The carpet ran ninety minutes and produced the sort of consensus that is rare at these things: the arrivals were, more or less unanimously, the best of the season. Tailoring won. Color won. Almost nothing on the carpet was trying too hard.
The film was another matter. It is long, deliberately uncomfortable, and structured around a decision the audience is not permitted to see. The applause at the end was real but uneven.
What was notable, walking the room afterward, was that nobody was being polite about it. People were arguing, specifically and at length, about a film they had seen ninety minutes earlier.
