Glasgow Film Festival 2026 – Couture ★★★

Released: TBC (Glasgow Film Festival)

Director: Alice Winocour

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Ella Rumpf, Anyier Anei, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon, Grégoire Colin

The world of high fashion may often seem mysterious and glamorous for outsiders looking in. But Alice Winocour’s latest film Couture provides that reflective, behind the scenes gaze during Paris Fashion Week and is equally pioneering as the first film shot at the Chanel atelier in Paris. Fashion lovers will swoon but others may not be as willingly captivated within this slow paced rumination of three women’s lives intersecting during a fashion show without a common thread stitching it all together. Couture, unfortunately, has woven a trap for itself for embroidering more style than substance!

Reminiscent of Phantom Thread with its microscopic view of the sumptuous layers of fabric at the hands of seamstresses and the admirable design sketches providing that calm amongst the chaos of a catwalk show, Winocour’s female gaze allows the film’s essence of the individual women involved, to have some breathing space. But beyond displaying their craft and giving that insightful peep through the keyhole behind the operations, the women’s challenges, in a male dominated industry, are lost in the ether.

All the ingredients for an inclusive environment are there. Ada, a South Sudanese model, with a penchant for cadavres, arrives for her first fashion show and makes a throwaway comment that others may think that she’s ugly during one of her telephone conversations. She’s stunning by the way. The connotations from her remark may be glaringly obvious to some, however, the film doesn’t raise its head above the parapet to explore further on this aspect or place it into context. It therefore remains a heavy comment lingering in the atmosphere that will leave audiences cold rather than having the desired effect of evoking sympathy.

Similarly, with Angelia Jolie’s main character Maxine, a filmmaker of a short vampire film being made during Paris Fashion Week, there is a distance created between her and the audience. Despite the revelations of her medical diagnosis whilst working on set, which are portrayed sensitively by Jolie and is somewhat meta given her character also has a French mother and is suffering from similar medical conditions, audiences are not invited to discover her persona fully.

Another character is a make up artist cum writer, Angèle, who receives rejections of her work but again her character seems passive as the scenes are presented objectively.

Winocour is renowned for producing female led stories such as Proxima and Paris Memories with flawed, complex characters but her voice seems diluted within Couture.

The visuals of Paris are beautiful and the fashion workshop is too, which will captivate. There are also many painterly moments and singular symbolic imagery, such as of a drop of the seamstress’ blood against a pristine white satin fabric. Also, medical markings on Maxine’s body during her doctor’s appointments resemble those crude design etching and stitches of the fabrics. Thus, the cinematography depicts that mesmerising sensory delight but unfortunately the rest is lacking. Essentially, much is shown but little is known whilst Couture flashes some magnificent costumes onstage and dazzling camerawork by a cut glass mirror.

Perhaps one of the most striking moments is Maxine’s curt response about fashion in an interview, ‘it’s useless but necessary’ which might be the tone that Winocour is replicating.

But, we shall always have Paris and Winocour revels in showcasing the city’s highlights. There’s an expensive hotel balcony with large windows that exposes the busy noise of a fairground with a splendid view of the Tour Eiffel’s light show. The Arc de Triomphe makes an appearance too within a dreamy aesthetic and we get it what is there not to love about these mesmerising qualities of Paris. Similar to Paris Memories, Winocour has carved out a starring role for the city of lights. Yet, these disparate pieces remain disjointed vignetttes despite a stellar French cast with heavyweights Vincent Lindon, Grégoire Colin and Louis Garrel trying their best with insubstantial material. Couture feels moodily French but without the meaningful subtext. At least we have a memorable French speaking performance from Jolie to pique our interests!

Couture is a stylish, sensitive introspection of the arts world, through a female lens, which unintentionally resembles a piece of auto fiction and whilst visually it remains one note. Disappointingly, Couture’s directorial choices reflect a refusal to commit to a full character study of these women to provide an empathetic, deep analysis of their issues. Ultimately this prevents the film from leaving the lasting impact on audiences that it seeks.