Alice Winocour's 'Couture' Starring Angelina Jolie Heads to EFM (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/I09OBLzgMC

— Variety (@Variety) February 10, 2025

French filmmaker Alice Winocour’s fashion drama, “Couture,” starring Angelina Jolie is heading to EFM.

The movie, originally titled “Stitches,” recently wrapped production in Paris.

“In the frenzy of Fashion Week, three women cross paths in Paris, grappling with the world’s tragedies and the questions of their lives: American film director Maxine Walker (Jolie), South Sudanese model Ada (model Anyier Anei in her feature film debut) and French makeup artist Angèle (Ella Rumpf), working in the shadows of the catwalks,” reads an official synopsis of the project. “In the form of intertwining destinies, ‘Couture’ examines the souls and wounds of women’s bodies.”

UTA Independent Film Group, who helped raise the financing for the film and is handling global and North American rights, with HanWay Films representing international rights, will introduce the package at EFM. Pathé, which previously collaborated with Winocour on her Cannes Directors’ Fortnight premiere “Revoir Paris,” is handling distribution in France.

The creative team includes cinematographer Andre Chemetoff, multi-César nominated costume designer Pascaline Chavanne and production designer Florian Sanson.

The film is produced by Jolie, Charles Gillibert (“Bergman Island”) of CG Cinéma alongside Zhang Xin (“History of Sound”) and William Horberg (“Milk”) of Closer Media. Bob Xu is serving as an executive producer.

“Couture” is co-produced with France 3 Cinéma and has received funding from La Région Île-de-France, Canal+, Ciné+ OCS, France Télévisions and Chanel.

Winocour is represented by UTA and UBBA.

Jolie is represented by WME and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.

Angelina has wrapped her part but I don't know if the film has wrapped. The summary mentions two other women whose lives will be explored in the film.

Filming has wrapped on Alice Winocour’s 'STITCHES', starring Angelina Jolie.

The film, set in the world of high fashion following filmmaker Maxine whose life collides with two other women in Paris, is eyeing a Cannes Film Festival premiere. pic.twitter.com/niYlPNcRSe

— Feature First 🍿🎬 (@Feature_First) January 6, 2025

"Really, I think 'Maria' was the beginning of starting to come alive again."

For VF, Oscar winner Angelina Jolie discusses her new film, its connection to 'Girl, Interrupted,' and finding herself as an artist again. https://t.co/IzK1hGeP52

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) December 19, 2024

Stepping Out of the Dark and “Starting to Come Alive Again”

The Academy Award winner digs deep on her Oscar contender Maria, its connection to her breakout in Girl, Interrupted, and finding herself as an artist again: “Some therapist should study these things and tell me what they mean.”

By David Canfield

These days, Angelina Jolie is embracing uncharted territory. She’s coming off her turn as opera icon Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s stylish biopic, for which she spent months in intensive singing lessons. Having been running around Los Angeles of late, getting the word out for the film — she was nominated for both a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice Award last week — she’s now already at work on her next film. She logs on to Zoom from Paris while on a break from production for Stitches, an independent drama written and directed by Alice Winocour. In this one, Jolie plays an American filmmaker, which may sound like relatively familiar territory. But again, she’s been tasked to do something she’s never done before: perform a role mostly in French.

“I’m not fluent—I speak a bit, but…to mean every word and give a performance takes a different kind of understanding about what it is I’m saying, to be emotional and not think about the language,” she says. “It’s a different challenge.”

Until Maria, Jolie had not shot an independent film since well before the pandemic. So it’s a surprise to see her go right back into another auteur-driven, dramatically complex film; it’s been well over a decade since she’s worked with that intensity and rigor as an actor. Jolie recognizes this—over the past year, she’s felt different, reenergized, willing and eager to once more take on the kinds of artistic risks that first defined her rise as a performer, in movies like Gia and Girl, Interrupted.

It’s been almost exactly 25 years since the debut of that latter film, which won Jolie an Oscar and set her on the path of superstardom, something accompanied by what she calls her tendency to pull back from the industry’s—and the public’s—prying gaze. Maria follows Callas in the final, lonely days of her life, and in that melancholy frame, it gave Jolie the space to deliver a profoundly vulnerable performance. The role required her to look inward as few jobs of late have, and she’s still working her way through how the experience has impacted her—and what she wants to say about it. But she feels ready to forge ahead, and perhaps also consider why it’s taken her a few years “to come alive again.”

Angelina Jolie: I wasn’t myself for a while, so I wasn’t able to give as much to my work for a few years. To feel like I could work again and communicate and to be with nice people—so much of what I do is collaboration with other artists. When it goes well, you’re creating together. When you’re with nice people and creative people, you learn so much about yourself and about life. You’re in a safe place to play and stretch. I had that with Pablo, and I don’t think it’s an accident that I found another situation [in Stitches] that is very similar with very well-intended, thoughtful people. I was just talking to Louis Garrel, the wonderful French actor, about our scenes and our work. I talked to Alice this morning about life and women’s health, which is a bit of the film. Great art, as an audience or as a participant, can really be very healing and grow us. That’s what we’re all alive for—to discover and feel and create and connect. Without that, we’re just existing, hardly.

It’s been a big part of your life for such a long time. I would imagine it felt quite meaningful to feel that again.

It really does. Probably more than I can even express. If no one receives your piece, or if you don’t connect, then it’s like shouting in the dark. It means a lot that people have responded to Maria. I’ve always felt, ever since I was very young, that film has been a way to communicate with the world and not feel as alone.

We’re all going through this human condition and this life. So it’s very, very healing to be able to be a part of these films and to talk to you about this and to live that way. And I missed it. I realized I did really miss it. I missed being an artist.

When you say you missed it, what did that period look like, where you weren’t feeling that as much?

I went very dark for reasons I’d rather not explain, but I didn’t have a lot of light and life within me. Your light’s dim. I also just needed to be home more, so I couldn’t commit large periods of time to pieces. The choice of what to work on and when was not a creative choice, often, the last few years, but sometimes the practical choice. Really, I think Maria was the beginning of starting to come alive again. I needed a lot of kind people around me to hold my hand.

The emphasis on nice people—

I know I say it too often, but our business can be a lot of things. At the end of the day, we’re very fortunate to do what we do, and we are spending a lot of time with big, deep, emotional feelings. If you don’t do that with people who you’re safe with, it can affect you in very bad ways.

It sounds like something you’ve learned over time.

Oh, sure. We’ve all been with terrible people in our life, where it’s hard to do your work because you feel emotionally vulnerable and then you feel like it’s being used in the wrong way. With a lot of artists, we’re kind of raw. It’s why we sometimes seem a little crazy. Part of what we do is not to be settled. It’s to feel deeply and explore and go to strange places in our mind and our body. If you’re free to do that, these wonderful things can happen. And then sometimes you can be a very vulnerable person in a world that’s a bit dark—and we can break.

Maria is very vulnerable, obviously. What did that experience, on a practical level, feel like to go through on set from day to day?

It was heavy. Maria was a very full experience. I wasn’t able to leave her on set like you sometimes do. Part of that was because I was always doing training after [shooting] anyway; there was always a next aria. But it was all leading towards the death, and the death was the last thing we shot. I’m almost 50, and my mom had cancer when she was 48. You’re actually thinking about death, about things that cause you grief or that you have lost in your life.

I imagine you and maybe a lot of people you know have had moments where you feel so full of grief, but you’re alone. I’ve certainly had those moments of grief alone. To also share them now with not just the set but the world, and to meet other people and recognize that we both have that level of pain, can feel very cathartic—to express heavy things together. She was also funny, but the heavy side, she was…yeah. [Laughs] I think it made me want to try to live more fully. Anytime you do anything about death, you think often about life, naturally.

There’s a nice shape to this moment, given that it’s been 25 years since Girl, Interrupted came out, for which you won an Oscar. You played Lisa, a diagnosed sociopath in psychiatric care—another very heavy character. How do you compare where you are as an actor and an artist to back then?

I haven’t really figured out how I feel about it, but there’s something beautiful or comforting in that there’s something not dissimilar about these women and the person I was 25 years ago. Maybe I’ve come around to her in a different way. Maybe I haven’t lost her as much as I thought I did. Hopefully I’m better in ways: I’m a parent and I’m many other things.

Maybe I’m still trying to connect and maybe I’m still feeling deeply. I don’t know. I’m sure a therapist would have a field day with this one. You’re asking me, and I’m like, my God, some therapist should study these things and tell me what they mean.

Do you remember what it felt like to play Lisa at the time?

I do, which is interesting because I don’t have a lot of memory of my life. I remember that I didn’t think of her as crazy and that she was a real person. She needed to be loved, and she felt alone, and she wanted truth. I only saw it once—it’s hard for me to talk about it because I saw it once 25 years ago—but from my memory, she wanted someone to be honest with her and to connect, and somehow ended up feeling very, very alone in that way—not dissimilar to Maria. Not finding somebody who understood her enough, not finding a way forward where she was okay. Is this a theme? That I’m alone? What is this? [Laughs] There’s probably some very tragic thing that I don’t want to address right now, but—yeah.

Yeah, I understand. Looking back at coverage of the film, Lisa was often talked about as crazy and without the kind of nuance that you’re talking about now. Do you remember encountering that?

I do remember hearing people saying that. Even if they thought they were complimenting me playing Lisa, they were complimenting me playing a crazy person. That did make me sad because I didn’t think of her that way, and I didn’t like hearing I was referred to that way. But it was also a time where I was still trying to understand myself, and maybe there was something about me that I was not understanding—about what people consider crazy. I mean, that’s the honest truth. The honest truth was during that time when you’re trying to figure yourself out and you’re young and you’re a bit wild and strong and curious and emotional—and people say, “No, that’s crazy. She’s crazy. You’re crazy.” It probably just isolated me more and made me think I must be different. Maybe I’m dark, or maybe I’m off, or maybe I’m not what people want me to be either.

Has it felt different with Maria? Just anecdotally, I’ve heard people expressing a lot more affection for her.

I don’t read things, but I have talked to people after screenings who’ve been really kind. But then I’ll also hear people refer to her as a little crazy. People can still watch her and miss the fact that she was this little girl that wasn’t loved.

Which is the text of the film.

Which is so much the text of the film, right. There’s nothing she does that hurts anybody or is against anybody. Somehow she’s seen as something’s wrong with her, something about her rubs people the wrong way. But yes, I think there’s a lot of love for her, and nothing makes me happier than that. If she was a diva at all, for her, it was [because] she was very tough on herself and very tough on anything having to do with her work because she was a perfectionist. She was also somebody who felt that she was perfect or she was nothing—because that’s what her mother told her. She was definitely harder on herself than anybody else could be.

Not to get too psychological, but how do you relate to that idea of perfection at all costs?

By the way, you’d be a very good therapist.

I considered it, I’ll say that. But I am genuinely curious how you connected to that part of her.

I think that’s why it took me a few days to say yes, because I knew that I was walking into the impossible. You can’t be as good as her—certainly can never be as good as her onstage, can never sing as good as her, and can only pray to not disappoint those who love her work. I was scared. I was scared to really fail this one.

Can you take me back to the moment that you took Maria to Venice and how you were feeling that day, both before the screening and after you felt the reaction in the room?

It was a funny thing bringing her to Venice because she was in Venice—we even say it in the film; Onassis talks about seeing her in the Venice Film Festival. I was trying to figure out what to wear, and there were pictures of her in Venice wearing little fur; that’s why I wore a little fake fur. It was strange. And I sing in Italian and I’m in Italy; how’s that going to go? These are people that really know these arias, and this is an art form that is very respected and understood here. I was very excited for those reasons to bring it to Venice and very nervous. When it was received well, when you felt the room appreciated it, it was a huge relief. Then when you’re with people you love, you look around at the faces of the artists that you worked with, and it’s a beautiful moment.

As you’re feeling reenergized creatively, are there filmmakers you have your eye on whom you’d like to work with, or types of work you’d like to do going forward?

What do you think I should do?

Well, as you mentioned, you get to be selectively very funny in Maria. I would love to see you get to do more comedy.

Thank you. I just wrote to a friend of mine today, Eunice, who’s in Liverpool, and she said, “Why aren’t you doing—you should do something funny.” I wrote back and I said, “I’d like to find something funny,” but I’m not sure. I’m never sure how funny I am. I would love to do something fun and light. I think I’d have to be the straight man. I feel like that’s what I am. I get that. In Maleficent, it was like, Okay, I’ll be the straight person.

There are so many wonderful directors I’d love to have a chance to work with. I’d like to just be allowed to play in this arena. I’d love for people to reach out and be willing to invite me to play with them and create with them. So we’ll see. Yeah, comedy, maybe.

Let’s put it into the universe.

If I do it, it’s on you.



This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Angelina Jolie photographed by Samir Hussein for Vanity Fair pic.twitter.com/ek3BF80pO5

— Filmfect (@Filmfect) December 19, 2024

My kids saw my pain on set, says Angelina Jolie https://t.co/vvqGKb7nlt

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 19, 2024

"The character [Callas] has a lot of pain and they've of course seen me go through a lot of things, but they hadn't experienced me expressing a lot of the pain that usually a parent hides from a child," she said.

"So they were there to witness some of that, but then we would hug or they would bring me cups of tea."

Jolie added that it was "a new way" of finding out how to be honest with her children about her feelings, "in an even greater way".

"We started with regular singing classes and it was challenging in many ways, but when the opera classes began, what it requires with your breathwork and your body and just the force of what you push through yourself, it's just a very different physicality."

Jolie, whose previous film credits include Changeling, Maleficent, Salt, and Mr & Mrs Smith, said she hasn't sung before, and was "actually quite shy about singing".

"It was probably one of the areas in my life that I was hesitant," she said.

"One of the greatest privileges of being an actor is you often are supported by a crew to try something and explore something you've never done and this certainly was most challenging," she said.

On the set of the film, both Maddox and Pax were "very busy", director Pablo Larraín said. "They were good professionals," he added.

Jolie said that during filming, Pax recorded a lot of her singing practice "so he was with me in my early horrible days," she laughed.

"It's always good for your children to watch your mum not do something easily, but swear and fight and fail and have to try again," she said.

"So that's an important and beautiful thing."

Larraín said he hoped his film honoured Callas's desire to popularise the art form.

"If this movie bring attention to opera from one to hundred to a million, it will be a success," he said.

"I don't know if there is an art form as strong as opera," Jolie added.

"The way it connects to the soul and the body, so of course it's for everybody."

Maria will be released in cinemas in the UK on 10 January.

Angelina Jolie for Vanity Fair pic.twitter.com/25Ho403RRq

— Filmfect (@Filmfect) December 22, 2024

dm, jj

The 49-year-old Oscar-winning actress braved the rainy weather as she prepared to film a scene for her movie Stitches on Monday night (December 16) in the Châtenay-Malabry forest outside of Paris, France.

Sunday, Dec. 15

Matsuhisa

dm

@yehielchekroune #angelinajolie in #paris #flash ♬ all the stars - liz

@bradpittsupport New videos of Brad Pitt at the Yas Marina Circuit signing a car (love how he just didn't want to ruin the car with a signature hahaha) #bradpitt #movies #cinema #maxverstappen #f1movie #oldhollywood #fightclub #bradpittedit ♬ original sound - DjTattoodedteddybear

@yehielchekroune #angelinajolie go back to her hotel after spend day with her daughter #zaharajoliepitt ♬ sonido original - ViralTrend

Angelina Jolie and Zahara Jolie were spotted shopping together at Sephora in Paris. The mother-daughter duo looked chic as they explored a variety of beauty products during their Parisian outing 🇫🇷😎❤️#AngelinaJolie #shopping #Sephora #Paris #France pic.twitter.com/V3CN7K3M7C

— Splash News (@SplashNews) December 13, 2024

Angelina Jolie and daughter Zahara Jolie-Pitt spotted on Sephora shopping spree in Paris https://t.co/kroBs3G6bG pic.twitter.com/jCJi61Ymf0

— Page Six (@PageSix) December 14, 2024

Angelina Jolie exits her hotel in Paris 13.12.2024 x7https://t.co/tUZ3oDNN3n pic.twitter.com/gVxRrX03HB

— HQCelebCorner (@Pawe66862800) December 14, 2024

@vendetta_dailly0 Angelina jolie in paris #angelinajolie #angelinajolieedit #angelina #actress #paris ♬ son original - vendetta dailly

Angelina Jolie was seen leaving the Westin Hotel in Paris after shooting a fashion campaign, taking time to greet her excited fans and sign autographs.

📷: E.CHOC / @backgrid_usa

For licensing inquiries, please email us at usasales@backgrid.com #backgrid #angelinajolie pic.twitter.com/vqFADpEniR

— backgridus (@BackgridUS) December 12, 2024

Angelina Jolie was spotted leaving her hotel in Paris 11.12.2024 x136https://t.co/DFFYkJVEjF pic.twitter.com/wEFzbNa1BJ

— HQCelebCorner (@Pawe66862800) December 12, 2024

@yehielchekroune #angelinajolie with her daughter in paris #paparazzi ♬ ashley - ￶‍‍￶￶‍‍￶￶‍‍￶￶‍‍￶

Angelina Jolie was seen leaving the Westin Hotel in Paris with her children Pax Jolie-Pitt and Zahara Jolie-Pitt 10.12.2024 x58https://t.co/FKnFwXaXRu pic.twitter.com/iDAGagTjqU

— HQCelebCorner (@Pawe66862800) December 11, 2024

Knox Jolie-Pitt, son of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, was spotted with a friend at Lazy Acres Natural Market in Los Feliz.

📷: SL, Terma / @BackgridUS

For licensing inquiries, please email us at usasales@backgrid.com#backgrid #knoxjoliepitt #bradpitt #angelinajolie pic.twitter.com/0bmck23crm

— backgridus (@BackgridUS) December 11, 2024

Angelina Jolie stuns as she leaves the "Stitches" set in Paris 09.12.2024 x27https://t.co/WE3bhf10uV pic.twitter.com/6z3cbDd7my

— HQCelebCorner (@Pawe66862800) December 10, 2024

Angelina Jolie looks Chic as she arrives for the Shooting of her Next Film 'Stitches' In Paris, France 🇫🇷 😎😍#angelinajolie #fashion #style #ysl #ytote #yeti pic.twitter.com/6AgTYgIjRa

— Splash News (@SplashNews) December 9, 2024

dm

Angelina Jolie looked chic in an all black ensemble as she adventured out for some Christmas shopping in Paris on Sunday.

Still wearing multiple rings. Everything else she has on -- bag, clothes, shoes -- are her own, not Maxine's.

The rings are hers and her choice, not just her character's.

As such they merit a closer look.

If she's wrapping her gifts in Paris, they may be spending Christmas in Paris. Or someplace where it isn't easy to obtain Christmas wrappers.

A visit to a shop specalizing in prothèses mammaires may give a hint on Maxine's "life and death journey as she arrives in Paris for Fashion Week."

Angelina Jolie In Beauty During The Rest Of The Filming Of Her Next Film In Paris 07.12.2024 x84https://t.co/ztTgBHtvKy pic.twitter.com/AdsDRvlrD8

— HQCelebCorner (@Pawe66862800) December 8, 2024

Is that a wedding ring?


Sonny Hayes apparently wins the Abu Dhabi race.

Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem are having a blast while filming their new movie, #F1, alongside real-life drivers at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix!

Click ⬇️https://t.co/0sDgYX7xlJ

— JustJared.com (@JustJared) December 8, 2024

Brad Pitt reveals that Joseph Kosinski's 'F1' will wrap filming this week.

The film, also starring Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem and Simone Ashley, releases in theaters on June 27th, 2025. pic.twitter.com/hQlfaB6WKV

— Feature First 🍿🎬 (@Feature_First) December 9, 2024

[HD] Angelina Jolie street shot in Paris on December 5. #Angelina Jolie# heads out from her hotel wearing an Ermanno Scervino Cardigan during filming of 'Stitches' in the French Capital, Paris.

weibo

A-list Actress Angelina Jolie heads out from her Hotel wearing an Ermanno Scervino Cardigan during filming of 'Stitches' in the French Capital, Paris 🇫🇷#angelinajolie #paris #france #style #fashion pic.twitter.com/ZOQtbsUI8F

— Splash News (@SplashNews) December 8, 2024

weibo

Angelina Jolie filming on the set of Alice Winocour's 'STITCHES'.

The film, set in the world of high fashion, is eyeing a 2025 Cannes Film Festival premiere. https://t.co/EXt6u8SqMD

— Feature First 🍿🎬 (@Feature_First) December 7, 2024

Angelina Jolie photographed on the set of Alice Winokur’s #Stitches in Paris. 🎬 pic.twitter.com/Z9z8nxh0Ak

— Film Crave (@_filmcrave) December 7, 2024

Brad Pitt is spending another day on set of his "F1" movie in Abu Dhabi

Click ⬇️ https://t.co/KSEk9Ct5dp

— JustJared.com (@JustJared) December 6, 2024

EXCLUSIVE: Ella Rumpf and Louis Garrel will co-star alongside Angelina Jolie in director Alice Winocour’s first English-language film “Stitches.” https://t.co/XPbt81JNVX

— Variety (@Variety) November 21, 2024

César Award winners Ella Rumpf and Louis Garrel will co-star alongside Angelina Jolie in director Alice Winocour’s first English-language film “Stitches.”

I can also exclusively report that Anyier Anei, Garance Marillier and Finnegan Oldfield have been cast as well.

“Stiches” follows American filmmaker Maxine (Jolie) on a “life and death journey as she arrives in Paris for Fashion Week,” reads an official logline of the movie. Filming is currently underway in Paris.

The production team includes cinematographer Andre Chemetoff, costume designer Pascaline Chavanne, and production designer Florian Sanson.

Charles Gillibert of CG Cinéma is producing alongside Zhang Xin and William Horberg of Closer Media, Bob Xu is serving as an executive producer. Pathé Films, which previously collaborated with Winocour on her Cannes Directors’ Fortnight premiere “Revoir Paris,” will handle distribution in France.

“Stiches” financing was structured by UTA Independent Film Group, who are also representing global and North American rights, with HanWay Films handling international sales. The project is co-produced with Chanel and France 3 Cinéma. Additional funding has been provided by La Région Île-de-France, Canal+, Ciné+, OCS and France Télévisions.

Winocour is represented by UTA and UBBA. Jolie is represented by WME and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.

Jolie’s most recent project, “Maria,” has earned the Oscar winner awards buzz for her portrayal of late opera great Maria Callas. The Pablo Larraín-directed drama, about the last days of the opera singer’s life before she died of a heart attack at age 53 in 1977, premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

At the Los Angeles premiere of “Maria” in October, Jolie recalled her first day of singing lessons in preparation for the film. “I walked into room with the piano, and somebody said, ‘Ok, let’s see where you’re at.’ And I got really emotional. I took a big deep breath, and I let out a sound, and I started crying,” she said. “I think we all don’t realize how much we hold inside our bodies, and how much we carry and how much that affects our sound and our voice and our ability to make sound.”

After the Angelina Jolie casting announcement.... it is now a RAW reunion of Ella Rumpf and Garance Marillier plus Louis Garrel who join COUTURES - Alice Winocour's fifth feature film. Is this headed to Locarno, Venice or TIFF in '25?https://t.co/fgOQ7rF2jb pic.twitter.com/Or8Lg2Ylg6

— IONCINEMA (@ioncinema) November 21, 2024

🇫🇷 Alice Winocour lands Angelina Jolie for Stitches aka Coutures (her fifth feature film). Sold by @HanWayFilms / produced by @charlegilliberthttps://t.co/zi0B747HNB pic.twitter.com/vLFOBwS2m2

— IONCINEMA (@ioncinema) November 19, 2024

Back in September we reported that French filmmaker Alice Winocour had begun pre-production on her fifth feature film and a major casting announcement has just landed. Variety reports that Angelina Jolie has been cast (one of three central women characters in the film) in Coutures aka “Stitches.”

Following in the fashion walkways portraits of fellow French filmmakers Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper) and Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent), this French and English language film is set in the world of high fashion and unfolds in Paris. Jolie stars in the movie as a filmmaker and is one of three women whose lives will collide during Fashion Week. those looking towards Venice and TIFF film festival line-ups for next year might want to circle this one as production begins shortly.

Angelina Jolie to Star in 'Proxima' Director Alice Winocour's Next Film, Set During Paris Fashion Week (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/9JpsZw7iqv

— Variety (@Variety) November 19, 2024

By Elsa Keslassy, Marc Malkin

Following her critically acclaimed turn as legendary opera singer Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” Angelina Jolie will return to Paris to star in Alice Winocour‘s next directorial effort.

The movie, titled “Stitches” (“Coutures”), is set in the world of high fashion and unfolds in Paris. Jolie stars in the movie as a filmmaker and is one of three women whose lives will collide during Fashion Week.

Filming is expected to begin at the start of next year with Charles Gillibert‘s Paris-based banner CG Cinema producing in partnership with Zhang Xin and William Horberg of Closer Media.

“Stitches” also reteams Winocour with French production-distribution powerhouse Pathé Films following her well-received movie “Paris Memories,” which world premiered at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight and earned its star Virginie Efira a Cesar Award (France’s equivalent to the Oscar) for her performance as a survivor of a brutal terrorist attack.

Pathé Films will distribute “Stitches” in France; Hanway Films is handling international sales. The film will shoot in both French and English, in line with Winocour’s previous movie “Proxima.” The latter starred Eva Green as an astronaut preparing for a year-long stint on the International Space Station, coping with the guilt of leaving her young daughter and navigating a male-dominated environment. Green was nominated for Cesar Award for this role and the movie won the platform prize at Toronto, as well as the jury award at San Sebastian.

Jolie was last in Paris for the filming of “Maria,” which reimagines the iconic Greek opera singer during her final days in the 1970s. The movie world premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was celebrated by a eight-minute standing ovation.

Her turn as Callas has put Jolie in the best actress race for the first time in 15 years. She was last nominated in 2009 for her her work in Clint Eastwood’s “The Changeling,” and won an Oscar for best supporting actress in 2000 for “Girl, Interrupted.” “Maria” reunites Larraín and writer Steven Knight following their work on the Oscar-nominated “Spencer.”

Gillbert’s current pipeline of international projects include Jim Jarmusch’s anticipated next film “Father Mother Sister Brother” starring Cate Blanchett and Adam Driver, and Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut, “The Chronology of Water,” an adaptation of the 2011 memoir by author Lidia Yuknavitch.

Alex Ritman contributed to this report