"Before she was France's famous mademoiselle..."
Directed by Anne Fontaine
Produced by Simon Arnal, Caroline Benjo, Philippe Carcassonne, Carole Scotta
Written by Anne Fontaine, Camille Fontaine
Based on "Chanel and Her World" by Edmonde Charles-Roux
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Benoît Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola, Marie Gillain, Emmanuelle Devos
Music by Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography: Christophe Beaucarne
Edited by Luc Barnier
Production company: Haut et Court, Ciné@, France 2 Cinéma
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics
Release date: 22 April 2009 (Belgium)
Running time: 105 minutes
Country: France, Belgium
Budget: $19,430,000
Box office: $50,813,834
"Coco Before Chanel" is a biographical drama film about the early life of famed French fashion designer Coco Chanel.
Cast
- Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel
- Benoît Poelvoorde as Étienne Balsan
- Alessandro Nivola as Arthur Capel
- Marie Gillain as Adrienne Chanel
- Emmanuelle Devos as Émilienne d’Alençon
"Coco Before Chanel" is my first acquaintance with Anne Fontaine, the director of the film. Telling the truth, I'm going to watch her other pictures. For example, "Gemma Bovery" (2014) and "Nathalie..." (2003). Works of Anne Fontaine are often categorised as psychological drama. She told a UK newspaper, "I try to work on my characters' blind side, in a kind of Freudian way: to ask, 'What are the things about themselves that they're unaware of?' I'm fascinated by the irony of fate, when something goes into a skid. All my stories have an element of cruelty in them." I'll look for these things more attentively next time.
The main role was performed by Audrey Tautou, who is well-known for "Venus Beauty Institute" (1999), "Amélie" (2001), "The Da Vinci Code" (2006), "A Very Long Engagement" (2004). Her Coco sank deep into my mind and I can't explain specifically why. A strong woman almost from nowhere became a style icon. Amazingly! Moreover, Coco Chanel is an important figure not only for history but for me in particular.
As for other members of the cast, I want to note acting of such actor and actress as Alessandro Nivola and Emmanuelle Devos. Nivola as Arthur Capel attracted my attention with his role of Coco's lover and muse, while Devos was magnetic in role of Émilienne d’Alençon, the first woman who tried Chanel's works on.
"Strangenesses"
Advantages
- Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel
- Alessandro Nivola as Arthur Capel
- The good story
Disadvantages
- Not close to the truth
"Strangenesses"
- A viewer can seen almost only Coco's romance
Clue Moments
- Meeting with Balsan
- Meeting with Capel
As Chanel once said,“luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.” I absolutely agree with this statement: if you don't feel free, you aren't free in fact, despite all circumstances. That great woman carried out a true revolution in fashion industry. Moreover, I consider her as a feminist because she was aiming for a certain sex equality. Anyway, of clothes and lifestyle. Therefore Coco Chanel inspires me: she achieved much success even although she was a woman that was strange at that time. All in all, exactly thanks to her the image of a modern woman was formed - I can't imagine what would have been today without her.
According to bio., fashion designer Coco Chanel, born August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France, is famous for her timeless designs, trademark suits, and little black dresses. Chanel was raised in an orphanage and taught to sew. She had a brief career as a singer before opening her first clothes shop in 1910. In the 1920s, she launched her first perfume and introduced the Chanel suit and the little black dress.
Her early years, however, were anything but glamorous. After her mother’s death, Chanel was put in an orphanage by her father who worked as a peddler. She was raised by nuns who taught her how to sew — a skill that would lead to her life’s work. Her nickname came from another occupation entirely. During her brief career as a singer, Chanel performed in clubs in Vichy and Moulins where she was called “Coco.” Some say that the name comes from one of the songs she used to sing, and Chanel herself said that it was a “shortened version of cocotte, the French word for ‘kept woman,” according to an article in The Atlantic.
Opening her first shop on Paris’s Rue Cambon in 1910, Chanel started out selling hats. She later added stores in Deauville and Biarritz and began making clothes. Her first taste of clothing success came from a dress she fashioned out of an old jersey on a chilly day. In response to the many people who asked about where she got the dress, she offered to make one for them. “My fortune is built on that old jersey that I’d put on because it was cold in Deauville,” she once told author Paul Morand.
In the 1920s, Chanel took her thriving business to new heights. She launched her first perfume, Chanel No. 5, which was the first to feature a designer’s name. Perfume “is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion. . . . that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure,” Chanel once explained.
In 1925, she introduced the now legendary Chanel suit with collarless jacket and well-fitted skirt. Her designs were revolutionary for the time — borrowing elements of men’s wear and emphasizing comfort over the constraints of then-popular fashions. She helped women say good-bye to the days of corsets and other confining garments.
Another 1920s revolutionary design was Chanel’s little black dress. She took a color once associated with mourning and showed just how chic it could be for eveningwear. In addition to fashion, Chanel was a popular figure in the Paris literary and artistic worlds. She designed costumes for the Ballets Russes and for Jean Cocteau’s play Orphée, and counted Cocteau and artist Pablo Picasso among her friends. For a time, Chanel had a relationship with composer Igor Stravinsky.
The international economic depression of the 1930s had a negative impact on her company, but it was the outbreak of World War II that led Chanel to close her business. She fired her workers and shut down her shops. During the German occupation of France, Chanel got involved with a German military officer, Hans Gunther von Dincklage. She got special permission to stay in her apartment at the Hotel Ritz. After the war ended, Chanel was interrogated by her relationship with von Dincklage, but she was not charged as a collaborator. Some have wondered whether friend Winston Churchill worked behind the scenes on Chanel’s behalf.
While not officially charged, Chanel suffered in the court of public opinion. Some still viewed her relationship with a Nazi officer as a betrayal of her country. Chanel left Paris, spending some years in Switzerland in a sort of exile. She also lived at her country house in Roquebrune for a time.
At the age of 70, Chanel made a triumphant return to the fashion world. She first received scathing reviews from critics, but her feminine and easy-fitting designs soon won over shoppers around the world.
Coco Chanel died on January 10, 1971, at her apartment in the Hotel Ritz. She never married, having once said “I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird.” Hundreds crowded together at the Church of the Madeleine to bid farewell to the fashion icon. In tribute, many of the mourners wore Chanel suits.
A little more than a decade after her death, designer Karl Lagerfeld took the reins at her company to continue the Chanel legacy. Today her namesake company continues to thrive and is believed to generate hundreds of millions in sales each year.
Soundtracks
- Alexandre Desplat - Arthur Capel
- Alexandre Desplat - Avenue du Bois
- Alexandre Desplat - Casino de Deauville
- Alexandre Desplat - Chez Chanel
- Alexandre Desplat - Coco and Boy
- Alexandre Desplat - Coco reve de Paris
- Alexandre Desplat - Confession de Balsan
- Alexandre Desplat - Couture
- Alexandre Desplat - Gabrielle Bonheur
- Alexandre Desplat - Labandon
- Alexandre Desplat - LAtelier
- Alexandre Desplat - Le Chagrin de Coco
- Alexandre Desplat - LHippodrome
- Alexandre Desplat - Premier baiser
- Alexandre Desplat - Royallieu
- Alexandre Desplat - Un seul Amour
- Audrey Tautou, Marie Gillain - Qui qua vu Coco
- Vanessa Wagner - Little Black Baby
Quotations
* * *
Nun: Girls who have visitors, follow me.Gabrielle Chanel, 10 ans: Come on. Come on, let's go.
Adrienne Chanel, 10 ans: I don't want to.
* * *
Étienne Balsan: A woman who cuts her hair, is about to change her life.
* * *
Arthur 'Boy' Capel: Better to be a mistress than a wife.
* * *
You may see the trailer here.
Plot: 7/10
Entertainment: 7/10
Acting: 8/10
Originality: 7/10
Music and Sound: 6/10
7/10
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