Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Lesley Manville, Ellen Thomas, Jason Isaacs, Isabelle Huppert, Lambert Wilson, Anna Chancellor, Lucas Bravo, Alba Baptista, Bertrand Poncet
Intro:
… a gem that glitters like the trimmings on a gown.
There’s more than initially meets the eye to Anthony Fabian’s Cinderella-esque adaptation of Paul Gallico’s 1958 novel Mrs ‘Arris Goes to Paris, although the transformative power of an impossibly beautiful dress and its ability to make one who was once invisible visible to the world, remains the film’s heart.
Ada Harris (Lesley Manville once again entering the world of mid-century haute couture but in a very different role to her icy Cyril Woodcock in Phantom Thread) is a good-natured cleaning woman from Battersea. The year is 1957 and she has only just been made aware that she is officially widowed by the War Department after her husband went missing over a decade ago. Entirely dependable, she cleans for a variety of clients, some of whom like the odious Lady Dant (Anna Chancellor) are happy to exploit her labour but not so happy when she asks for her wages. Lady Dant has spent £500 on a dazzling Christian Dior gown which Ada treats with reverent desire, inspiring her to one day go to Paris and buy such a marvel for herself.
Ada’s life in London isn’t filled with drudgery; she has her friends Vi (Ellen Thomas) and the cheeky bookie, Archie (an excellent performance by Jason Isaacs) to keep her company in the local pub, but she feels that her life has been on hold for a long time as she hopefully awaited the return of her husband Eddie. She’s reached middle age and isn’t really seen by anyone – a state of anonymity many women face after crossing the threshold of fifty. A small series of good fortune; including a win in the Football Pools, a reward for handing in a diamond clip to the police, and a round-a-bout win at the local dog races, and an unexpected War Widow’s pension, means that she can finally do something just for herself. She books an overnight trip to Paris and takes herself to Dior’s famous atelier located at 30 Avenue Montaigne.
Having no real idea how fashion houses work, Ada finds that she is initially barred from entering Dior’s 10th Anniversary showing of his collection. She comes up against the Cyril Woodcock of the film, Isabelle Huppert’s stern Madame Colbert. Despite Ada’s protestations and presenting her roll of notes to Madame Colbert, claiming that she has “Saved every penny she earned” to buy a dress, class barriers exclude her. She is rescued by a young accountant, Andre Fauvel (Lucas Bravo), and is escorted into the show by the widower the Marquis de Chassange (Lambert Wilson). A fairy tale indeed, yet one that the audience wills for Ada.
The showcase of Dior’s ‘New Look’ gowns and suits (designed by multi-award-winning designer Jenny Beavan) has Ada gasping with joy – to see such exquisite work within her reach is almost overwhelming. Her first desire is to buy a stunning deep red tea gown called ‘Temptation’, but when a particularly petty client claims it for herself, Ada settles on a marvellous green gown called ‘Venus.’ What Ada fails to understand is that haute couture gowns are not something you can just choose and pay for; there is a long process of fittings and customisations and the earliest she can expect to take delivery of ‘Venus’ is in a fortnight.
Through the kindness of Andre, she is offered a place to stay in Paris. She has also quickly formed a bond with the current ‘Face of Dior’ – Sartre reading Natasha (Alba Baptista) and the two form a friendship that extends to Andre (who passionately discusses Existentialism with Natasha). A dinner conversation turns philosophical as each character reveals that they are, in Sartre’s definition, only appearing to be one thing. Ada is more than a cleaning woman, Andre is more than an accountant, and Natasha is certainly more than a mannequin on display.
Ada’s time in Paris teaches her the value of having a dream, whether that dream is to simply own a beautiful gown – a scene in the atelier showing how the garments are put together is filmed as a reverie by cinematographer Felix Wiedemann. Ada exclaims “It’s not sewing, it’s making moonlight! Am I in heaven?” Ada manages to charm most of Dior’s staff including the fussy and temperamental head of couture Monsieur Carré (Bertrand Poncet). The House of Dior is in financial trouble; haute couture exclusivity has led them to near bankruptcy and the company begins to lay off staff. Ada, a staunch working-class woman who understands that her class bolsters the elite sets the workers on strike until Andre is able to explain a possible solution to Dior’s monetary woes by opening up the label to a tiered system that means everyday people can buy the Dior brand.
Ada’s character could be seen as a tad exhausting if it were not for Lesley Manville’s exceptionally nuanced performance. When a possible romance turns out to be something else, the audience can feel her palpable weariness with how she has been minimised. Her adventures in Paris are wonderfully captured and her enrapture with the City of Lights is mirrored by how certain Parisians come to love her unpretentious good will towards others.
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris can be viewed as an innocuous and charming drama/comedy, but there is a strong message about looking beyond stereotypes to find the person behind them. Sartre wrote about making “The invisible visible” in ‘Being and Nothingness’ – and as much as Gallico’s novel and Fabian’s film owe to Charles Perrault’s classic fairy tale ‘Cinderella’, it also owes a debt to the then contemporary Gallic philosophical discourse and class consciousness. Ada is a fairy godmother, she’s also Cinderella, but most of all, she learns the value of self-determination.
The ending may seem pat and rushed, but it is a minor fault in an otherwise enchanting adventure about an ordinary woman who was always in her humble way, extraordinary, she just failed to see it until a little magic; mostly of her own making, entered her life. The third act packs a lot in and the bow it ties everything up in is a little too silken.
Nonetheless, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris is a gem that glitters like the trimmings on a gown. The film avoids talking down to any of its main characters. People are more than their class or job – they are the sum of their imaginings. The lessons in Mrs Harris Goes to Paris are never didactic but they are worth paying attention to. Never stop hoping; be ready to embrace something new; reward hard work; and ultimately find a moment to express what makes you special – it’s never too late to discover something transcendent in the world.
