By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
"COUTURE"--QUIET THREADS, UNSPOKEN WOUNDS
One of my favorite films in 2024 was "Maria," where Angelina Jolie embodied the grandeur and fragility of opera legend Maria Callas.
In
"Couture" her new film with writer-director
Alice Winocour, Jolie shifts into something far more restrained--but no less compelling. This is a quiet, observant drama that unfolds behind the polished surface of the fashion world in Paris.
The spectacle surrounding "Couture" lingers in liminal spaces: dressing rooms, backstage corridors, and the controlled chaos of Paris Fashion Week.
"Couture" also carries the distinction of being the first film ever shot inside the Chanel atelier in Paris, a setting that lends the story an intimate authenticity. What emerges is less a traditional film about the fashion industry and more a behind-the-scenes study of identity, pressure, and what happens when life abruptly interrupts carefully constructed images.
Jolie plays Maxine Walker, an American filmmaker. She likes horror movies and is making a vampire film starring some newly minted fashion models against the backdrop of the "City of Light." While her film is coming together well, other aspects of Maxine's life aren't.
She's still navigating the emotional aftershocks of a divorce while trying to balance motherhood and be there for her teen daughter as the demanding production begins to unfold.
Maxine's world, already fragile, collapses further when she receives devastating health news. Her American doctor initially urges her to come back home for testing and keeps the severity of the situation from her over the phone. Instead, he advises Maxine to consult a French physician (Vincent Lindon, "The Quiet Son”) in Paris that he knows, since she cannot return to the United States for the full battery of tests.
She follows through with the appointment, and the doctor informs Maxine that she has breast cancer. Of course, this diagnosis halts everything for Maxine, her work, plans, and the illusion of control she's been clinging to. It forces her into a withdrawn and more uncertain reckoning with herself.
What makes Jolie's portrayal so captivating is the way she communicates Maxine's unraveling in small, deliberate gestures. There's the pause before answering a question, the way exhaustion settles into her posture, the quiet recalibration of priorities when no one is watching. It's a performance where emotion is constantly felt just beneath the surface rather than broadcast outward.
Amid this personal upheaval, Maxine finds some "comfort" with a colleague named Anton (Louis Garrel, "Just An Illusion"), but really is touched by the unexpected grounding in the young models she encounters, particularly Ada (Anyier Anei, TV's "Los Angeles Times: In Studio") a young Sudanese woman who is quietly questioning whether this glamorous world is truly where she belongs. Their connection is subtle but meaningful, less mentorship than shared recognition between two people standing at emotional crossroads. There's also Angele (Ella Rumpf, "Novak"), a make-up artist and writer who is sympathetic to Maxine.
"Couture" also carries a deeper resonance, knowing Jolie's own history. Her mother and grandmother both died from breast cancer in their fifties, and Jolie herself chose to undergo a preventative double mastectomy in 2013 after learning she carried a high-risk (BRCA1) gene. That context hovers gently over the film, not as autobiography, but as an undercurrent of lived awareness that informs every moment of Maxine's journey.
"Couture" really shines because it reveals a portrait of a woman learning to exist in uncertainty while the world around her continues to demand polish and perfection. Like the garments being stitched and altered behind the scenes, "Couture" is about what is hidden as much as what is seen.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays at 5:17 p.m. and 6:47 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
Watch This Trailer For
"COUTURE"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
