It may be set in the softly lit beauty of a design workshop, but the true richness of Paris is woven into all haute couture.
The French artistic film Haute Couture is an ode to the beauty of craftsmanship, and the parallelism with what happens on screen with how it is presented is evident.
If you are going to make a film about dedication and care for crafts, you better live it. Luckily, he does.
Haute couturedirected by Sylvie Ohayon, is a play that celebrates the beauty of fashion with its almost fetishistic close-ups of luxurious fabrics and agile hands, but it is also a moving drama about the purpose, belonging and expectations we place on others and in ourselves.
The perfect combination of both, a drama of characters and a visual party for the inclination of the costumes, Haute couture it’s a thoughtful, compelling and really engaging film.
Dior head dressmaker Esther (Nathalie Baye) is getting ready for her latest collection. His retirement is not his choice and he is insecure about the next one. When her partner Catherine (Pascal Arbillot) tells her to make the most of life, she replies: “This is where I make the most of life, that’s all I know.”
While on the subway, her bag is snatched by two young women, Jade (Lyna Khoudri) and Souad (Soumaye Bocoum).
When Jade decides to return the unsuccessful merchandise, after tracking Esther to Dior’s studio from the work pass to the handbag, she unexpectedly finds herself having dinner with her victim.
Esther, noticing Jade’s delicate hands and lack of orientation, offers to do an internship at Dior, but not without a few words beforehand.
Her thorny chemistry is usually born of familiarity, and is a perfect casting that combines Baye and Khoudri for this unorthodox surrogate mother-daughter relationship. It’s a push and a traction in which they both disappoint and both nurture.
They also have something missing in their real mother-daughter relationships: Esther doesn’t see her daughter and Jade’s mother is a melancholy one who doesn’t get out of bed.
Dior’s world is far from anything Jade has immersed herself in, as she is judged by her “ghetto” roots, both by her haughty colleague Andree (Claude Perron) and by herself.
Haute couture explores this interesting dynamic about Paris, manifested as Jade’s self-selection because of her lower socioeconomic identity and part of being an immigrant. In a first scene, he scolds Dior’s ethnically Arab security guard, accusing him of being a “bourgeois collaborator.”
She and her friend Souad are part of the multicultural fabric of Paris and the way the characters look as if they are not entirely French is a rich vein. Haute couture touch.
Even the two worlds are understood differently. Esther’s surroundings and the Dior studio have a softer focus and clean lines, while Jade’s places are more sandy and narrow, full of equipment from a different life.
In the end, though, it’s clear that these two worlds make up Paris, though some of them aren’t shown in travel brochures or Instagram.
As are these two characters, two people from seemingly contrasted worlds but who ultimately save each other from the resentments of feeling alone, untied and unwanted. And isn’t this the true beauty of Paris?
Evaluation: 3.5 / 5
Haute couture is now in cinemas