cinema · GFF26 · Interviews

Couture Interview: Alice Winocour – ‘Angelina used to be a punk in her teenage years but she still is, I think’.

Difficult to define by genre, writer and director Alice Winocour is a self-proclaimed cinephile and wants to explore all types of films. Her latest drama is Couture, which marks her English-language debut and takes place during Paris Fashion Week. Angelina Jolie stars as artist and filmmaker Maxine Walker and the plot gives us a glimpse behind the scenes of the glitz and glamour of the star-studded event as three women face very difficult challenges. After its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival earlier this year, I was lucky enough to sit down with the director to discuss the piece…

It’s noted that your work not only spans various genres but has taken place all over Europe. Your last two films, Couture included, have been set in Paris. What do you think has pulled you back to your home city to tell these stories?

Yeah, actually it’s a good question as to me, my work is so personal and intimate that it always has to be set in a very distant world. I prefer fiction to be far away from me…then I really enjoyed shooting in Paris for Revoir Paris, and it felt very fresh to me. I feel very European as a director, and I’m attracted by European countries in my identity.

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cinema

Film review: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

It’s been seven years since directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett brought Ready or Not to our screens. Since then, the pair have made a couple of slashers in the Scream series and now the dynamic horror duo is back with a sequel to their 2019 hit. Picking up immediately where the original left off, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come sees doomed bride Grace (Samara Weaving) admitted to hospital after playing a deadly round of hide and seek with her devil-worshipping in-laws. She reunites with estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) but soon realises that her nightmare isn’t over.

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DVD & Digital

Film review: Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man

 After thirteen years, six series, and countless razor-sharp haircuts, creator and screenwriter Steven Knight brings his iconic Birmingham gangsters to the big screen. Directed by Tom Hopper who worked on some of its early television episodes, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man takes place during World War II and sees the great Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) living in self-imposed exile, mourning the loss of loved ones and writing a novel.

 In the city, his son Duke (Barry Keoghan) has taken the reins of the family business and is approached for a lucrative job by fascist politician John Beckett (Tim Roth) who is allied with Nazi Germany. Following desperate pleas from his sister Ada (Sophie Rundle) and the mysterious Kaulo (Rebecca Ferguson), Tommy is forced to return to the life he’d left behind.

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cinema · GFF26

Film review: Couture

As well as being an actor, filmmaker, and humanitarian, Angelina Jolie is considered a style icon due to her headturning red carpet looks over the years. She heads to Paris Fashion Week for her latest leading role in French drama Couture, written and directed by Alice Winocour. The plot centres around Maxine (Jolie), an American horror director who lands the gig to make a short that will introduce the fashion show. During production she meets teenage model Ada (Anyier Anei), and make-up artist Angèle (Ella Rumpf), and the women’s emotional stories begin to intersect within the harsh underbelly of the event, behind the glitz and the glamour of the runway.

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cinema · GFF26

Film review: My Father’s Island

 Based on the autobiographically-inspired novella by David Vann, the latest feature from French writer and director Vladimir de Fontenay is My Father’s Island. Known by the book’s title Sukkwan Island in some countries, the psychological family drama centres around teenager Roy (Woody Norman) who lives with his mother Elizabeth (Tuppence Middleton) after her divorce. Seeking an opportunity to bond, his estranged father Tom (Swann Arlaud) suggests that they spend a year together at a lakeside cabin on a remote island in Norway. The pair’s trip begins as a wholesome soul-searching adventure, but soon becomes an intense fight for survival.

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DVD & Digital · GFF26

Film review: The Good Boy

Off the back of the phenomenal global impact made by TV series Adolescence last year, Stephen Graham portrays another, but very different, complex father in his latest picture, The Good Boy (known by the title Heel in the US). Marking the English-language debut of Polish director Jan Komasa, the story centres around the shocking abduction of teenage tearaway Tommy (Anson Boon) after a raucous night out. Finding himself chained up in the basement of eccentric couple Chris (Graham) and Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough), he is subjected to their unconventional methods of rehabilitation.

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cinema · GFF26

Film review: One Last Deal

The one-location chamber piece can be a difficult trick to pull off, even more so with just one actor appearing on-screen. This is the challenge presented in the latest feature by Irish director Brendan Muldowney who has garnered acclaim for his ambitious storytelling. Set entirely within a London office suite, psychological drama One Last Deal follows a day in the life of foul-mouthed football agent Jimmy Banks (Danny Dyer), charting his ecstatic highs and miserable lows as he tries to secure a lucrative contract for his top client whilst hoping to salvage his own somewhat disgraced reputation.

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GFF26 · Interviews

The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford Interview: Sean Dunn – ‘Peter Mullan was demanding, but in a good way’.

At what point does entertainment tourism overshadow the real history and legacy of a location? Writer and director Sean Dunn explores this very topical idea through the lens of black comedy in his hotly-anticipated debut feature, The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford. Taking place on the outskirts of Edinburgh, the plot sees keen historian and tour guide Kenneth (Peter Mullan) become increasingly frustrated as his local village becomes the setting for a new fantasy television series. Note that I know Dunn personally and was lucky enough to have a conversation with him about the film ahead of its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival 2026…

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DVD & Digital

Film review: Wasteman

 In the relatively fresh film career of actor David Jonsson, he’s already impressed in rom-com Rye Lane, sci-fi Alien: Romulus, and horror The Long Walk; he was even recognised as BAFTA’s rising star last year too. His latest role comes in prison thriller Wasteman, the directorial debut of artist-turned-filmmaker Cal McMau. It centres around mild-mannered convict Taylor (Jonsson) who, if he keeps his head down, has the opportunity of an early release. However, when his volatile new cellmate Dee (Tom Blyth) arrives, he becomes embroiled in a vicious feud that threatens his chances of parole.

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