anderson tends to be simply linked to single sources with a lot of his movies. Boogie Nights is like Goodfellas set in the porn industry, Magnolia is reminiscent of Altman’s Short Cuts, Punch-Drunk Love stems somewhat from Altman’s Popeye, The Master is clearly based on the life of L. Ron Hubbard, and There Will Be Blood and Inherent Vice start out of course as actual adaptations, of Sinclair and Pynchon respectively.

Now, there’s the story about Phantom Thread, how its inception was with a personal experience of being sick and cared for by his wife, Maya Rudolph. “I remember seeing how much my wife was enjoying having me relatively helpless,” he told the Chicago Tribune, “Then I started thinking, wouldn’t it kind of … suit her to keep me this way, you know, from time to time?”

There’s much more to the origins and development of the movie, however. Some of the other sources of inspiration include other films, which are found in this week’s list of recommendations joined by a couple relevant documentaries and a short subject starring Phantom Thread‘s breakout lead actress.

Beau Brummel (1924)

The character of Reynolds Woodcock, played by Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread, is loosely based on a number of actual fashion designers, such as Charles Frederick Worth, Charles James, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior, and Beau Brummell. Only the last of these has been the subject of a biopic (Balenciaga, McQueen, and Dior have been subjects of documentaries but Balenciaga’s doesn’t seem to be available). In fact, Brummell has had a number of movies about his life.

Anderson only learned of Brummell when his regular music score composer, Jonny Greenwood, referenced the figure in a compliment to the filmmaker. “He said something sarcastic to the effect of, ‘Look at you, Beau Brummell’ … I had to look the name up. I wanted to know more.” He did so, and then also read about Barenciaga, as well (see the Phantom Thread press notes for specifics there). Soon enough, the idea came to make the character he was developing into a fashion designer. From a profile in GQ:

“You just gotta start listening to the airwaves a little bit.” On a trip to India, he saw a photo of the Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga in an airport. “That coincided with a conversation I had had a couple weeks before about Beau Brummell,” the 19th-century Englishman who is credited with inventing the modern men’s suit. “And I had had in my pocket a story between a man and a woman where the dynamic was about power—the power shift between a strong-willed man and a woman.”

In the 1924 silent feature Beau Brummel [sic], John Barrymore portrays the dandy fashion legend with Mary Astor as his love interest. It’s not really as much about Brummell’s career as it is a romantic drama. Based on an 1890 stage play, this wasn’t the first adaptation but it is the earliest that is easily seen — it’s in the public domain, even — and it too was remade in 1954 with Stewart Granger in the title role and Elizabeth Taylor as his differently named leading lady. Either one is recommended for the purposes of learning fictionally about Brummell.

Rebecca (1940)

More directly related to the conception of Phantom Thread is Alfred Hitchcock’s classic romantic thriller based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier. It’s not clear in the back story, but Anderson may have watched Rebecca on Turner Classic Movies while he was sick and being cared for by his wife. In the GQ profile, Anderson explains that later he thought, “What if halfway through Rebecca, Joan Fontaine said, ‘You know, I’ve had enough of your shit?'”

The shit Fontaine is dealing with in the movie is the emotional abuse of her husband, played by Laurence Olivier, who clearly isn’t over his late wife, the titular Rebecca. The couple’s dynamic is similar to the one between Reynolds and new wife Alma (Vicky Krieps) in Phantom Thread, though the new movie involves a sister (Lesley Manville) for Woodcock rather than housekeeper or late wife. And, of course, Alma stops fully taking Reynolds’s shit and gets even in her special way.

Anderson also discussed the movie in an Entertainment Weekly interview:

“A lot of directors have tried and failed to make ‘Rebecca.’ I’m probably next in line, but it’s a different story. I’m a large aficionado of those large Gothic romance movies as the old masters might do them. What I like about those kinds of love stories is that they’re very suspenseful. A good dollop of suspense with a love story is a nice combination.”

For a great little piece on the link of superstition in both Phantom Thread and Rebecca, ehck out Kalyn Corrigan on Birth.Movies.Death. And for additional movies to watch, the other TCM staples Anderson has mentioned as seeing while sick or as going back to include The Story of Adele H., Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (which is also the movie that first inspired Krieps to be in movies), All About Eve, and Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Rear Window, and Suspicion.

I Know Where I’m Going! (1945)

Most of Phantom Thread takes place in the home of the Woodcocks, which is also their place of business. This insular setting evokes a number of Anderson’s favorite movies, including this feature by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Rebecca actually falls in with this bunch, too, and he cites that in a Q&A for Phantom Thread along with this movie. “Even a film that Daniel and I love, I Know Where I’m Going!, which has beautiful scenery but then they’re right back inside these tiny little rooms,” Anderson says. He and the cast discuss the experience of filming in confined spaces here:

 

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