 Prêt À Porter Movie Review
How do you start a movie about fashion? With intrigue that's how. You
think you're in a big store in New York, but you step outside to Moscow's
Red Square - then you spin around and you don't know where you'll end up.
See? That's nothing like what you were expecting is it? If it wasn't for all the
Christian Dior logos in the first shot I
wouldn't have known I was watching the right movie. I could tell you more
but I might spoil it. What it really is,
is a fake murder mystery movie. It has it all, bed hopping, jealousy,
even nudity. You do get to see some catwalk shows, most of them shot in
the Carrousel du Louvre, the new fashion centre below the Tuileries gardens.
There are lots of little plots. When you first sit down to watch this
movie, it all seems a little confusing because there are so many
characters that you're trying to keep tabs on. But, after about
twenty minutes you get comfortable and it all unfolds. This movie runs
for nearly 2 1/2 hours but, it's not long.
I had myself an enjoyable evening. This film doesn't make you laugh out
loud but, it does make you chuckle to yourself. One of the recurring
themes in the movie is that in every room you go to there's a television
on in the background, a good way to keep track on what's happening on the
runways and on the murder investigation.
THE CAST
Kim Basinger - Plays a bimbette reporter, who needs prompting from her
entourage, and throws the word fashion around. She's the most annoying
character, who would be lost without her cue cards. (Brian Leitch was
hired to write dialogue for Kim's video sequences.)
Sophia Loren - A widow, looking as beautiful as ever. All her
dresses were from Christian Dior. She has a dog
that poops everywhere, but then there are a lot of dogs in Paris that
poop everywhere... Everyone steps in it. Milo, a mild-mannered
photographer, tracks it down a corridor.
Marcello Mastroianni - Italian tailor from Italy.
Lyle Lovett- Texan cowboy boot manufacturer.
German jazz singer,Ute Lemper - Heavily pregnant model.
Julia Roberts - A wine-loving reporter from Houston Chronicle who
loses her luggage and has to stay in her hotel room.
Tim Robbins - Sportswriter, Washington Post. Who also loses his
luggage and stays his room.
Anouk Aimee, Forest Whitaker, Richard Grant - All play fictional
designers (although it's said that Anouk's part is largely based on Sonia
Rykiel). Richard was dressed by Nino Cerruti. (Sometimes he was better
dressed than the models.)
Elsa Klensch - Plays herself. Elsa (of CNN's "Style" program)
disagreed
with the lines Brian Leitch had written for her and made up her own lines.
Linda Hunt, Tracey Ullman, Sally Kellerman - Fictional fashion
editors, who will do anything to get Milo a contract with their magazine.
Lauren Bacall- A colour-blind fashion ambassador, who traipses
through the movie wearing one beige shoe and one white shoe.
Robert De Niro, originally agreed to be one of the designers, but dates
clashed with Martin Scorses's filming schedule.
Karl Lagerfeld refused Altman permission to film his show saying "I'm
afraid he'll make fashion look like a nightmarish cartoon." Come 0n, Karl
get a sense of humour. I don't think it was that bad. And anyone who
takes this film seriously has got the wrong end of the stick.
It seems like just about everyone contributed to this film. Yves Saint
Laurent, Vivienne Westwood, Xuly Bet provided clothes. I did spot one of
Vivienne's creations from her fall collection - a tablecloth check jacket. I
don't know
why, but conspicuous by his absence was Todd Oldham. Maybe he's making his
own movie like somebody else who wasn't in Pret a Porter.
Those of the cast who aren't playing themselves I wondered, are their
characters based on real-life people? It was fun trying to figure it out.
I originally heard rumblings about this film early in '94. Reports were pretty
vague and nobody seemed to know
much about it - then finally I read about it in W's April issue. And I've
been waiting ever since. I called a friend in England, who manages a
cinema, he couldn't tell me anything and said they probably wouldn't see it
in the UK for another year.
Robert Altman got the idea for this movie 10 years ago when he was invited
to a fashion
show by Sonia Rykiel. It was hard to get backers for this $20 million
fashion story, because he didn't really have a story. He invited real-life
fashion designers, models, and editors to be themselves in his
project. No speaking parts were written for them, they were told to just
be themselves. Thierry Mugler, (presumably being himself as per
instructions),
when asked by Kitty Potter, says one of the
reasons he likes being at the shows was "to get a good fuck now and then".
In conclusion, I thought this movie was a lot of fun. I went not knowing
what to expect so I didn't set myself up, and wasn't disappointed. I'd
give it a rating of 4 out of 5.
If you'd like to know more about the release of the movie, look at
the material included in the January 7th
FTV Review.
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