In “ Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” a middle-aged woman of very limited means in post-World War II London dreams of owning a Christian Dior gown. In 1957, however, at the height of Dior’s New Look renown, this was not a straightforward proposition. There was no London store or catalog to order from. There wouldn't even be a ready to wear line for another 10 years. Everything was custom made couture. The only way Ada Harris could own one herself, as the title suggests, was to drop in on the House of Dior at 30 Avenue de Montaigne.
The film, which opens in theaters nationwide Friday, is a colorful, romantic fairy tale starring Lesley Manville as Mrs. Harris, a war widow who only discovers Dior while cleaning one of her wealthy clients’ homes, and Isabelle Huppert as the snobbish gatekeeper Madame Colbert, who bristles at the idea of a woman like Ada wearing Dior. It is, director Anthony Fabian hopes, a film that will delight and inspire audiences not just for its aspirational qualities but for the dignity with which it treats its heroine.
