Editor's Note: This review was originally published on September 7, 2025, at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Vertical will release the film in theaters on Friday, June 26.
Fashion is serious business. It brings in billions of dollars a year and influences culture in countless subtle and subtle ways. But when this world of high fashion is depicted on film, it's usually satirized in subtle satires like Robert Altman's "Pret-a-Porter" and absurdist comedies like "Zoolander." So it's worth giving credit to French director Alice Winocour for approaching arguably her country's most iconic industry with near-complete seriousness in her new film, "Haute Couture.".
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The film, like Altman's work, is a collection of intersecting storylines converging on a grand fashion show during Paris Fashion Week. Angelina Jolie plays Maxine, a newcomer to the world of ateliers and an indie horror director who flies from America to Paris to shoot a short film that will follow the models on the runway. Anier Aney plays Ada, an aspiring model from Kenyan-born South Sudan, wide-eyed and hungry for success, caught in the maelstrom of arrogant men and party girls strutting down the runway. Ella Rumpf plays a makeup artist and writer who observes this glamorous, exclusive environment with poetic detachment, and Rumpf's Raw co-star, Garance Marillier, plays a seamstress meticulously crafting one crucial garment.
Thus, we gained access to various fascinating sectors of the industry, which should provide a full and instructive understanding of the process, pride, and pressure. But Vinokur—whose career took a surprising detour from the thriller "Disorder"— From the sci-fi "Proxima" to the trauma drama "Paris Memories," ultimately the film is more interested in mood than explanation. As "Couture" unfolds, we learn a few new things, but mostly we're invited to experience a kind of widespread melancholy wonder at the chaos of human activity.
Sometimes that's exactly the feeling you get, especially in the climactic catwalk scene, when a downpour begins and epiphanies occur. Winokur is a discerning stylist, using the evocative music of Philip Leyman and Anna von Hauswolff to further enhance the already stirring moments of her films. There are also quieter, subtler moments of enchantment: a model removing a champagne bottle from an ice bucket and replacing it with her own swollen feet, a filmmaker admiring the distinctive red color of the film's fake blood, a farewell at the airport between two young travelers from different war-torn countries. Winokur clearly cares deeply about her characters and the often maligned or misunderstood women who toil in this still largely male-dominated industry.
The effort is admirable. However, the overall structure of "Couture" is fragmented and disjointed. The intertwining plotlines should allow Winocour to let her imagination run wild, but she does little with this opportunity. Most of the characters are given such tenuous arcs that they are barely discernible. Ada talks with her mother and brother in Kenya, worries about a sprained ankle, and has fun with new friends. Angèle, a makeup artist, moves from one performance to the next, engaging in brief and rarely meaningful small talk with those around her. (This may be a close reflection of work, but it's not very cinematic.) A seamstress works on a dress, then works on it some more, and then finishes it. And that's basically it.
This naturalistic, minimalist approach might be quite appropriate if Maxine weren't burdened with the difficult, harrowing story of her battle with cancer. Before a trip to Paris, she undergoes tests, and a phone call delivers the bad news. This gives Jolie the opportunity to play a few scenes with the great Vincent Lindon as a concerned doctor, but otherwise the plot is extremely sparse in detail, in anything that would define Maxine's specific reaction to this terrible news. Jolie has said in interviews that Maxine's diagnosis was partly due to health issues in her past, so the film has a personal element. But Winokur doesn't do enough to infuse depth and substance into Maxine's depressingly banal journey.
Nevertheless, Jolie manages to breathe tangible life into the role, complicating its ethereal charm with mounting dread and sadness. She is particularly convincing—even amusing—in her scenes with Louis Garrel, who plays Maxine's cameraman and potential lover with a restrained sex appeal. Jolie is certainly a master of flirtation and seduction in front of the camera, but she doesn't do it on autopilot. She vividly conveys the desperation and loneliness that drives Maxine into the arms of her colleague, the sense that she may be saying goodbye to a certain side of herself as she is swept into the realm of illness and treatment.
I suppose that's why they cast a movie star like Jolie in this ensemble. It's just a shame Winokur didn't give her more opportunity to shine. And it's a shame the rest of Couture feels so inadequate to Maxine's struggle. As it stands, the film is simultaneously fleeting and melodramatic, a strange and unimpressive cocktail of indifferent European elegance and TV drama. Oh well. At least the clothes are good.
Rating: C
Couture premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
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