Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris kicks off the Springtime in Paris movie marathon hosted by me and Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

This was such a sweet movie and perfect to get me into the mood for happy, joyful spring.

The movie, based on the book of the same name by Paul Gallico, features a very talented cast, including Leslie Manville, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo, Jason Isaacs, Rose Williams, Isabella Hupert, and Lambert Wilson.

Released in 2022, it was directed by Anthony Fabien and takes place in 1957.

The movie tells the story of Ada Harris, a widowed and self-employed housekeeper from Battersea, England.

This is a small spoiler, but we don’t know when the movie starts that Ada is widowed and neither does she. She finds out near the beginning of the movie and this launches her into a journey to follow her dream of one day owning a beautiful dress made by Christian Dior.

She develops this dream after she sees one of the designer’s dresses in the bedroom of one of her clients.

This client is always making excuses why she can’t pay Mrs. Harris her fee, yet she can somehow afford a $500 dress from Paris.

When Mrs. Harris wins a bit of money after betting on the horse races she tells her friend and fellow house cleaner, Vi, that she’s going to save up and buy a dress from Christian Dior. Vi doesn’t understand why Mrs. Harris wants to do this and I don’t think Mrs. Harris really understands why she wants to either at that point.

Not only is Mrs. Harris going to buy a dress from Christian Dior, she’s going to take herself to Paris to get it.

There are all kinds of ups and downs on this journey but I won’t share them with you, so I don’t spoil the movie if you haven’t seen it. I will say that Mrs. Harris is much too nice of a woman and often helps out a “rising starlet” (or at least she thinks she is one) and many others who don’t show her the same regard.

Eventually, Mrs. Harris will get to Paris and meet a few lovely characters, including a young man and woman and a man her age who seems to be interested in her romantically.

She barges her way into the fashion house of Christian Dior and meets its staff and it’s creator in the early days of what is now a fashion giant.

Before she goes to Paris, Mrs. Harris tells her friend Vi, “That’s what we are, Vi. Invisible women.”

In Paris, the so-called invisible woman immediately charms everyone at the fashion house. From the models to the seamstresses, they are all completely shocked and amazed that this woman has come to their design house to order a dress and has saved up all her money to do so.

Their normal customers are rich and just toss money out to get what they want. Those customers take for granted all the hard work the men and women who make these gowns put into them. All of it fascinates Mrs. Harris, though. She’s refreshing and down to earth and doesn’t care about being fancy or “proper.”

She learns that Dior isn’t just a dress, it’s a feeling, an atmosphere — it’s all the hard work of the women who sew and alter and design and create to make each dress unique and special.

This is before the time of assembly line designing. Each dress was made for the person who would be wearing it which is what made it so special to have.

At one point Mrs. Harris says about the dress making process, “It’s not sewing. It’s making moonlight.”

As I watched Mrs. Harris being driven through the streets of Paris, I wondered how they film scenes like this in modern times. All the cars around them and parked on the streets are from the 1950s but I am certain those are not the cars being driven in Paris now. There are a lot of close-up shots of the actors as they are driving or shots that angle the camera up so that the road isn’t seen, so maybe that’s how they do it. Either way, it’s very convincing and completely immerses the viewer in the movie.

I should mention that Leslie Manville was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. Costume designer Jenny Beaven was also nominated for a number of awards for costume design, including the Academy Awards.

I enjoyed this interview with the cast about the movie, if you are interested in learning more about the making of the movie. I recommend watching it after you watch the movie because you might receive a few spoilers watching it.

While watching it, I was struck by something Leslie Manville told the interviewer.

“It feels like the kind of film we are ready for right now,” she said. “You can just go to the cinema, shut the rest of the world away, just temporarily, because we need to do that, and just escape into this beautiful, slightly fantastical world of Ada Harris and just go with her on her journey.”

Here is the rest of our schedule for our Springtime in Paris movie event:

How to Steal A Million (April 10)

Paris Blues (April 17)

Hugo (April 24)

The Intouchables (May 1)

Charade Group Zoom on May 4 – this is where you can all join us for a watch party! (writing about it May 8)

Here is where you can find the movies on streaming:

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris: Amazon, Fandango, GooglePlay, Apple TV (this one was also on Peacock when I originally chose it.)

How to Steal A Million: Amazon, YouTube, GooglePlay, Fandango and Apple.

Paris Blues: YouTube for free (just search for it), Tubi, Amazon, Google Play, PlutoTV, Fandango at Home, YouTubeTV

Hugo: Amazon, Fandango at Home, Pluto TV, AppleTV

The Intouchables (warning this is an R movie and no, I don’t know why, but I’m guessing some language. It is also French and subtitled so this is NOT the American remake.): DisneyPlus, Amazon (on Prime as I write this), Fandango, Plex, YouTubeTV, Google Play, AppleTV, and Hulu

Charade (pretty much everywhere): Crackle, Tubi, Plex, Amazon, AppleTV, GooglePlay, YouTube, YouTubeTV, The Roku Channel, Fubo.

If you watched the movie this week, or watch it later and write about it, and want to link your post you can do so at the link below. The link will be available until May.

https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef