British films devoted to Franco-British relations are rare enough forA dress for Mrs. Harris, on the screens Wednesday November 2, is marked with a white stone. However, we would have preferred more invention in what turns out to be a comedy with a backward-looking tone, despite the presence of Isabelle Huppert and Lambert Wilson. Located in the middle of Haute-couture in Paris, the Dior house is in the spotlight.
In 1957 in London, Ada Harris, widow of a husband who died in combat during the Second World War, is a cleaning lady. When she comes across a Dior dress from one of her wealthy employers, she marvels at so much beauty. Accumulating her savings, a gambling win and a reminder of her late husband’s war pension, she decides to go to Paris to buy the dress of her dreams.
Strange movie that this Dress for Mrs. Harris which smells a little like mothballs and seems sponsored by a Franco-British diplomacy that is regularly undermined. But so far everything is fine, or almost, if it were not for the prejudices faced by this modest woman who wants to achieve a madness. Lesley Manville is perfect in the role of this dreamer who wants to shake up her life, but the film suffers from an agreed staging.
The scenario and its treatment are reminiscent of an animated film. A dress for Mrs. Harrisit’s a little Ratatouille in the world of haute couture. Like the raccoon in the big restaurant, Mrs. Harris is out of place. And as the rodent upset French gastronomy, it will be at the origin of a revolution at Dior. The characters are also archetypes, the eccentric old Englishwoman (Lesley Manville), the guardian harpy of the temple (Isabelle Huppert), the generous aristocrat (Lambert Wilson), the beautiful ingenue (Alba Baptista) promised to the kind, inventive underling ( Lucas Bravo)…
All this is a little warmed up, in a Paris of a postcard, all the same flayed by a garbage collectors’ strike which denounces the uncleanliness of the capital. The best comes from the evocation of the Dior house, its workers, the reconstruction of a 1957-58 fashion show, and the temporary difficulties it goes through. The old-fashioned tone could give it a certain charm, but we still feel the lack of enthusiasm of a commissioned film.
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Gender : Comedy
Director: Anthony Fabian
Actors: Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo, Ellen Thomas
Exit : November 2, 2022
Distributer : Universal Pictures International France
Summary: In post-war London, Ada Harris earns her living doing housework. If she leads a very solitary life since the death of her husband Eddie, missing in action. Ada is however not the style to complain, nor even dwell on her fate, and yet, she who thought her feet were firmly anchored in reality, is suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of dream and wonder. when she discovers a magnificent dress signed DIOR, nonchalantly hanging in the bedroom of one of her wealthy clients. She is then surprised to think that such a beautiful work of art, so pure, so ethereal can only change the life of whoever owns it.