cinema · GFF26 · Interviews

Couture Interview: Alice Winocour – ‘Angelina used to be a punk in her teenage years but she still is, I think’.

Difficult to define by genre, writer and director Alice Winocour is a self-proclaimed cinephile who wants to explore all types of films. Her latest drama is Couture, which marks her English-language debut and takes place during Paris Fashion Week. Angelina Jolie stars as artist and filmmaker Maxine Walker and the plot gives us a glimpse behind the glitz of the star-studded event as three women face very difficult challenges. After its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival earlier this year, I was lucky enough to sit down with the director to discuss the piece…

It’s noted that your work not only spans various genres but has taken place all over Europe. Your last two films, Couture included, have been set in Paris. What do you think has pulled you back to your home city to tell these stories?

Yeah, actually it’s a good question as to me, my work is so personal and intimate that it always has to be set in a very distant world. I prefer fiction to be far away from me…then I really enjoyed shooting in Paris for Revoir Paris, and it felt very fresh to me. I feel very European as a director, and I’m attracted by European countries in my identity.

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cinema

Film review: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

It’s been seven years since directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett brought Ready or Not to our screens. Since then, the pair have made a couple of slashers in the Scream series and now the dynamic horror duo is back with a sequel to their 2019 hit. Picking up immediately where the original left off, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come sees doomed bride Grace (Samara Weaving) admitted to hospital after playing a deadly round of hide and seek with her devil-worshipping in-laws. She reunites with estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) but soon realises that her nightmare isn’t over.

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cinema · GFF26

Film review: Couture

As well as being an actor, filmmaker, and humanitarian, Angelina Jolie is considered a style icon due to her headturning red carpet looks over the years. She heads to Paris Fashion Week for her latest leading role in French drama Couture, written and directed by Alice Winocour. The plot centres around Maxine (Jolie), an American horror director who lands the gig to make a short that will introduce the fashion show. During production she meets teenage model Ada (Anyier Anei), and make-up artist Angèle (Ella Rumpf), and the women’s emotional stories begin to intersect within the harsh underbelly of the event, behind the glitz and the glamour of the runway.

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cinema · GFF26

Film review: My Father’s Island

 Based on the autobiographically-inspired novella by David Vann, the latest feature from French writer and director Vladimir de Fontenay is My Father’s Island. Known by the book’s title Sukkwan Island in some countries, the psychological family drama centres around teenager Roy (Woody Norman) who lives with his mother Elizabeth (Tuppence Middleton) after her divorce. Seeking an opportunity to bond, his estranged father Tom (Swann Arlaud) suggests that they spend a year together at a lakeside cabin on a remote island in Norway. The pair’s trip begins as a wholesome soul-searching adventure, but soon becomes an intense fight for survival.

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cinema · GFF26

Film review: One Last Deal

The one-location chamber piece can be a difficult trick to pull off, even more so with just one actor appearing on-screen. This is the challenge presented in the latest feature by Irish director Brendan Muldowney who has garnered acclaim for his ambitious storytelling. Set entirely within a London office suite, psychological drama One Last Deal follows a day in the life of foul-mouthed football agent Jimmy Banks (Danny Dyer), charting his ecstatic highs and miserable lows as he tries to secure a lucrative contract for his top client whilst hoping to salvage his own somewhat disgraced reputation.

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cinema

Film review: 100 Nights of Hero

Maika Monroe cemented herself as the go-to indie ‘scream queen’ over a decade ago with her breakthrough in It Follows, and has furthered this reputation with more recent turns in Watcher and Longlegs. Whilst her leading role in Julia Jackman’s sophomore feature 100 Nights of Hero is a departure from the traditions of this genre, there’s something to be said about the horrors of female oppression in this folk fantasy fairytale.

 Based on Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel of the same name, it centres around noblewoman Cherry (Monroe) who is given 101 nights to conceive an heir. As her cowardly husband Jerome (Amir El-Masry) abruptly leaves, her friendship with devoted maid Hero (Emma Corrin) develops and hunky houseguest Manfred (Nicholas Galitzine) arrives at their castle.

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cinema

Film review: One Battle After Another

 The challenging postmodern material of author Thomas Pynchon was first brought to the big screen just over a decade ago when Paul Thomas Anderson adapted stoner-noir tale Inherent Vice, and the filmmaker has once again looked to the novelist for inspiration in his latest feature. Loosely based on his 1990 book Vineland, action thriller One Battle After Another shifts the story to the chaotic landscape of modern-day America.

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cinema · EIFF25

Film review: On the Sea

A decade has passed since award-winning novelist Helen Walsh turned her attention to filmmaking, and after a foray into television last year, she has returned to writing and directing for the big screen. Her latest piece is erotic drama On the Sea which unravels within a fishing village of the north coast of Wales. Mussel farmer Jack (Barry Ward) is content in his stable yet unfulfilling marriage to Maggie (Liz White) and hopes that their teenage son Tom (Henry Lawfull) will join him and younger brother Dyfan (Celyn Jones) in the family hand raking business. However, as troublesome Scottish deckhand Daniel (Lorne MacFadyen) arrives in the tight-knit community, Jack confronts long suppressed emotions and risks everything he has worked for as an unexpected romance develops.

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cinema · EIFF25

Film review: Crushed

No stranger to plying his trade within the circuit of genre festivals that showcase his low-budget efforts, indie writer and director Simon Rumley has taken his alternative sensibilities to Thailand for his next feature. Set in the leafy suburbs of Bangkok, religious thriller Crushed follows pastor Daniel (Steve Oram) who lives a quiet, comfortable life with his devoted wife May (May Nattaporn Rawddon) and Olivia (Margaux Dietrich), their 10-year-old daughter. However, following the mysterious disappearance of their cat Miss Kitty, Olivia is kidnapped and the family’s faith is tested when their distressing search exposes them to the depths of humanity.

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Berlin25 · cinema

Film review: Köln 75

 On 24th January 1975, American jazz musician Keith Jarrett performed to a sell-out crowd at Köln’s Opera House whilst playing a broken piano. The recording has since become the best-selling solo jazz album of all time, and the gig almost didn’t go ahead. Written and directed by Ido Fluk, period drama Köln 75 tells the amazing true story of how the evening came to be – the ‘scaffolding’ supporting the masterpiece as it is put in the film’s introduction.

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