So intimately tethered is the American family at the center of Karim Aïnouz’s latest movie “Rosebush Pruning” – by blood, desire, and an excessive interest in designer labels – that the arrival of any outsider would guarantee friction. When Elle Fanning’s character Martha (the girlfriend of eldest son Jack, portrayed by Jamie Bell), is introduced for the first time, his sister Anna (Riley Keough) quickly dismisses the perceived intruder in the most damning way she knows how: venomously characterizing Martha’s perfectly chic black and red floral dress as high street garb.
“It’s obviously not Zara,” costume designer Bina Daigeler, who sourced the dress from a vintage store in Barcelona, clarified on a video call. “You can’t see who made it, which made it easier for Anna to say, ‘oh, it’s probably a Zara dress.’” The conclusion to one of the film’s more explicitly uncomfortable scenes, Anna’s remark follows a request by her widowed father (Tracy Letts), blind since the matriarch’s passing, to describe their guest’s appearance: dress, handbag, hair, bosom. Anna’s attitude speaks to the jealousy that fuels the movie’s wider narrative – Jack is adored, largely inappropriately, by all the members of his family – while his father’s probing highlights a warped sense of entitlement.
