"Sex. Greed. Murder. Some things never go out of style."
— Tagline
Prêt-à-Porter, released in the United States as Ready to Wear (Prêt-à-Porter), is a satirical comedy from 1994 focusing on the fashion industry in Paris during Fashion Week, and directed, produced and co-written by Robert Altman.
This film provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: In great abundance. Perhaps the most egregious is the romantic sub-plot between Anne Eisenhower and Joe Flynn, which has no bearing whatsoever on the rest of the movie.
- The Alcoholic: Anne Eisenhower, who downs three glasses of red wine in less than two minutes.
- Autopsy Snack Time: A coroner has a snack while autopsying a corpse (in the presence of several police officers investigating the death, too!)
- Chick Magnet: The photographer, though it's up for debate whether his suitors want him for his looks or the fact that he's the most sought-after photographer in the business.
- Gayngster: One fashion designer, while not explicitly a gangster, does look and dress in a very "gangsta" fashion, and is caught making out with another male designer.
- Quirky Town: The film presents Paris (or, at least, the fashion industry in Paris) in this way.
- Running Gag: One character repeatedly stepping in dog turds.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Many of the male characters are wearing very nice suits.
- Shout-Out / Mythology Gag: To Sophia Loren's most famous scene in Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. As in that movie, she strips sensuously for her former lover (Marcello Mastroianni), but this time Mastroianni's character falls fast asleep by the time she's finished.
- Suspect Is Hatless: An interesting variant, wherein a murder victim's chaffeur is asked to describe the perpetrator, only to reply that "white people all look alike" to him, and he differentiates people by the clothes they wear; so he can only describe (in great detail) what the suspect was wearing. The photographs taken by others also focus solely on the assailant's clothes as well, and therefore nobody knows what his face looks like.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: One character dresses as a woman to help keep his affair secret.
