Coco Avant Chanel Hollywood Movie
Cast And Crew
Director : Anne Fontaine
Cast : Audrey Tautou, Alessandro Nivola, Marie Gillain, Emmanuelle Devos
Writers:Edmonde Charles-Roux (book)
Anne Fontaine (writer)
Release Date:USA 25 September 2009 (limited)
Genre:Biography Drama
Reviews
Several years after leaving the orphanage to which her father never returned for her, Gabrielle Chanel finds herself working in a provincial bar both. She's both a seamstress for the performers and a singer, earning the nickname Coco from the song she sings nightly with her sister. A liaison with Baron Balsan gives her an entree into French society and a chance to develop her gift for designing increasingly popular hats. When she falls in love with English businessman Arthur Capel further opportunities open up, though life becomes ever more complicated.
Audrey Tautou (THE DAVINCI CODE, AMELIE) plays the legendary "Coco" Chanel in an enthralling exploration of her early life before she rose to worldwide fame as the most celebrated fashion designer of the 20th Century. We meet the young Gabrielle Chanel, illegitimate daughter of a travelling salesman who learns to sew in a Catholic orphanage before following her singing ambitions lead her to a cabaret club. It is here where Chanel earns the nickname Coco and also where she catches the eye of several high society gentlemen who would ignite her passion and become instrumental in the development of her remarkable career.
More sentimental than chic, Gallic biopic "Coco Before Chanel" nonetheless knits a convincing portrait of the designer's journey from her humble beginnings as a provincial seamstress to the halls of Parisian haute couture. Focusing on the era in which Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (winningly played by Audrey Tautou) served as mistress of an eccentric millionaire, the film reveals, via meticulous period imagery, how the couturier forged a style that would change the way women dressed in the 20th century. Warner Bros.' April 22 Gaul release should scoot gracefully down the theatrical runway before wafting overseas like a splash of No. 5.
The first of two Chanel biopics skedded to hit screens this year, this one, co-written by helmer Anne Fontaine and her sister Camille, limits its scope to the time in the designer's late 20s when she began showcasing her distinct creative voice. The opening, purely visual flashback shows the young Chanel arriving at an ominous Catholic orphanage after her mother has died and her father has left to support the family.
The stark setting and drab religious garb -- superbly rendered by production designer Olivier Radot and costume designer Catherine Leterrier -- will have an enduring impact on her future designs, whose cornerstones will be simplicity and sophistication.
The action then jumps to a decade or so later, as busy bee Chanel (Tautou) is working days as a seamstress and nights as a cabaret entertainer ("to pay for her dresses"), alongside her sis, Adrienne (Marie Gillain). During a fun and flashy dance number, she crosses paths with debauched heir Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde); before long, she's moved to his country estate, where she serves as his friend, mistress and inhouse style consultant.
Caught in a lavish world where women overdress themselves in bails of lace, suffocating corsets and hats oozing with flowers, Chanel begins to experiment with her lover's clothing, designing outfits that are both easier to wear and easier on the eye. These sequences are among the film's strongest, revealing the contrast between the heavy 19th-century styles worn by the epoch's wealthier class and Chanel's vision of a sleek, intelligent wardrobe to help place women on an equal footing with men.
Pic's third section brings a melodramatic twist to Chanel's sudden and impossible affair with a British industrialist (Alessandro Nivola). The drawing-room drama and ensuing love triangle feel a tad forced, but they do explain how Chanel is pushed to liberate herself from kept-woman status through her relentless work ethic and gifted eye.
For a film that is, after all, about fashion, helmer Fontaine ("How I Killed My Father" and the glossy "The Girl From Monaco") and d.p. Christophe Beaucarne ("Irina Palm") make things extremely pleasurable to look at. Between lingering wide shots and gliding p.o.v. camerawork, the crisp visuals show Chanel forever analyzing the stylistic tendencies of her surroundings.
Tautou's perf is one of her finest to date, revealing her character's headstrong personality through smart delivery and a permanent but attractive pout. As with his portrayal of a serial killer in "Man Bites Dog," Belgian thesp Poelvoorde manages to make the fairly despicable Etienne seem quite likable by the end of the movie.
From the opening sequence's jerky movement and obstructed vision (our heroine is being transported to an orphanage by horse and cart), it's clear this is going to be no ordinary biopic. The story of Coco Chanel is packed with incident, but this version ends where many would just be kicking into gear: the moment Chanel the woman becomes Chanel the brand. Sitting on the stairs at the triumphant conclusion of her first fashion show, Chanel (Audrey Tautou) unleashes a rare smile.
In covering Chanel's love affairs and her transformation from nightclub chanteuse to sought-after couturier, director Anne Fontaine makes one uncomfortable fact clear: despite her determination and strength of character, it's men who shape Chanel's life, from the father who abandons her to the playboy lover (Benoît Poelvoorde) who introduces her both to her future clientele and her one great love, Boy Capel (Alessandro Nivola), the man who finances her fashion dream.
Focusing as it does on Chanel's early life, anyone hoping for a glitzy fashion spectacular may be disappointed. Chanel's groundbreaking androgyny, coupled with her love for simple fabrics and shapes, make her seem almost dowdy among the elaborate costumes of the time. But if you know your fashion history, there's fun to be had spotting the origins of her most famous designs: the nuns of her convent orphanage in graphic black and white, the striped Breton fishermen's tops, the appropriation of men's clothes.
Fired in the crucible of poverty and abandonment, Chanel's cynical, fiercely individual temperament is far from likeable, and it's to Tautou's credit that our sympathies always lie with her. By turns waspish, brave and vulnerable, her gravely luminous presence anchors the film in a world that's not only faultlessly stylish, but full of real human love and loss, too.
Her name may be synonymous with fashion and glamour but make no mistake, this is not a fashion film. And it's not particularly glamorous.
The title translates as Coco before Chanel and that's exactly what this story is - the early years of the fashion icon's life. It begins with her father abandoning her at an orphanage when she was 12 and follows her as she works her way up from being a common cabaret singer to a woman of means, by way of various wealthy men.
Tautou's performance as the prickly upstart is excellent, if not terribly likeable. Determined to rise above her station, Chanel calculates and manipulates to get what she wants, while remaining staunchly proud and looking down on the rich, frivolous women around her.
Chanel's unconventional charm may have won over her patrons, but Tautou's interpretation struggles to win over the audience. Rather, her steely determination rubs off on you, leaving you strangely untouched by the central tragedy of the film.
Director Anne Fontaine wanted to focus on just one part of Chanel's life and much of the film is spent in a French chateau, where a love triangle slowly forms between the young Chanel and two men - Etienne Balsan (Poelvoorde) and Arthur Capel (Nivola).
Much like Chanel's signature designs, the film is precise, tailored and stylish - but conservative. Things are hinted at but rarely spelt out. The film seeks to explain how Chanel became the mogul she did and reveals various, subtle threads that shaped her life. But the whole thing feels like it is laying the foundations for the film you really want to see - the one about a glamorous designer conquering the world.
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