Prêt-à-Porter

Set during Paris Fashion Week, this comedy follows the models, designers, journalists and wealthy hangers-on who descend on the city for the prêt-à-porter shows. The event is overshadowed when Olivier de la Fontaine, head of the fashion council, is found dead, and those around him, including his wife and his mistress, come under suspicion. The shows carry on regardless as rival reporters chase stories, gossip spreads, and personal and professional rivalries play out among the visitors.

Robert Altman directed, produced and co-wrote the film with Barbara Shulgasser. It was his fifteenth film as director in chronological order, arriving after Short Cuts and before The Gingerbread Man. The large ensemble includes Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Kim Basinger, Chiara Mastroianni and Stephen Rea, with 76 credited cast members in all.

Made for a budget of 15 million dollars, the film took about 11 million dollars worldwide, so it did not recover its cost at the box office. Audiences received it coolly: on IMDb it holds 5.2 out of 10 from around 17,000 votes, and on TMDB it also has 5.2 out of 10 from roughly 234 votes. A critics' rating of 4.8 out of 10 from 24 reviews places it slightly below those audience scores. The film runs 133 minutes.