Angelina Jolie’s return to the big screen in Couture brought more than just cinematic drama to the Toronto International Film Festival it also delivered a deeply personal and emotional moment for the Oscar-winning actress.
Portraying Maxine, a filmmaker confronting a breast cancer diagnosis while juggling a divorce, motherhood, and a new job in the Paris fashion world, Jolie found herself reflecting on her own family’s history with the disease. During a post-screening Q&A, an audience member who had recently lost a friend to cancer asked the cast about their message of hope. Jolie’s voice softened as she offered condolences, before recalling a poignant memory of her late mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died of cancer in 2007 at the age of 56.
“One thing I remember my mother saying when she had cancer… people were asking her how she was feeling and she said, ‘All anybody ever asks me about is cancer,’” Jolie shared. “If you know someone who is going through something, ask them about everything else in their life as well. They’re a whole person and they’re still living.”
Joining Jolie on stage were co-stars Ella Rumpf and Anyier Anei, along with writer-director Alice Winocour. Winocour explained that while Couture addresses illness, it is ultimately a story about resilience and the will to live. She noted Jolie’s immediate connection to the role, shaped by the loss of both her mother and grandmother to breast cancer, and her own preventive double mastectomy in 2013.
The film intertwines Maxine’s personal crisis with the lives of two other women she meets in the fashion world, exploring themes of identity, survival, and the determination to keep living fully even in the face of life’s most daunting challenges.
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