Forget Angelina Jolie. At least for the 103-minute runtime of Alice Winocour’s new film, Coutures. Despite the role’s stark parallels to the superstar’s own life, the character on screen is Maxine Walker, an American horror film director navigating a personal crisis at the height of Paris Fashion Week.
A Fateful Diagnosis in the World of Fashion
Maxine arrives in Paris for a lucrative gig: directing a lavish vampire short film to open a major fashion house’s show. The professional opportunity, however, is shattered when she receives the results of a medical exam. She has breast cancer, with new scans revealing several anomalies. Time is suddenly precious. After completing her work, she must immediately prepare for surgery.
Inspired in part by director Winocour’s personal story and infused with echoes of Jolie’s own preventive health journey, Coutures traces the fraught days between diagnosis, acceptance, and the decision to go to war against the disease.
A Flawed Yet Moving Tapestry
The film is a nuanced, if imperfect, portrait. It weaves together the stories of three women at life-altering moments—Maxine, a makeup artist (Ella Rumpf), and a model (Anyier Anei)—though at times their parallel narratives feel heavy-handed. Despite this, the drama delivers sequences of raw power and emotion, including a poignant waiting-room scene featuring Aurore Clément.
Among the standout moments is the fashion show itself, which descends into chaos, and a nocturnal visit to a Darty electronics store—a scene whose filming sparked widespread media speculation. In the film, this errand is profoundly symbolic. Accompanied by her lover (Louis Garrel), Maxine purchases an electric hair clipper on the advice of her surgeon (Vincent Lindon), a pragmatic tool for the physical battle ahead.
Taking Up Arms
The Darty trip leads to a significant intimate scene between Maxine and Anton. For Jolie, it marks a rare on-screen sex scene in her career, one she describes in production notes as conveying a message about “desire and sexuality after a diagnosis”—a moment containing both hope and comfort.
The film’s defining act of resolve comes quietly. In the dead of night, Maxine moves to the bathroom, plugs in the clipper, and turns it on. The hum of the machine is not a sound of defeat, but of mobilization. In that moment, Maxine Walker takes up her arms, ready to fight.
