R | 1h 46m | Drama | 2026
Beginning around 2006, Angelina Jolie started augmenting her appearances in big budget mainstream fare with riskier, more challenging art-house projects. While the quality of these films was sometimes iffy, her performances were uniformly superb.
The most recent of these was as opera singer Maria Callas in “Maria” (2024). During this stretch, Jolie also directed six features, each eminently watchable.
In the new “Couture,” Jolie has turned in her finest work since “A Mighty Heart” (2007). It’s easily the movie that most closely mirrors events in her private life. If you’ve seen the trailer, you might conclude that Jolie’s character (Maxine Walker) is the sole lead; in reality, she is one of four co-leads.
Maxine is an American film director who cut her teeth helming horror B-movies. All of that grunt work has finally paid off. In less than a month, she’ll be making her first major studio production. Before that gets underway, Maxine has been hired to make a high-end promotional short film that will open the festivities at the annual Fashion Week in Paris.
The Big C
On the second day of shooting, Maxine receives a call from her stateside doctor. He instructs her to come home or immediately see a French doctor he recommends. Maxine has been diagnosed with breast cancer. The Paris doctor (Vincent Lindon) tells her she must start chemotherapy and forget about working in any capacity for the foreseeable future.
Dumbfounded and in a state of shock, Maxine calls on her assistant Anton (Louis Garrel) to finish the shoot (which he does), yet he detects something is amiss.
The sole performer in the promo film is Ada, who, like the woman playing her (Anyier Anei), is a Kenyan model. This is part of a show that has women from every conceivable ethnic background. It depicts Ada who actually wants to be a pharmacist and does the gig solely for digging her family out of a temporary financial ditch.
Ada is being tended to by make-up artist Angèle (Ella Rumpf) and dress designer Christine (Garance Marillier).
In somewhat the same boat as Maxine, Christine has been paying her dues by assembling others’ designs for years. Her creation for Ada promises to be the hit of the entire week. Of the four principal co-plots, Christine’s is the least explored or fleshed out.
Four Stories
In some ways, Angèle’s is the most interesting of the four stories. Camera-ready enough to be a model in her own right, Angèle’s reasons for her work is two-fold. She pulls in good bank with her day job; this in turn provides her ripe material as an upstart screenwriter commenting on the often-vicious fashion industry.
It isn’t clear if Jolie is appearing in the movie because of her own life experiences or if director Alice Winocour’s screenplay was written to specifically appeal to Jolie’s past.
Both Jolie’s mother Marcheline Bertrand and her French-Canadian grandmother Lois June Bertrand died of breast cancer.
In 2013, six years after her mother’s passing, Jolie underwent an elective preventative double mastectomy after learning she had an 87 percent chance of also developing breast cancer.
No Coincidences
The coincidences between real and pretend life here are impossible to ignore. It’s safe to think Jolie undertook this role as an homage to her mother and grandmother. It could also be a quasi-PSA to women the world over to become aware (if they weren’t already) of the benefits of preventative healthcare.
In the most effective of sub-sub-plots, Maxine’s most challenging conundrum isn’t the daunting treatment options and likely permanent interruption of her career. It’s how to break the news to her 15-year-old daughter Eden (Moira Hugues, voice only).
Already dealing with her parents’ less than amicable separation, Eden is also coming to terms with her mother’s absences. To Winocour’s immense credit, she doesn’t provide any easy answers.
There haven’t been many past recommendable movies based on the fashion industry. You’ve got “Funny Face” (1957), “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006), “The Dressmaker” (2015), “Nocturnal Animals” (2016), and “Phantom Thread” (2017). That’s about it.
In the long run, “Couture” isn’t even really about fashion, although the Paris fashion gristmill provides an appropriate and ironic backdrop.
This is a movie focused on a woman on the cusp of a huge professional breakthrough. She must deal with something far beyond her control that could easily take her life. The whole “fashion” and “art” aspects of the story are rightfully pushed aside to the back burner, as they should be.
The film is presented in English and subtitled French.
‘Couture’
Director: Alice Winocour
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Anyier Anei, Louis Garrel, Ella Rumpf
Running Time: 1 hour, 46 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: June 26, 2026
Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 5
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