Film Festival 09 - Coco Before Chanel
Coco before Chanel
Coco avant Chanel, France 2009, 105m
Director: Anne Fontaine
Audrey Tautou puts Amélie far behind her with a stunning
interpretation of the headstrong, self-sufficient designer who, in
pre-First World War France, was one of the first women to assert
herself in a man's world.
"Born poor in 1883 in rural France, Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel
overcame her lack of breeding via a keen eye, forthright manner and
revolutionary approach to women's tailoring that, incredibly,
transformed a gruff peasant girl into the embodiment of chic. The
iconic innovator lived to be 87 but Fontaine wisely concentrates on
the stretch of time specified in the title, as Chanel scrambles to
get by, absorbs visual inspiration from her surroundings and
unabashedly uses men to get closer to Paris&
The screenwriters have taken liberties with chronology that may
upset fashion purists but the broad outline of alliances,
influences, lucky breaks and tragedy rings true& Bearing a
striking resemblance to the real woman, Tautou communicates
Chanel's emancipated, fearless approach to life and her steely
resolve, while letting subtle layers of hurt, humiliation and grief
show through her pride." - Lisa Nesselson, Screendaily
"Spectacle, a love triangle, heritage settings, bravura acting,
witty dialogue, a bittersweet finale: there's something for
everyone in Anne Fontaine's Coco before Chanel& There also is -
not the least of the movie's pleasures - the sense of a keen
intelligence marshaling and shaping the material, shunning
cliché and sentimentality and creating meaning out of what
for once is not the standard biopic procedure of ticking off the
boxes in a celebrity CV." - Bernard Besserglik, Hollywood
Reporter
In French with English subtitles
