Paul Thomas Anderson is known for making sprawling, discursive epics, but his latest creation breaks that mold. A focused, meticulously art-directed romantic drama set in postwar England, “Phantom Thread” matches the pathologically fastidious couturier Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) with a young woman known only as Alma (Vicky Krieps), a canny waitress of mysterious origin. What transpires between them is as thrilling as it is dark. In a year dominated by topical movies, it will be fascinating to see how this gorgeously made period piece fares at the Academy Awards, where it earned nominations for best picture, director, actor, supporting actress, original score and costume design.



If you’ve caught “Phantom Thread” fever … well, first try to figure out the last time you ate wild mushrooms. Once you’ve recovered, satisfy your hunger for more high-fashion pathos and difficult love with one of these streamable films.

If You Loved the Love Story

Kool Shen and Isabelle Huppert in “Abuse of Weakness.” Strand Releasing

‘Abuse of Weakness’

Where to watch: Filmstruck, Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, iTunes

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“Phantom Thread” is, essentially, the tale of a romance with very unusual power dynamics. This kind of strange, obsessive love story is a specialty of the European art house, particularly of the French actress Isabelle Huppert, who brings crucial specificity to the complicated masochists she plays in movies like “The Piano Teacher” and “Elle.” Less famous but equally captivating is her performance in “Abuse of Weakness,” a 2014 film from the French auteur Catherine Breillat. Huppert plays a director recovering from a stroke, who casts a famous con man (Kool Shen) in her new project, gets sucked into his mind games. The film is based on a similar event from Breillat’s life, and the chemistry between the leads sells its story of a smart woman who gets scammed by a man she always knew was a scammer.

If You Loved the Fashion

Raf Simons in “Dior and I.” The Orchard

‘Dior and I’

Where to watch: Netflix, Amazon Prime

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“We decided early on that Reynolds Woodcock wasn’t the greatest couturier in the world,” Mark Bridges, who designed the Oscar-nominated costumes for “Phantom Thread,” explained to Vogue. But you don’t have to love his every creation to appreciate the film’s stunning recreation of his atelier and the psychologically rich portraits of his wealthy clients. If the House of Woodcock’s all-night sewing marathons and enervating fashion shows piqued your curiosity, consider educating yourself about contemporary couture with this behind-the-scenes documentary that follows Raf Simons’s frenzied first season as the artistic director of Dior.

If You Loved the Story and the Fashion

Margit Carstensen in “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.” Criterion Collection

‘The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant’

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Once again, the European art house provides. Decades before “Phantom Thread,” the prolific and provocative German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder put an exacting fashion designer, Petra (Margit Carstensen), at the center of an all-consuming romantic melodrama marked by abrupt shifts in the balance of power between two lovers. Adapted from Fassbinder’s play of the same name and released in West Germany in 1972, “Bitter Tears” is set entirely within Petra’s baroque, extremely ’70s home. The romance that unfolds there is between the designer and a model — both women — and the clothes are basically high-concept lingerie. But if you liked Anderson’s breathtaking final twist, you’ll love the one at the end of this classic.

If You Wonder What Inspired It

Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in “Brief Encounter.” Universal Pictures

‘Brief Encounter’

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No film has come up more frequently in Anderson’s interviews about “Phantom Thread” than Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca,” which, unfortunately, isn’t available to stream. But Anderson has also mentioned this early masterpiece from David Lean, the British director who went on to make era-defining epics like “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Doctor Zhivago.” Like the relationship between Reynolds and Alma, the adulterous love affair that fuels “Brief Encounter” is relatively chaste, but psychologically harrowing and deeply claustrophobic. And Anderson isn’t the only contemporary filmmaker who has cited the movie as an inspiration: Todd Haynes borrowed its circular structure for his 2015 movie, “Carol.”

If You’re Intrigued by Vicky Krieps

Vicky Krieps in “The Chambermaid.” Film Movement

‘The Chambermaid’

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Who is Vicky Krieps? Where did she come from? What else can I see her in? If one or more of these questions occurred to you after watching “Phantom Thread,” consider checking out the performance that caught Anderson’s eye in the German film “The Chambermaid,” from 2015. Krieps, who hails from Luxembourg and has been appearing in European productions for a decade, stars as a compulsively thorough hotel maid who is drawn into a sadomasochistic relationship with a dominatrix. Anderson told Rolling Stone that he noticed, while watching the movie, that Krieps “has one of those faces that turns in about 45 directions at once.”

If You Want More Day-Lewis and Anderson

Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood.” Melinda Sue Gordon/Paramount Vantage

‘There Will Be Blood’

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Anderson’s male leads are his muses. He seems to build each of his films around their strengths and quirks, from Tom Cruise’s role as a manic motivational speaker in “Magnolia” to Joaquin Phoenix’s turn as a mumbly stoner in “Inherent Vice.” Daniel Day-Lewis, an accomplished method actor, is a more difficult actor to pin down. He won an Academy Award for his larger-than-life performance in Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood” as Daniel Plainview, a ruthless early-20th-century oilman who terrorizes a local evangelist (Paul Dano). With its epic scope and operatic monologues, it’s a very different film from “Phantom Thread.” But if there’s a through line connecting Woodcock to Plainview, it’s an obsession with control.

If You’re Fascinated by Artist-Muse Relationships

Javier Bardem and Jennifer Lawrence in “Mother!” Niko Tavernise/Paramount Pictures

‘Mother!’

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Speaking of muses, Alma isn’t just Reynolds’s soul mate — she’s the person who inspires his greatest creations. In that sense, the widely adored, Oscar-nominated chamber drama “Phantom Thread” and Darren Aronofsky’s widely despised, Razzie-nominated horror fantasy “Mother!” have something significant in common. Aronofsky’s maximalist biblical allegory certainly isn’t for everyone, but for those who can get on its histrionic level, this story about a blocked poet (Javier Bardem) and the young wife who devotes herself to caring for him (Jennifer Lawrence) offers another compelling take on a complicated type of relationship.

If you loved “Dunkirk” as well, here are six films to watch next; we also have six more to watch with “Call Me by Your Name.”