Qulture Magazine

Words: @lightninrosemedia

Next up on our review roster from Glasgow Film Festival and I was sent a screening link to the film ‘Couture’, written and directed by Anna Winocour. Starring Angelina Jolie, Louis Garrel, Ella Rumpf and Anyier Anei, it follows the stories of main characters Maxine Walker (Jolie) as a director from America, shooting an art installation/short film for Paris Fashion week to go along with a runway which other main character Ada (Anyier) will be walking in as her first ever big modelling breakthrough.

I’ll admit, like others, I was drawn to this purely because I saw Angelina’s name attached, I didn’t see a trailer and didn’t know much about the synopsis beforehand, so was going in blind. It opens with Maxine the director arriving in Paris, and quickly jumps to her telling her doctor she can’t go back to the US for more tests as she is in Paris, to which he says he will set her up with a doctor there asap. He never reveals on the phone why she needs more tests so quickly but as someone watching I think everyone’s minds at this point immediately jump to the big ‘C’.

We then get introduced to Ada arriving in Paris and trying to navigate herself around. She attends a very quick and awkward meeting to have her measurements taken at the office of the design house who want her to walk in their show, where she was rotated in and out a bit like an animal in a slaughterhouse, man handled, used and thrown back out (I’m guessing this is exactly what parts of the fashion industry are like).

Half way through the movie now and the pace hasn’t gotten any quicker, the French is amazing from Jolie which isn’t surprising considering she is half French in real life, she speaks fluently. By this point we know Maxine has breast cancer and needs surgery, she is trying to navigate this around the deadline for the filming she is doing which proves difficult but luckily Anton (Louis Garrel) helps cover her back for this, and inevitably they end up sleeping together after the shoot has wrapped.

Ada moves into a shared model house in the middle of Paris where, they and she are stand offish to start with, until they all end up best of friends on a drunken night out. Bring in yet another story of a struggling makeup artists/turned amateur screenplay writer Angèle (Ella Rumpf) who is running about mad between shoots trying to earn money to her rent and apparently a screenplay writing adviser, who gives her harsh critique on her latest writing saying none of her stories and experiences from working in the industry are believable.

She takes a shine to Ada who she meets on a shoot and helps out when mother nature comes along, in the way of Ada’s period mid shoot, id like to say this was like a scene from Carrie, just so there was a bit of excitement in the film, but alas, just a dribble was to be seen.

Flash forward, and I completely forgot to mention that throughout the movie we see glimpses from another character, a young seamstress/dressmaker who is the one in charge of making the big showstopping piece that Ada will wear to open the big show! I couldn’t help looking at this thinking it was basically a net curtain with a couple of buttons attached, but it took this person days and days of agonizingly long shifts to finish (the scenes were just as agonizing) was this integral to the story/plot? I’m not so sure.

Then comes the big finale, the show starts, Ada looks breathtaking, a huge storm comes and destroys the set, Ada is soaked in the rain along with the ‘amazing’ outfit the seamstress spent millions of hours making, and finally the makeup artist has something to write about.

That’s basically it, the film ends shortly after this, we see that Jolie can’t get her surgery as they found that the cancer had spread, but honestly I was left quite bewildered by this one. I’m not sure why this story needed to be told, why this film needed to be made and what exactly the intended audience for it is? I felt like I could’ve spent that 103 minutes of my life doing something a lot more productive.

I mean don’t get me wrong, some of the cinematography was beautiful, but I just feel like the premise was lacking in most departments.

All in all, I would say if you’re really really bored already and just looking to fill time then give it a try, but otherwise I would steer clear, there were so many other amazing and more worthy films at GFF to get your eyes and ears around.