Coco Before Chanel Review
COCO BEFORE CHANEL may have been avoided by some who thought the film might be a superficial sob story about a 'little girl that makes good' - another cutesy venue for Audrey Tautou fans. Nothing could be further from fact. Instead Writer/director Anne Fontaine (with Camille Fontaine) adapted the book by Edmonde Charles-Roux into a screenplay that is a serious look at times in La Belle Epoque France, a time when a little orphan girl and her sister made the best of losing parents, learning a trade, and using their fortitude to move into the upper circles of a society into which their presence was forbidden. Yes, this could have been a saccharine mess of a movie, but due to the writing, directing and acting it is exactly the opposite: nothing can defeat an indomitable spirit.
The film opens in France of 1893 as we see two sisters, motherless and with a father that is unable to cope, dropped off to an orphanage. The girls mature into Gabrielle/Coco (Audrey Tautou) and Adrienne (Marie Gillian) Chanel, gain skills as seamstresses and popularity for their singing at little parties. Adrienne falls for a man of wealth and leaves Coco to develop her skills as a designer of chapeaux and dresses. Her independent spirit is mirrored in the manner in which she does away with the excesses of contemporary garb (feather, birds, fake flowers, lots of ruffles and flounces and trains) and dresses in a more masculine, yet still very sophisticatedly beautiful way. She is noticed by a gentleman landowner, Étienne Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde) and Coco decides to take advantage of the comforts of wealth, moving in as Étienne's secret guest. Through Étienne's connection she meets French actress Emilienne d'Alençon (Emmanuelle Devos) who eagerly approves of Coco's fashion instincts and uses Coco's clothes in public and on stage, introducing the genius that wiil become Coco Chanel. Coco also meets a British investor Arthur 'Boy' Capel (Alessandro Nivola in an astonishingly fine role) who provides financing for a studio in Paris where Coco becomes a popular fashion designer - and also falls in love with Boy only to lose him in a automobile accident. By this time Coco's no nonsense approach to fashion - simplicity and understatement - has taken hold and the film ends with a parade on the Chanel stairway of mirrors of her magnificent creations: the saddened by indomitable Coco sits on the stairs as her models parade before an impressed audience.
Audrey Tautou continues to grow as an actress and this may be her finest achievement to date. She portrays Coco as a strong woman with a vulnerability she is able to camouflage. The entire cast is strong, with special nods to American born Alessandro Nivola who delivers his entire performance in impeccable French. The cinematography of Paris and the countryside is beautifully captured by cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne, the gorgeous costumes are the work of Catherine Leterrier, and the musical score is perfectly placed in the always capable hands of Alexandre Desplat. But much of the success of the film rests in the brilliant direction of Anne Fontaine who has managed to give us a fully three-dimensional picture of not only the brilliant Coco Chanel but of the times in Paris that nourished her rise and forever altered the way women would be perceived as equal to men. Excellent! Grady Harp, September 10
Coco Before Chanel Overview
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.
Coco Before Chanel Specifications
Before she became Coco, the world-famous fashion designer, Gabrielle Chanel (Audrey Tautou in a fiercely determined performance) struggled to make ends meet. After her mother's death, her father deposited her and her sister, Adrienne (Marie Gillain), at an orphanage, where they learned to sew (and where Chanel developed a taste for monochromatic ensembles). They went on to become cabaret singers, but when Adrienne runs off with a wealthy suitor, the newly christened Coco must go it alone until she meets gentleman farmer Étienne Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde). She lives comfortably at his chateau, but he refuses to take her out in public, so she puts her skills as a seamstress to good use and designs outfits for his lady friends, like Emilienne (Emmanuelle Devos), an actress. Chanel's situation improves further when British investor Arthur "Boy" Capel (Alessandro Nivola with an impeccable French accent) enters the scene. Her working-class origins present less of a problem with Capel, though the couple will have other issues with which to contend. In the meantime, he gives her the money to open her own Parisian studio, and the film ends with the tweed suit-clad Chanel of the popular imagination. Until that time, writer-director Anne Fontaine (The Girl from Monaco) presents a very different character, a woman who wasn't worldly or sophisticated, but who saw no reason why fashion--or "style," as she called it--should be complicated or uncomfortable. In transforming herself, Coco Chanel transformed an entire industry and, arguably, an entire gender. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Stills from Coco Before Chanel (Click for larger image)
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