Romantic and class duel between the perfection obsessed couturier and a former waitress who becomes his muse. The new film by Paul Thomas Anderson recreates London of the 1950s and explores love as obsession, phobia, and phantom.
Couturier Reynolds Woodcock creates dresses for eminent members of society and noble ladies in London of the 1950s. Being a confirmed bachelor, he sees women solely as a source of inspiration and has no intention of committing his future to anyone. However, everything changes when Reynolds meets a waitress, Alma. The girl—extremely unusually for high society—quickly becomes the designer’s muse, though he never admits it. Striving to evoke feelings in her guardian and lover, Alma begins a dangerous game.
Paul Thomas Anderson has created a gripping, exquisite, and minimalist film on the illusive nature of self-control, the ephemerality of a creator’s power, and the art of the relationship, when strength and weakness often interchange, and one has to guess the unsaid wishes of their partner.
Phantom Thread
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
USA, 2017. 130 min. 18+
