Ready to Wear — ***1/2 (of 4)

Robert Altman’s latest film has taken its share of hard knocks. Originally

titled Pret A Porter, the title was translated into English

for American release because audience testing determined that most people

don’t know what the French phrase means. After its release, it was welcomed

with mostly mediocre reviews.

But the major complaint in these reviews seems to be that Ready to

Wear isn’t as good as Short Cuts, and it definitely isn’t. But

Robert Altman made Short Cuts on the basis of some very fine

Raymond Carver short stories, so he had much richer soil to till. Taken on

its own, Ready to Wear is a hilarious look at the annual Paris

fashion festival.

As in most Altman films, subplots and cameo appearances run amok. A

mysterious Russian (Marcello Mastroianni) resurfaces in the life of a

wealthy Paris fashion maven (Sophia Loren). A highly-sought-after fashion

photographer (Stephen Rhea) takes compromising photos of major fashion

magazine editors (Tracey Ullman, Linda Hunt and Sally Kellerman). A sports

reporter (Tim Robbins) and an American fashion reporter (Julia Roberts)

spark an odd romance when they are forced to share a room.

All these elements fly willy-nilly back and forth amidst backstage

hem-repair and runway posing. It all seems manically superficial until a

lesser subplot involving a Texas boot designer (Lyle Lovett) blossoms into

a major power play. This leads to the film’s truly inspired grand

finale.

Standout performances are given by Lauren Bacall, Forrest Whitaker and a

multitude of real-life models and designers. Of course, the models and

designers play themselves and are constantly performing, anyway. So it

would seem to come naturally.

Some of these subplots (and there really is no main one) don’t amount to

anything in the end, but the questions raised don’t seem very important to

Altman. One running gag about people stepping in dog droppings seems to

ring with metaphorical possibilities, but Altman leaves it to the audience

to ponder.