Peter Strickland is a British filmmaker based in Hungary who specializes in off-beat stylish productions that are like no one else’s work despite their familiarity to other cinema (Italian horror of the 70s).
Here we have a film set in Britain in the 70’s or early 80’s, a sort of grim unimaginative period with dreary shops (Dentley and Sopers is a department store
here of a fantastic kind, seemingly normal but peopled by weird staff and possibly live mannequins),
rigid work rules and awkward dating services. We meet Sheila (Marianne Jean-Baptiste)
who is seeking to hook up after breaking up with her husband and who wants a nice new dress for her date. She chooses a red one at D and S, or rather the dress chooses her and then she discovers that it has a life of its own and can cause mayhem.
The second half of the film considers Reg (Leo Bill) 
and Babs (Hayley Squires), a young couple about to be married who later acquire the same dress and have similar experiences.
Apart from that we see the shop at night and the strange behaviour of the main shop assistant
who removes her wig every evening and descends into a type of hell via a dumb waiter.
Very imaginative, with comments on our consumerism, banks and our sometimes senseless behaviour, In Fabric may be slightly overlong
and need editing but it is definitely unusual and keeps you wondering where it will take you, with a few scares on the way.
♦♦♦+
Basically the film is about the way the relationship shifts in balance as they experiment in their roles. The film was shot in Hungary in a leafy bucolic village-like area, peopled only by women.
Their main activity seemed to be reading about and delivering lectures about moths and butterflies.
Hence the title, it is a type of butterfly. All very weird and consequently the script can end up sounding quite odd in the mouths of the non-British cast. Sidse Babett Knudsen 
plays Cynthia, one half of the couple and has some good scenes but also seems to be wondering what she is doing in the movie. Chiara D’Anna as her partner, the passive but in fact dominant partner is strangely more effective.
Nice music. Definitely for the connoisseur.
passionfilm 