The modelling industry is tantalising in its prospects for visual glamour. As the biting title of Marcos Mereles’ debut feature suggests, All Is Vanity is initially more concerned with pulling back the curtain on an industry obsessed with image. The film revels in its mundanity of a two-day fashion shoot, led by a pompous photographer (Sid Phoenix), his idealistic intern (Yaseen Aroussi), plus a model (Isabelle Bonfrer) and a make-up artist (Rosie Steel). Yet, even when the professionals are managing technical difficulties, power outages and a line of unflattering clothes to shoot, they’re just as cutthroat and exclusionary. Willing to pounce on anyone who exhibits vulnerability, the photographer mocks intern Luke’s cover letter which details his “internal torment.”
Entirely set in a single location, the loft is at once cavernous and claustrophobic; mirrors scattered around speak to the multiplicity of its narratives. The space is deceptive in its sparse decoration, as it conceals secrets that slowly reveal themselves to prevent the locale from ever feeling tired.
When the make-up artist disappears the next morning, Mereles weaves a mystery that unravels like nesting dolls. It's a film of two halves, but begins to lose its way once it attempts to explain the disappearance. For all of its early simplicity, All Is Vanity aims higher by holding another mirror between the worlds of fashion and cinema. There was potential for a Charlie Kaufman-esque mind-bender centred around the artificiality of filmmaking, or perhaps even something akin to Primer in its low-budget ingenuity. That promise is left unfulfilled by an overstuffed script that ties itself in knots to transcend genre. In turn, Chekhov’s guns are abandoned — leaving them as frustrating red herrings.