Synopsis
Haute Couture (2021) is a French drama from director Sylvie Ohayon you can watch online on iFILM. Esther has spent her whole life sewing in the Dior workshop on Avenue Montaigne, and now, as head seamstress, she is nearing retirement at the peak of her craft.
A chance moment in the metro turns everything: a twenty-year-old from the Paris suburbs, Jade, snatches Esther's handbag. Instead of calling the police, the old seamstress makes an odd choice and brings the thief into the atelier. Nathalie Baye plays a woman with nothing to leave behind but her hands and her skill; Lyna Khoudri plays the prickly girl for whom beadwork, silk and a thousand-stitch seam become an unexpected way out. A tense teacher-and-pupil bond grows between them. The camera lingers in the workroom, where couture gowns are built by hand, needle by needle, far from any runway shine.
Ohayon keeps the story quiet, about passing down a craft and about two versions of Paris meeting — the old artisan trade and today's outer estates. It rides on the two actresses and on a real love of the work itself, with no loud twists. Anyone drawn to small, human films about craft and mentorship will take to it. Stream Haute Couture (2021) online on iFILM.
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