Fashion and Fear: Deconstructing Alice Winocour's 'Couture'

Alice Winocour's latest venture 'Couture' dips its toes into several genres, drawing partly from Angelina Jolie's personal experience with breast and ovarian cancers. However, the film struggles to delve deep into its contemplative themes of mortality, trauma and resilience.

The plot revolves around Maxine, an American indie horror director, played by Jolie, who is commissioned by an unnamed fictional fashion house to shoot a film for their runway show, a premise that hints at potential richness but unfortunately falls short.

Joining Jolie on screen are Ada, an upcoming model from South Sudan, and Angèle, a freelance makeup artist and aspiring writer. Their narratives contribute to the drama, though the film fails to fully explore their depths.

While Ada's naïvete in the industry is concisely depicted, her experience as an outsider is barely skimmed. Similarly, the narrative of Angèle seeing no more than rudimentary exploration.

The film's mood can be compared to a less jubilant take on Robert Altman's Fashion Week satire, 'Prêt-à-Porter', but its lack of substantial exploration of the characters gives the film an unbalanced and disjointed feel.

However, some moments provide emotional substance such as Maxine's diagnosis of breast cancer. The scenes where she learns of her medical condition are among the movie's best, showing her resistance to slowing down, mirroring the pressures on women to constantly perform often at the expense of self-care.

The movie shines during smaller interactions, particularly with Maxine's cinematographer, suggesting a possibility of deeper connection beyond the surface. Nonetheless, the film's attempts to include existential themes are inadequately developed.

The culmination of the film is a dramatic fashion show in a rainstorm, which despite its visual appeal, lacks the catharsis it aspires to provide due to the characters' underdevelopment.

'Couture' thus emerges as a film with potential depth but ends up being seen as shallow, due to its lack of profundity in character exploration. Despite this, the film manages to convey some impactful moments within the realms of fashion, personal crisis and existential questioning.