Coco Before Chanel
Description
Audrey Tautou (The Da Vinci Code, Amélie) shines in this intriguing portrait of the early life of Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, the orphan who would build a fashion empire and be known universally by her nickname, Coco. She journeys from a mundane seamstress job to boisterous cabarets to the opulent French countryside, possessing little more than her unwavering determination, unique style and visionary talent. Also starring Benoît Poelvoorde (In His Hands) and Alessandro Nivola (Junebug). Featuring lush settings and stunning costume design, Coco Before Chanel is the gripping and dramatic story of an icon who defied convention and defined the modern woman.Amazon.com
Before she became Coco, the world-famous fashi… More >>
February 8th, 2010 at 3:44 am
This film involves the life of Coco Chanel before she became a world famous designer. I found the film to be rather dull and very boring. 90% of the film involved Chanel’s affairs with two men Etiene Balsan and Arthur Capel and her feelings of alientation amongst those around her. It was interesting to know that it was Chanel’s own un-conventional way of looking at clothes which has led to our current notion of ‘chic’.
While I do realize that the film involves her life before she became famous. It would have been nice to see more about her creative process and her rise as a business woman. If your plan is to see this film to look at haute couture just pass.
Rating: 2 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 6:19 am
“Coco Before Chanel” is an interesting attempt at a biopic but rather little more. The story is told in good old fashioned way – no jumping back and forth, no experiments, and rather slowly too – the problem is that it takes so long that there is not enough time for the story to end in an interesting way. Or may be it was the idea from the start to get the audience begging for more? Another possibility is that they took it for granted that the audience knows what happened next. The French may know it, I don’t. Actually, I may be utterly wrong but I have a hunch that the life of Coco Chanel gets really interesting only once the movie ends.
– she hardly has a chance to smile… Chanel made her name as a dress designer? Well, don’t expect to see any. Coco in the movie spends quite a lot of time watching fishermen at work. Does she find them so sexy? Not really, she finds their apparel an inspiration for her designs but… you won’t see them in the movie. The fascination with how nicely the producers could recreate the fin-de-siecle provincial France on the screen reaches such proportions that it gets in the way of telling the story in an interesting manner. Too much attention to details, too little of a broader view.
This is a movie full of missed opportunities – Tautou has little chance to show her charms (she can do that, we all remember Amelie Poulain
The director and screenplay writer intended to present to the audience the humble beginnings of Coco Chanel’s career. The succeeded in that perfectly but the final result is far from perfect – there was, apparently, no room left for the actual career. All we get is a brief show just before credits rather loosely connected with what happened earlier – we just have to believe that she made it. They wanted to show how difficult it was to be an independent woman before the Great War. They succeeded again… but the message is brought to you in such a slow and painstaking manner that you hardly care in the end.
In short: a moderatly interesting biopic but not really a movie. Keep your expectations fairly low if you choose to buy it.
Rating: 4 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 9:12 am
This movie offers a glimpse into the intermittenly tragic life of Coco Chanel. It shows memorable bits and pieces of how she began to make her way into fame. Very enjoyable.
Rating: 5 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 9:28 am
A wonderful film, filled with rich, nuanced, adult sized performances. Although “Coco Avant Chanel” is about how Gabrielle Bonheur Chanels became “Coco” Chanel, it is also about the men in her life. Here the film shines, unexpectedly, as both the male leads are given well crafted flesh and blood characters by the writers, and above all by the actors Benoît Poelvoorde and Alessandro Nivola, and by the director.
Audrey Tautou is stunning. She combines in her embodiment of Coco a flinty, no nonsense resolve, and not a little ambivalence about men, with a willful charm and talent for displaying the subtle conflicts felt by Coco as she is torn between goals and love, comfort and freedom, poverty and success. If there was anyone born to play Coco it’s Audrey Tautou.
The film is directed by a female director, Anne Fontaine, which is cause for comment only because, in this French production, the hand of a female director does not produce the gratuitous, pandering pop-feminism and in your face attitudinizing that would be the norm in any American production. All the more remarkable in a film story about the rise of a strong willed woman in a man’s world to become one of the greatest names in fashion and commerce of her era, creating a brand that lives on with the highest reputation.
Instead, the director not only recreates a wonderfully detailed vista of French life and aristocratic pursuits but gives us three complex, willful and fully human figures, all presented in a beautiful production with a great story. French films frequently excel in this way, and also tend to come to meandering conclusions once the human insights have been made. This film suffers from this syndrome as well. But the time is well spent. Highly recommended.
Rating: 5 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 9:39 am
I’ll be VERY brief – already amazing reviews here.
Please-please don’t fogret that the movie is called “Coco BEFORE Chanel”.
It’s about her childhood and youth and HOW she became Chanel, not about fashion in general…although you can see already how great she will become, how she’s changing women’s fashion in the beginning of the century – simple hats,stunning glorious elegant dresses, no corsets,sailor shirts,mans pants,short hair & coveted little black dress and why…
She’s just starting out and the movie is showing you HOW – that’s the point!!!
P.S.A great movie to see after this one is “Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky” – not available yet,it was shown in Cannes and you can see the trailer on Youtube( the book is FINALLY available in States, I bought my copy of Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky in London in 2002.Buy the book for now – you won’t be able to put it down!!! I read it in 2 days. )
Rating: 5 / 5