Couture, 2025.
Written and Directed by Alice Winocour.
Starring Angelina Jolie, Anyier Anei, Ella Rumpf, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon, Garance Marillier, Grégoire Colin, Aurore Clément, Yuliia Ratner, Mona Tougaard, Hunter David, Joana Preiss, Finnegan Oldfield, Nicolas Avinée, Nina Marker, Rebekka Eriksen, Aida Atarssa, Shuting Yang, Moira Hugues, Douglas Rand, Sean Gullette, and Mika Schneider.
SYNOPSIS:
An American filmmaker arrives in Paris for Fashion Week on a life-and-death journey, facing challenges and self-discovery.
Writer/director Alice Winocour’s Couture has the honor of being the first fashion industry-set film shot on location inside Chanel’s showroom and atelier, alongside the unfortunate drawback of a narrative spread across too many characters, some of which one doesn’t even realize are intended to be a major focus until it’s too late.
Naturally, Angelina Jolie is given the most to do here as fictional American indie horror filmmaker Maxine Walker in Paris, overseeing production of a vampire-based short film for Fashion Week, separated from her husband while not fully grasping the emotional and mental toll the split has taken on her teenage daughter, an issue in her personal life that quickly becomes secondary to a breast cancer diagnosis that threatens to take her away from her work just after securing funding for another horror movie.
Scouted and recruited to star in the short film is Sudanese aspiring model Ada (Anyier Anei), who escaped a war there with her family to grow up in Kenya, now 18 years old and unsure of herself, attempting to break into this industry, having told her off-screen father that she is traveling to Paris for pharmacy opportunities. The central theme here has less to do with the fashion and filmmaking industries and more to do with the idea that one career is abruptly ending while another is blossoming.
That’s not to say Ada immediately fits in with her mostly white European modeling colleagues, but that she slowly gains the confidence to control her destiny. With a brother greatly missing her, Ada finds herself having to choose between family and art, much like Maxine will eventually have to (it is either chemo or going through with filmmaking production, gambling on her chances of survival rather than being proactive).
Despite strong showings by Angelina Jolie and relative newcomer Anyier Anei, capable of conveying much without dialogue and through body language, there are certainly broad reasons to invest in these characters and, as mentioned, a tantalizing juxtaposition at the core regarding what the future holds for them. Simultaneously, the film never allows viewers to truly know these characters; it is unclear what filmmaking means to Maxine or what her connection to the horror genre is beyond basic feminist takes that aren’t enough to demonstrate a uniqueness to her directorial efforts or why we should be rooting for her vampire flick to get made other than that she is a protagonist.
Similarly, there isn’t much understanding of the war Ada fled or of her family connection; it’s occasionally mentioned, and her brother infrequently appears via calls, but it isn’t fleshed out. By the time that brother is crying his eyes out for his sister to come home, nothing about these family dynamics has been illuminated enough to care.
Part of the issue stems from that there are other characters within the fashion world given some important character time, yet not nearly enough to make an impression. As said before, when it becomes clear that Alice Winocour sees some of them as essential as the others, such as a makeup artist with a passion for writing that seems to be routinely belittled by men for not being interesting enough since she is inspired by everyday real-life situations, who gets to deliver a climactic speech through the inner thoughts of her writing that is meant to tie all of these character arcs together. Instead, it comes across as random and unearned.
In trying to connect different types of women, sectors of the art world, and colliding industries, Couture is sometimes dull and has little to say beyond the idea that people’s lives are always in flux. especially those older than others. Since it is so well acted, with plenty of access into the fashion world, albeit little insight, the film largely remains engaging throughout. Angelina Jolie convincingly plays an artist’s life turned upside down from a breast cancer diagnosis, with substantial emphasis on her body and the fear of it changing, and how she wants to spend what little time she has left with it in its current form.
There is a case to be made that a better, more layered, and more insightful film could be made focused solely on her character, although you could say the same about any of these women. Then again, the issues aren’t specific to that; Couture also spans too many industries and professions. Here, it’s all overstuffed and surface-level.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
