Ready to Wear

Robert Altman’s underrated, deliciously catty fashion industry satire zigzags, in inimitable Altman style, between the swarms of reporters, designers, models, power players, and oddballs buzzing around Paris Fashion Week. After the Fashion Council head (Jean-Pierre Cassel) chokes to death on a sandwich, he leaves behind his all-too glamorous widow, played by Sophia Loren, who settles in as the figurehead of the week’s events (and at one point recreates a certain iconic striptease). She’s just one among a sprawling cast of international luminaries that includes Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Kim Basinger, Lauren Bacall, Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins, and Forest Whitaker. With its of-the-moment fashions, zeitgeisty celebrity cameos, and soundtrack that skips from Salt-N-Pepa to Björk to The Cranberries, it plays like a Nashville for the ’90s. 35mm print courtesy of the Harvard Film Archive.