Product Details

• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish
• Running time: 133 minutes

Amazon.com
Robert Altman's much-anticipated broadside at the world of fashion is a disappointment. The film's crazy-quilt Nashville-like narrative structure and ensemble casting (Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins, Lauren Bacall, Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren) are a thing to behold, but the story's many interlocking pieces lack overall depth and resonating emotion. There is a grand, satiric statement about fashion and society at the end of the film, and there are hints of an aging, nostalgic filmmaker's skepticism about our postmodern world of short-lived attachments and meanings. But watching this film is a long, long uphill climb, with a lot of thin air to endure before arriving at a destination. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker
Robert Altman turns his roving eye to the world of fashion. It should have been a perfect match of style and subject, but Altman seems to have decided in advance that the subject was barely worth his attention. Set amid the anarchy of Paris fashion week, the movie is so well oiled that it never snags on anything substantial, slipping from one micro-plot to the next without pausing to wonder where the center of interest lies. As in "Short Cuts," the cast is huge, but this ensemble is never put to the test. Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni are jokey and touching as long-parted paramours, but fine actors like Forest Whitaker and Lauren Bacall are wasted resources. A film that confines Tim Robbins and Julia Roberts to the bedroom is squandering its comic energies; when Roberts finally gets dressed, her smile-and her suit-remind you of what could have been. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

A wonderful evocation of Parisian fashionistas
This is one of my favourite films.

Many of the critics of this movie missed the point. This movie is not about plot or characters. Robert Altman does what movies are for; he takes us to another place.

What Altman does is give us a vivid impression of the incestuous whirl of the fashion world. His world is populated by both real designers (as ever spotting them is half the fun). and wonderful performances such as Richard E. Grant as a male Vivienne Westwood.

The movie also effectively transports us to Paris. And yes, Paris really is covered in "Dog Poop" (they were Paris jokes, not Poop jokes).

I think that many of the jokes about Paris, may have gone over the heads of US movie critics who have not set foot outside LA and New York.

One of the reviews of this movie described the fashion shows as "pointless". They were pointless in the same way a Monet is pointless; they were in the movie because they are beautiful.

To summarise, if you love Paris and you love fashion, you will love this. The closing credits of a montage of Issey Miyake and other fashion shows set to Grace Jones' "La Vie En Rose" is worth the price of admission alone.

Not Classic Altman But Far From Awful
Most critics harped on this movie's lack of "depth" when it originally came out. My question is, how would a comedy with "depth" about the fashion industry play? I'm sure it would be much more unwatchable than the witty display Altman puts on here. Yes, there's too many characters and yes, Altman glides over everything without much development but he directs with a sense a fun and keeps the whole thing smooth and amusing. He's much less judgmental about the fashion industry than a director in his seventies might be: in a movie fillled with star performers and designers, everyone is depicted and even photographed is a very democratic manner even if they're all made out to be slightly ridiculous. Only Sophia Loren is really given the "star" treatment in her appearances and even that is done mainly as parody (she begins the movie in a frumpy bathrobe and glasses-who else but Altman would have the nerve to commit such a breach? ) It's arguable that the movie is a little trite-but then so is the fashion industry. I think people were disappointed in this movie primarilybecause Altman didn't stage a fashion show, he only covers one. Altman does here what he's always done well: shown off the farcial elements of American social and political institutions. As for Leonard Maltin, I'm sure his mind is numb after a lifetime of overpraising movies much worse than this one.

neglected masterwork
Robert Altman's 'Pret a Porter' was slammed by critics on its theatrical release for its apparent sprawling, incoherent and superficial nature. But it's a film about the fashion industry. How could it be anything but superficial! Superficial it is, but it is also witty, intelligent, and ravishingly beautiful. And the integration of music with image is up there with the best -- wait for the end credits, as the final fashion parade takes place to Grace Jones's pulsating version of 'La vie en Rose'.

My DVD copy is Region Two, and benefits from anamorphic mastering. But whether anamorphic or not, this DVD demands to be seen. Altman's work ultimately and resoundingly answers his critics, who simply cannot understand the nuances of this great director's work.