There’s something enlightening about a film that is so well written and so well acted that you become swept up in the lives of its characters and its world. “Couture” is one of those films.
A deeply personal story from writer, director Alice Winocour, this mesmerizing movie is poetic at best as it trails the lives of three women from different generations and walks of life who reunite at a fashion show in Paris.
Oscar winning-actress Angelia Jolie is Maxine, a director going through a divorce who discovers she has breast cancer. Anyier Anei is Ada, a young Black model from Sudan navigating the nuances of the modeling industry and Ella Rumpf plays Angèle, a struggling makeup artist with dreams of being a successful writer.
“It’s fragments of me at different ages and stages of my life,” says Winocour, a cancer survivor who wrote the film as a celebration of life. “I had an experience with cancer and had the urgency to write a film to celebrate life and solidarity. It’s about women supporting each other and the idea was to shine the light on women’s bodies.”
Anyier in her film debut, who we meet 12 minutes into the movie, plays her part so gracefully and with conviction. As Ada, a Black model thrust in the limelight navigating through an industry filled with bias, it’s a role Winocour says Anyier related to.
“It’s her first movie and she gave me her most intimate secrets so it was a bit more than a film for her. South Sudanese girls are the trend in fashion. I had written this story of a woman coming and earning money to support her family and had a brother. When I met Anyier, she had almost the same story so I adapted what I had written for her. We hear her mother on the phone talking Dinka and her brother talking in Swahili and I thought it was cool to put those languages in cinema. There are many models coming from Africa and they don’t know what to expect and we see this young model entering the world of fashion which is full of rules. “
From learning how to walk a runaway to finding the right shade of makeup for a photo shoot, Ada’s path in Paris isn’t an easy one, but she finds support with Angèle and a few other models she encounters.
“It is an ensemble film built around three characters, Maxine, Ada and Angèle,” continues Winocour, a French film director and screenwriter known for her emotionally resonant films that include “Proxima” and “Augustine,” her debut film. “There was the desire to sew the destiny of these three women, who come from different worlds, to assemble pieces of their lives hence the title.”
In the first few scenes, we are given a snapshot of Maxine’s (Jolie) life as she struggles to understand the severity of her diagnosis and making the arduous decision whether to put her career on hold for Chemotherapy and increase her chance of surviving cancer.
“There’s a chance I may die?” She asks.
“Everybody is going to die,” her surgeon, Dr. Hansen (Vincent Lindon) responds.
There is nothing but strong seamless performances here and in “Couture” everyone has something to repair and resolve. A powerful drama, it will soften the heart of anyone who sees it. Human existence is delicate, temporary, and easily disrupted by unforeseen events and “Couture” serves as a reminder to celebrate life.
Samantha Ofole-Prince is a journalist and movie critic who covers industry-specific news that includes television and film. She serves as the Entertainment Editor for Trendy Africa. Photo courtesy of Vertical
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