Female Film Critics 24/375
Fashion often feels far from fabulous in writer/director Anna Winocour’s Paris-set drama Couture, which takes a frank look at what goes on behind the scenes in the world of impossibly chic designer dresses and elite runway models. But as it weaves together the stories of three different women — an up-and-coming director, a brand new model, and a make-up artist with big dreams — it creates a memorable fabric of emotion and experience.
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Fashion is high minded art and serious business to some; frivolous to others. The always interesting French screenwriter and director Alice Winocour’s drama Couture balances both. Much like life, the story ambles from ordinary, even mundane travails, to matters of life and death. Couture follows three women from different cultures who converge in Paris for fashion week. Nearly all the film’s substantial scenes take place between the women. Their disparate lives may intersect only briefly but Couture is most effective when subtly revealing a world where survival often depends on fleeting connections and unspoken understandings.
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Couture is more about the human beings of the fashion world rather than the fashion itself – and that’s what makes it so interesting even though it moves slowly and all of its elements don’t always work together. It’s refreshing to see that, even in an industry as glamorous as fashion, people are still just people, trying to do their jobs, sometimes messing up and often getting help from others.
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