Adapting author Paul Gallico’s famous 1958 novel Mrs.’ Arris Goes to Paris for the screen, writer and director Anthony Fabian create a modern-day fairy tale. The message is about pursuing your dreams, friendship’s power, and the importance of remaining true to who you are.
In post-World War II London, Ada Harris, played by Lesley Manville, earns money cleaning houses. She’s led a lonely life since her beloved husband, Eddie, went missing in action, but she’s not the type to brood over any misfortune or complain about her circumstances.
Still, the ever-pragmatic Ada sees an unimaginably lovely Christian Dior gown hanging in the master bedroom of a wealthy client. She’s surprised to feel an overwhelming pang of desire—owning something so otherworldly, so beautiful, an actual work of art — why that could change things for a person.
Ada takes on extra jobs and saves as much as possible, trying her luck at the racetrack. Ada can finally afford to pay for a Dior dress when all seems lost. She bids farewell to close friends Vi, played by Ellen Thomas, and Archie, played by Jason Isaacs.
She goes to Paris to visit the prestigious House of Dior and turn her dreams into reality. Yet when she arrives, Ada is met with a series of surprising setbacks, not least of which is Dior’s intimidating Madame Colbert, played by Isabelle Huppert, who bristles at the notion of a common charlady wearing haute couture.
Ada refuses to leave Paris without her dress, whatever obstacles come her way. Her unwavering commitment charms idealistic Dior accountant André, played by Lucas Bravo, kindly model Natasha, played by Alba Baptista, and the aristocratic Marquis de Chassagne, played by Lambert Wilson, Paris’ most eligible bachelor.
Ada soon discovers that, in changing her own life, she changes the lives of all those around her. She might even help save the House of Dior itself.
Fabian’s feature film work up until that point was mainly family dramas based on true stories, yet he felt a particular affinity for the material. Having lived in Paris as a boy and attending boarding school in England, he could appreciate both cultures at the heart of the story. “I understood these two worlds extremely well, London and Paris,” Fabian says. “I felt it was a story that I could tell in an authentic and accurate way.”
Initially brought on as a director for hire, Fabian eventually gained the rights to adapt and produce himself. He began working on an entirely new screenplay while searching for other partners to collaborate with. He turned to Carroll Cartwright, with whom he had previously worked on the feature Louder Than Words. Together, they wrote the first drafts, while prolific film and television writer Keith Thompson and A Girl with a Pearl Earring writer Olivia Hetreed gave the script a final polish.
Fabian wanted to clarify why getting a beautiful haute couture artifact became such an obsession for Mrs. Harris throughout the adaptation process. “The book gives you the bones of the story, but not the flesh,” he says. “It doesn’t really explain why Mrs. Harris wants this dress, other than in the most frivolous and superficial terms—it had to be more profound. Ultimately, I wanted to suggest that Ada Harris’ heart is healed by going on this journey. She is a widow who has put her heart on ice, and this dress is an inanimate object that she can love without betraying her husband. Somehow, the dress becomes a catalyst for opening her heart and allowing her to love again.”