Fashionista (4 Stars)

This is the 43rd film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

Do you ever watch a film, and after it's finished you don't know whether you liked it or not? That rarely happens with me, but it happened today. When Fashionista's final credits rolled I sat in silence trying to take in what I'd seen.

It's not an easy film to understand. The narrative is told in a non-linear manner. It's not just flashbacks; that would be easy to understand. Confusing are the flashforwards to things that don't happen, chronologically, until the end of the film. Of course, if you're watching the film for the first time you won't know that they were flashforwards until the film is almost finished.

Confusing as well is that the main character, April, is played by two different actresses who sometimes appear in the same scenes. This is a film that must be watched more than once to be appreciated.

Ken and April are husband and wife, and the co-owners of a clothing store in Austin, Texas. It's the perfect job for April, who can never have enough clothes. Most women love clothes, but in April's case it's an obsession that borders on a sexual fetish. She moans orgasmically when she puts on new clothes.

Ken has an affair with one of April's friends, and the couple separate. April meets a rich man who shares a clothing obsession, namely that he wants to clothe women. That might have been the perfect partner for her, except that he wants to enjoy threesomes with April and other well-dressed woman. Then she finds out that he has become rich by making snuff movies.

I'm not sure how to rate the film to be fair to it. Three stars isn't enough. Four stars feels like too much at the moment, but that's what I've given it. I'll be able to give a more accurate rating next time I watch it. I sincerely hope that the Blu-ray release will include a director's commentary.