Couture: A story inspired by Angelina Jolie's experience with breast cancer

International star Angelina Jolie returns to the big screen in French director Alice Winocour's film "Couture." Jolie plays a horror film director who is commissioned to create a special commission for a French fashion house during Paris Fashion Week. While immersed in this artistic experience, she is shocked to learn that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, forcing her to struggle between her professional responsibilities and her personal challenges.

A personal experience inspires the story.

The story is inspired by Jolie's real-life experience. In 2013, she announced she underwent a preventative double mastectomy after discovering she carried the BRCA1 gene, which increases her risk of developing cancer. Director Winokur wrote the character with Jolie in mind, emphasizing her desire to showcase her human fragility beneath the glitter of fame.

Touching scenes and human presence

The film includes shocking and moving scenes, most notably the scene where the doctor marks the surgical sites with red lines on the heroine's body. Jolie described the experience as both painful and comforting, as the crew surrounded her with a spirit of solidarity stemming from their shared struggle with the disease. She also wore a necklace belonging to her late mother to strengthen her emotional connection to her, and admitted to feeling nervous while acting in French, which she learned specifically for the role.

Three women and another face of the fashion world

The film presents three female characters who reflect different stages of a woman's life: Maxine (Angelina Jolie), Angel (Ella Rumpf), who seeks to transition from makeup to writing, and Ada (Anyier Anyi), a young model from South Sudan. The director sees these characters as representing aspects of one woman at different ages. One of the most notable aspects of the film is that it was shot inside the Parisian fashion house of Chanel, focusing on the people behind the scenes as the true heart of the fashion industry, far from the spotlight and superficiality.