Haute couture | Especially for “little hands” ★★★





Feeling remorseful, a 20-year-old girl returns the bag she stole from her on the metro to the Dior workshop director. Seduced by this audacity and convinced of her talent, the experienced seamstress, who took part in one last collection before retiring, invited the stranger to her studio as an apprentice.

Posted at 12:30 p.m.

Marc-Andre Lussier

Marc-Andre Lussier
The Press

The part of the story taking place inside the workshop of a big house like Dior is by far the most interesting part of this film. We are indeed offered here a privileged entry into a world where those who are called “little hands” perform work of great precision and great beauty. With discretion, and often with devotion, these seamstresses thus put their expertise at the service of the dream by making the outfits that the greatest designers design.

This aspect is also very well rendered in this second feature film by Sylvie Ohayon (Papa Was a Rolling Stone). On the other hand, the script is sometimes clumsy and the plot, excuse the inevitable formula, sewn with white thread. It’s a great story, though. Nathalie Baye, always impeccable, indeed slips into the skin of a woman with a dry heart, who perhaps finally sees in a young girl, in whom she no doubt recognizes a little part of herself, the hope of being able to transmit his art, if only for the beauty of the gesture. Lyna Khoudri, revealed in The blessed (Sofia Djama) and papicha (Mounia Meddour), also offers an excellent performance.

To be able to open up a little to this idea, the two women, from two different social classes, will obviously have to take the time it takes to get used to each other. The more mature will have to learn to open her padlocked heart double-locked; the youngest will have to learn the rules of a rigorous world, as well as the jealousies that she provokes in spite of herself within the team.

This schematization also sometimes becomes a little coarse. And not up to the finesse required to practice the profession to which we pay tribute here. We nevertheless retain Haute couture this visit to the workshop of a prestigious house, depicted very credibly.

Indoors

Haute couture

Drama

Haute couture

Sylvie Ohayon

With Nathalie Baye, Lyna Khoudri, Pascale Arbillot

1:30 a.m.


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