This is a French/American co-production, a drama filmed on location in Paris.
IMDb: 6.2
Tomato Meter: 64%
It was panned by both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, but their reviewers are male, and this is a picture made by a woman for women.
The official blurb:
Set during the frenzy of Paris Fashion Week, three women’s lives intersect in Paris, Maxine, a filmmaker in her forties who discovers she has breast cancer and is drawn into an unexpected connection with a familiar collaborator; Ada, a fresh face in modeling, escaping a predetermined future back home in South Sudan; and Angèle, a makeup artist working in the shadows of the catwalks. As their paths cross, the film reveals the quiet resilience beneath the surface of public performance and honors the unspoken solidarity shared among these women across professions, cultures, and continents.
I’m not so sure I would have used the word “frenzy” in a review of this film. It is used correctly, but it sort of implies that the frenzy of Fashion Week is somehow reflected here. It is, but only briefly, and only to provide contrast. The focus is the most lugubrious possibilities of real life, like cancer, or life in South Sudan, in contrast to the shallow, frenzied self-importance of fashion. It is a very low-energy film, filled with quiet, sincere conversations and solemn reflections. Even the sex is sad. It’s as if they told Winnie the Pooh’s story from Eeyore’s perspective, set to Rachmaninoff’s “Isle of the Dead.”
I’m not saying it’s a poor movie. I think the Tomato and IMDb scores accurately reflect its merit, but I would say that you should be aware before watching it that it is a slow, sad character study, and you are more likely to appreciate it if you possess a minimum of one vagina.
Trivia:
Couture is the first fictional film allowed to be shot inside Chanel’s Paris showroom and atelier. Director Winocour was given special access to the brand’s fashion shows and behind-the-scenes work, including time with the seamstresses and other workers. However, all brand logos had to be removed from the screen.
The very good news is that we get to see a superstar’s reconstructed breasts. These clips and images are captured from a screener, thus the blurred identification info and the timing calculation.
