Prêt-à-Porter

Plot synopsis:
Paris, Fashion Week 1994: all kind of models, designers, reporters, fashion editors... join together to present next year's trends. Kitty Potter (Kim Basinger) is a reporter in search of big news.Sergio (Marcello Mastroianni) sends an identical Christian Dior tie to the president of the French Association of Fashion, Olivier de la Fontaine (Jean-Pierre Cassel) and meets with him in high secrecy. He disregards his wife Isabella de la Fontaine (Sophia Loren), who is mad at him and tries to avoid Kitty in the airport, but she sees him so he has to give the interview. They have a sandwich and then Sergio and Olivier leave the airport. Sergio doesn't realise that he is carrying Joe Flynn's (Tim Robbins) suitcase. Scruffy American journalist Anne Eisenhower (Julia Roberts) has lost Joe Flynn's suitcase. Flynn is not there yet, and she can't understand or speak any French, so she takes Sergio's luggage by mistake.While they are together in a limo, the president dies while they are stuck in a traffic jam and Sergio runs away. When the chauffeur realises that his passenger is dead, he cries for help, and Sergio jumps from a bridge so that a police officer doesn't catch him.Eccentric fashion designer Cy Bianco (Forest Whitaker) is always changing his mind. Her favourite model Sophie Choiset (Chiara Mastroianni) is heavily pregnant, so she can't walk the runway. Eccentric photographer Milo O'Brannigan (Stephen Rea) is a lazy, I-can't-be-bothered rock-'n'-roller who takes a photo of all the designers together, including Sonya Rykel (herself), and Jean-Paul Gualtier (himself).Isabella goes to the Richard Lacroix fashion show as if nothing had happened. After the show, where Christy Turlington (herself), Tatjana Patitz (herself), Naomi Campbell (herself), Helena Christensen (herself) and other models strut their stuff, Kitty will interview Gianfranco Ferré (himself), at the time head designer for haute couture house Christian Dior (himself).Anne tries to contact people in the world of fashion without much success. As she and Joe share a luxurious hotel room, and she can't stand drinking, they end up making love. The next morning, she gets angry because he jumped to the occasion, leaving it as a one-night stand when she mentions it.Watching the televised Issey Miyake show, Sergio sees Joe wearing his jacket. Kitty interviews Miyake (himself) as well. Inspector Tantpis (Jean Rochefort) and Inspector Forget (Michel Blanc) say that it's going to be easy to find who killed Olivier, as everybody hated him.Sergio moves from one fashion show to the other. He is always among the crowd, always in search of Isabella. When he finally approaches her, Isabella faints, with Kitty crying, "She's not dead! She's not dead!" again and again.Elle editor-in-chief Fiona Ulrich (Lili Taylor) wants to sign Milo. He asks her to go to her knees and bend. When she complies, he photographs her, so she dismisses him while calling him names. He laughs all the way. Later, as a freelance photographer, Milo makes an editorial advertisement for LO footwear, with Linda Evangelista (herself), Carla Bruni (herself), Kristen Fick (herself), Adriana Karembeu (herself), and Greta Cavazzoni (herself). Milo will do the same trick, this time photographing Simone Lowenthal (Anouk Aimée), who offered him sex and also wants him to sign for an important position.Sergio aka Sergei, finally talks to a dinner party where Kitty interviews Cher (herself). Sergei and Kitty were lovers when they were younger, but as they belonged to a Communist party, he left after their wedding night. He is saying that he still loves her, when they are interrupted by somebody offering her sympathies as a recently widow. They will meet the following day at 16:00 at Le Pensevr's statue.Although he is married, Cy has a gay lover, Clint Lammeraux (Lyle Lovett), and they share a joint outside at night.At the hotel, Sergio gets Joe Flynn's copy key, posing as Flynn. Cy does his fashion show on an underground train. Two models fight. Pilar (Rossy de Palma) works for Simone (Anouk Aimée), who has problems with Jack Lowenthal (Rupert Everett) because they and the company are bankrupt. Cy and his lover meet their partners, who are also cheating on one another. While they are about to fight, Kitty appears and interviews them.Isabella and Sergio go to bed, but after her striptease, he falls sleep, so she leaves in frustration. Simone makes the last preparations for her fashion show, wherein the models, including Yvette Horner (herself) wear cowboy boots and nothing else. The inspectors say that Olivier died because of the ham sandwich he ate, which got stuck in his esophagus, so he choked to death. Anne and Joe say goodbye, both better dressed this time. Simone for LO presents a catwalk of nude models to the music of The Cranberries' Pretty. First confused and then fed up, Kitty leaves, giving her microphone to Sophie, who gladly takes the position in front of the camera.At Olivier's funeral, we see some naked children playing, following the new fashion of Simone, the trend of appreciating the human body and showing it without ornaments. Sergio has fallen asleep again, so he's not in time to talk to Isabella, who dresses in black.The film ends with images of several catwalks.---Summary written by KrystelClare

Tags: satire

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