The irresistible lure of the city of Paris, with its inimitable backdrop of art and fashion, substantiates an inevitable cinematic grandeur of sorts. Paris Fashion week boldly speaks of its ostentatious spectacle of apparel display on runway. With an A-list of celebrities flocking to either watch or grace the catwalk during this event, it is just an overflowing scenario that seizes one’s interest. The luminaries of haute-couture lavishly parade their opulent collection to a privileged few, driven with designs that would potentially endure the guttural expectations of the outside world.
French director and screenwriter Alice Winocour’s latest movie, “Couture”, intended to tease the imagination of moviegoers into prying the world of fashion. Set during the Paris fashion week, Winocour employed the inherently fashionable actress, director, and Oscar winner Angelina Jolie to play the lead role of a film director, Maxine. Jolie spoke some French in between her dialogues throughout the film.
As she was poised to shoot her film, Maxine’s personal struggles were unveiled while interacting with other women co-workers (Ella Rumpf as a veteran make-up artist and Anyier Anei as a novice fashion model), as well as her cinematographer (Louis Garrel).
There seemed to be an aversion of the Paris Fashion Week itself as Winocour accentuated Jolie’s personal struggles throughout the film. It was a downright obliteration of providing moviegoers a coup d’oeil of the fashion show. Although the film included painstaking behind-the-scenes work by seamstresses inside Chanel’s showroom and atelier, stories of these hardworking women were not explored. These seamstresses could have provided an engaging parallelism knowing that the original title of the film was “Stitches”.
Minimalism works in some films especially if the treatment of the story is powerful, credible, and overarching in presenting the sensitivity of each character. “Misery” easily comes to mind with award-winning actors Kathy Bates and James Caan. “Couture”, with all its intents and purposes, flatlined in interweaving each character convincingly. The film was lacking adequate portrayal of roles because it was a complete miscast. The disjointed treatment compromised the relevance, if any at all, about these women.
There is salient purpose in interwoven stories that share a common ground. The award-winning film,“Babel” is one fitting example where seemingly unconnected characters eventually became intertwined. In “Couture”, however, it is foolhardy to pinpoint what connects to whom. Paris Fashion Week may have brought the characters together; but the event itself was inconsistently oblivious to anchor the film. Thus, the apathetic conflict surrounding each character was splitting to unravel.
Jolie’s tribulations in real life, particularly her medical journey, has been an open book. Regrettably, “Couture” somehow exploited Jolie’s real life struggles. There was not enough margin left in drawing the boundary between her Maxine character and that of her person. As expected, every attention was centered on Jolie. When asked for advice by a moviegoer about cancer survival after the film’s premiere presentation at TIFF50, Jolie was emotional and tearful in tackling such personal question. Meanwhile, the discussion around the de rigueur fashion thread was strayed altogether.
If there is one conspicuous detail that would have redeemed the shortcomings of “Couture”, it is the glaring Paris Fashion week. In and of itself, this event prompts a lot of imposition to depict the fashion shows in the film. Its fast momentum and high-end status could have provided the much needed nuance and conflict among actors. One grandiose scene of the models on the catwalk would have made a huge impact. Even television shows such as “Project Runway” or “Next in Fashion” deliberately mold the audience expectation leading to the runway in order to culminate the arduous process in a fitting manner.
Comparatively speaking, the film, “The Devil Wears Prada,” whose sequel is currently bustling anew, boasts of its rapturous and flashy wardrobe not just flaunted by the actors but boundless models pacing the runway. The mundane office setting still excites the viewers because of what “the devil” wears. Despite the film’s exploits around the frivolousness and excesses of the fashion industry, the tightly knit storyline and right casting continue to satiate the senses of the moviegoers. No matter how ‘wicked’ Miranda Priestly projects herself on screen, her clothes easily recoup such lack of modesty.
As for “Couture”, instead of positioning the iconic fashion event to the film’s advantage, it resorted to a ‘streamlined’ treatment that stripped the relevance of the entire fashion concept. Consigning glamorous Jolie as conflicted film director who dislikes the business of fashion was an outright disconnect. Expounding a story out of a make-up artist who wants to be a writer was far-fetched in its treatment and acting. Extracting a thin strip of excitement from a new recruit model was passively trifling in its approach.
It is indeed catastrophic when a film like “Couture” puts the expectation of movie audiences on the wrong track. To utilize the word couture as its title and not offer a scene posturing the couture collection on runway is anti-climactic and short of artifice, to say the least. Not even the last scene of the film can appease the viewer’s disappointment and discomfiture.
As it is, fashion world is a cutthroat workplace to begin with. It is packed with enormous disparity and fracas, so much so that it would have been aptly intensified by Winocour on the big screen.
There is one fashion film, “Prêt-a-porter” (Ready to Wear), which was shot on location during the Paris Fashion week. Though it assembled an international list of actors, top fashion designers, famous models, and celebrities, “Prêt-a-porter”, just like “Couture”, bungled the potential of the whole cast. Its storytelling did not have in-depth treatment regarding the accoutrements of the industry.
The fashion world may have restyled over the years, but one aspect remains unchanged. If and when a filmmaker decides to embark on this fashion domain, the enduring element of glitz and glamour should freely interlace with a tight threaded well-written script. ####
