It’s hard to know how to appreciate films that are so much of their time. This film by William Klein, who is more often known as a fashion photographer, was made in the 60s as a satire of the fashion industry.

It follows the fashion model Polly Magoo (Dorothy McGowan), seeing her in over the top fashion shoots where all the dresses are made of sheet metal, participating in a TV show that pretends to want to know who she is, and then being the object of several men’s fantasies.

It is put together as something of a montage, with scenes and set pieces that end suddenly and then jump to something quite different. The fashion it is satirising is vapid and over the top, as are all of the people in the TV and the fashion industries who seem easily seduced by ideas and quick to judge. Polly is the only one who seems content to be herself.

After awhile, I gave up on trying to follow a linear narrative. There is something there – a Prince Igor (Sami Frey) who fantasises about her and wants her brought to his country. There is the TV director Grégoire (Jean Rochefort) who is probably in love with her and shows it by being mean. There is the rather magnificent fashion editor Miss Maxwell (Grayson Hall) who has a bit of Miranda Priestly in Devil Wears Prada about her.

Ultimately, from the standpoint of here and now, it feels like it is less than the sum of its parts. That doesn’t mean there isn’t some delight in watching it, particularly the exquisite black-and-white fashion photography of the time – Klein was able to pull in many of his artist friends to participate.

It is a mark of the superficiality of the story, perhaps, that the street scenes of Paris in the 60s were far more interesting.