Angelina Jolie and Louis Garrel star in the new film about Paris Fashion Week

It’s probably the most unexpected—and irresistible—couple you didn’t know you needed. Angelina Jolie and Louis Garrel lead the cast of Couture, Alice Winocour’s new feature film, which will have its world premiere on September 7 at the Toronto International Film Festival, marking one of the most anticipated moments of the film season.

Following the success of Proxima (2019) with Eva Green and Re-Embrace Paris (2022) with Virginie Efira, Winocour returns with a story that delves behind the scenes of Paris Fashion Week, a stage where glamour and vulnerability collide on the most demanding runway: life itself.

In Couture, Jolie plays Maxine, a creative director who, in the midst of the Parisian event, discovers she has breast cancer. From that moment on, Winocour’s camera paints an intimate and devastating portrait of the fashion world, addressing the disease without sentimentality, but with a deep emotional charge. A role that resonates personally with Jolie, who underwent a preventive mastectomy after learning she was a carrier of the BRCA1 gene, linked to a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

The cast is rounded out by Anyier Anei as Ada, a model facing the vertigo of success and self-importance, and Ella Rumpf as Angèle, a makeup artist whose apparent lightness hides deep wounds. The synergy between these three female characters defines the emotional core of the film.

At her side, Louis Garrel plays a longtime collaborator of Maxine’s, providing a counterpoint of stability and complicity. Garrel, with a career that has already flirted with fashion—such as his memorable portrayal of Jacques de Bascher in Saint Laurent (2014)—here reaffirms his connection with haute couture, recently cementing his position as the masculine face of Dior and a recurring figure on the house’s front rows.

Winocour, also responsible for the script, once again demonstrates the sensitivity that established her in 2015 with Mustang, a film that earned her the César for Best Original Screenplay. With Couture, the director promises a work that, beyond Parisian luxury, explores fragility and resilience in a context where perfection is the law, but humanity is inescapable.

The Toronto Film Festival will undoubtedly be the first thermometer for a film destined to spark conversation: about fashion, about cinema, and, above all, about life behind the glitter.

Demna’s last act: Balenciaga Haute Couture.