The emperor . . .

Prêt-à-porter (Ready to wear)

(1995)

A movie I was ravenously eager to see, until it was released and the reviews appeared. It seems to have inspired belated appreciation since Altman's death, and I thought it was time to see whether it's really so terrible. Well, no, it's not terrible; it's just not very good. Altman's style is to walk a tightrope between creation and chaos, of course, so it's a miracle that he was ever able to pull it off. And there are moments of nasty brilliance here involving the conscienceless photographer played by Stephen Rea, but the marquee pairing of Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren is just painful to watch, and most of the other pairings are cliché catalogues. And what point is Altman trying to make about dog shit on the Paris sidewalks?