Plot
A fashion show in Paris draws the usual bunch of people; designers, reporters, models, magazine editors...

Release Year: 1994

Rating: 4.9/10 (9,003 voted)

Director: Robert Altman

Stars: Sophia Loren, Julia Roberts, Marcello Mastroianni

Storyline
A fashion show in Paris draws the usual bunch of people; designers, reporters, models, magazine editors, photographers. Lots of unconnected stories which all revolve around this show, and an all-star cast.

Writers: Robert Altman, Barbara Shulgasser

Cast:
Sophia Loren - Isabella de la Fontaine
Marcello Mastroianni - Sergei / Sergio
Jean-Pierre Cassel - Olivier de la Fontaine
Kim Basinger - Kitty Potter
Chiara Mastroianni - Sophie Choiset
Stephen Rea - Milo O'Brannigan
Anouk Aimée - Simone Lowenthal (as Anouk Aimee)
Rupert Everett - Jack Lowenthal
Rossy de Palma - Pilar (as Rossy De Palma)
Tara Leon - Kiki Simpson
Georgianna Robertson - Dane Simpson
Lili Taylor - Fiona Ulrich
Ute Lemper - Albertine
Forest Whitaker - Cy Bianco
Tom Novembre - Reggie

Taglines: The year's most seductive comedy!

Release Date: 25 December 1994

Filming Locations: Moscow, Russia

Gross: $5,860,483 (USA)

Runtime: 133 min

Trivia:
Fourteenth of fourteen pairings of Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren.

Goofs:
Continuity: In the hotel room, Anne Eisenhower lifts a glass of wine from Joe Flynn's dining cart with her left hand and takes a drink. Joe makes a comment and it can be seen that Anne's left arm is up to her face (she is visible from the chest down), but when we cut back to Anne the glass is in her right hand as she puts it down.

Quotes:
[first lines]
[subtitled version - opening lines are in French, the English subtitles are a very rough translation]
Olivier de la Fontaine: [opening letter] Moscow? What's this about? Put that on the desk. Dear Mr. de la Fontaine: blah, blah, blah, blah... blah, blah, blah, blah...
Isabella de la Fontaine: [to dog] Robin. Robin. I told you not to! It's dirty. You shouldn't do that. Not in the house.
[to Olivier de la Fontaine]
Isabella de la Fontaine: You're a shit.

Unfairly Maligned. Far better than people give it credit for

Rating: 7/10

And that's not saying that it's great either. It is not. But it's tremendously low imdb rating makes me wonder who the heck is voting here. Pret-a-Porter is a pretty good Robert Altman film that is no better or worse than Short Cuts, which, while I feel it is a good film, I also think it is overrated. This one is, however, heavily underrated, and they both got the same imdb score from me: 7/10 = 3/4 stars.

This is another attempt to make another Nashville. There's a humongous ensemble cast of actors, some of the best on the planet, a couple of the best who ever lived. The screenwriter doesn't connect it all very well, and lots of the characters seem superfluous or underdeveloped, unlike in Nashville where even the characters who are only in a couple of scenes are as familiar to the viewer as a close friend. I would particularly have liked the Danny Aiello/Teri Garr section to have been removed. It falls pretty flat. The Sophia Loren/Marcello Mastrioanni section, the section that most film buffs are going to be excited for, also plops by its end. And Kim Basinger, a good actress, truly deserving her L.A. Confidential Oscar, is not very good as the Southern U.S. reporter: her accent is difficult to get around, and her character is often annoying, too. Sometimes, though, her pieces succeed.

Many other of the vignettes succeed quite well, although there are never any fireworks about to shoot off. The Tim Robbins/Julia Roberts plot is very funny. The three publishers, Sally Kellerman, Tracy Ullman, and Linda Hunt's attempts to sign photographer Milo (Stephen Rea) to their magazine are all very humorous. The love quadrangle between the two designers, Forest Whitaker and Richard E. Grant, and their lovers is very good, also. Anouk Aimee's section is also great, maybe the best part (Rupet Everett is good, also). I loved her so much in La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2. I was aching for her and Marcello Mastrioanni to interact.

The ending is truly fantastic. It is very well directed and filmed. It's a good film.

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