Chanel opened the doors of its Rue Cambon headquarters this week for a private screening of “Coutures,” Alice Winocour’s drama starring Angelina Jolie in a poignant role as a filmmaker juggling a contentious divorce and a cancer diagnosis while trying to direct a film in a foreign country.

Set against the tumultuous backdrop of Paris Fashion Week, “Coutures” is the first fiction film allowed to shoot inside Chanel’s tailoring workshops and to access the Haute Couture salons and the iconic staircase (pictured above) on Rue Cambon.

Winocour tells the story of three women whose lives intersect: Maxine (Jolie), an American director who discovers she has breast cancer while filming and bonds with a colleague on set (Louis Garrel); Ada (Anyier Anei), who came from South Sudan to make her modeling debut; and Angèle (Ella Rumpf), a makeup artist working behind the scenes on the catwalk. “Coutures” bowed at the Toronto Film Festival and played in competition at San Sebastián.

The screening, part of Chanel’s Cinema Rendez-Vous series, was introduced by the house’s global director of cinematic relations, Elsa Heizmann, who positioned “Coutures” as a project closely aligned with the house’s creative DNA. “This film is one we truly care about and have supported from the beginning,” she said, before adding that “Coutures” won’t be released until February 2026. “It’s a real gift from the production and distribution,” she added. The film was produced by Charles Gillibert’s CG Cinema and Closer, and will be released in France by Pathé.

Clément Geray, head of cinema-relations projects at Chanel, highlighted the degree of access given to Winocour, a well-known screenwriter and director whose previous films include “Proxima,” starring Eva Green, and “Paris Memories,” with Virginie Efira. “It’s the very first fiction film shot right here at Rue Cambon, in the ateliers,” he said. “There have been documentaries, but never a narrative feature in these sanctuarized spaces.” He recalled that Chanel began collaborating with Winocour more than a year before shooting started. “She met many of the people here tonight. They explained their work, their daily routines. Alice has a near-documentary approach, always striving for the most accurate depiction of reality,” he said.

For one of the film’s final scenes, Chanel also collaborated with Pascaline Chavanne, the multi-César-winning costume designer whose credits include “Nouvelle Vague” and “8 Women,” to design the silhouettes inspired by the house’s collection.

“This project created a real synergy between haute couture and cinema,” Geray said. “It was an opportunity for many of our teams to collaborate directly with a filmmaker.”

The screening was followed by a conversation with Alice Winocour, as well as Marillier and the film’s breakout, Anei, who made her acting debut in “Coutures” and had her real-life runway start last year for the Fall-Winter collection.

“Coutures” was the “second-to-last screening” of the year for Chanel, Heizmann said, before teasing next week’s presentation of “Arco,” Neon’s Golden Globe-nominated animated feature directed by Ugo Bienvenu and produced by Natalie Portman and Sophie Mas.