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Coco Before Chanel (2009)

Director: Anne Fontaine

Time Out rating

Average user rating

12 reviews

Synopsis

Audrey Tautou stars in this lavish biopic of famed fashion designer Coco Chanel. Based on the novel by Edmonde Charles-Roux.

Movie review

From Time Out London

Read our interview with the director of Coco Before Chanel here

Before Chanel, Coco was a dirt-poor child abandoned at an orphanage: hardly original territory for a biopic. But if it hadn’t been for her tough early life – itinerant father, years in care, brief early career as a tavern singer – she might never have had the gumption to found an iconoclastic fashion house. Coco wasn’t always Chanel, but she was never ordinary.

Anne Fontaine’s film has two interests: clothes and Audrey Tautou. The outfits are purposefully terrible: Coco’s early homemade monstrosities may have been original, but they didn’t have much else over the corseted excesses of the Edwardian era. But Tautou is wonderful – a black-eyed urchin so sullen and furious you forget how beautiful she is until she smiles. Not that she has a great deal to smile about, trapped in poverty and in Paris with no idea what to make of her life.

Attempting to flee the restrictions she was born with, she turns up on a rich but boorish lover’s doorstep and starts cutting down men’s clothes. These are the keys to her personality, and director Anne Fontaine handles them with respect. It must have been tempting to make the clothes prettier and the lover, Belsan (Benoît Poelvoorde), more chivalrous, but that kind of compromise would hardly have been true to the spirit of a heroine who was never one for seeing anyone else’s viewpoint, much less accommodating it. Belsan treats her abominably, but he also introduces her to the high life and to handsome Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel (Alessandro Nivola): it’s hard to say which she takes to more.

Fontaine’s film is gorgeous, but its beauty is practical, almost textile, like a Chanel tweed. It has its own excesses: if Boy had been the hero we see here, he’d have snorted at convention and married her. But, Chanel, an inveterate fantasist who fabricated her origins as assiduously as her suits, would have preferred this version. Only a late flashback, before the glamorous finale, is unworthy – Tautou, her heavy-browed little face a-glimmer with memory, simply doesn’t require its help.

Author: Nina Caplan 2009-07-28 11:17:06

Time Out London Issue 2032, 29 July -4 August, 2009

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User reviews of this film

Paul said...

Posted on Sep 25 2009 09:00 I am so pleased I caught this on the last of its run here and went in expecting a poor film based on so many mixed reviews. I loved the film and could see it again for so many great scenes and laying the foundations of the Chanel look. I loved the pace and description of the isolation of individuality. Certainly Tautou looks amazing on screen and walks an unexpected line of sexual ingenue and FTM look. Thank god the Edwardian look has gone forever, the women did look like old lampshades on legs! Will definately see this film again to enjoy more of richness.

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Looby said...

Posted on Sep 18 2009 19:39 absolute drivel - hated it. Dull and really cringe-worthy in places. I love tatou but even she failed to save this film. Some unbelievably wooden acting - I can't believe that somebody said "yes I'm happy with this film let's release it" !!!!
Do yourself a favour and give it a wide berth!

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CEC said...

Posted on Sep 07 2009 10:09 Er, what's the "post-Amelie curse" exactly? If you're implying Tatou hasn't made a good film since Amelie, might I refer you in the direction of the gorgeous, heartbreaking masterpiece A very long engagement.

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Sarah said...

Posted on Aug 21 2009 09:47 Good performance from Audrey Tautou but overall on the verge of boring.

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Volga said...

Posted on Aug 11 2009 17:24 A really good piece, truly inspiring. Every moment is enjoyable there... the only disadvantage there is no continuation. Who interested in life of Carl Lagerfeld?

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Liz H said...

Posted on Aug 11 2009 09:01 This was really great. A film like this always prompts me to look into the history of events and more background to what was happening at that time . Loved it. Also on a date with a gorgeous man. He was pleased we went to see Coco and not the Ugly Truth which I will avoid. Vive les fims étrangers!

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Suzy said...

Posted on Aug 07 2009 17:48 I would recommend this film. I am not especially interested in fashion, but the early life story of Coco was fascinating and the story kept moving at a good pace. I would have liked more information at the end about the rest of her life as this film only covered up until she became a success. Overall really interesting and worth seeing.

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Clive said...

Posted on Aug 06 2009 13:34 didn't cover anything about her life as a clown.

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joss said...

Posted on Aug 05 2009 13:41 i have recently come out of the closet and this film is the perfect first date, which i enjoyed with my new man.

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Andrew Howe said...

Posted on Aug 02 2009 22:02 Coco is so-so. It plods along lacking dramatic drive. I ended up not caring about her one bit. Imterestingly, she fraternised with the germans during WW2 but was reprieved of war-crime charges by the British royal family. A manipulative, self-serving person of undoubtedly extraordinary talent.

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Sally said...

Posted on Aug 01 2009 12:52 Very good movie. I agree what Emily said. 4 stars!

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Emily said...

Posted on Jul 15 2009 23:56 Very well acted. Interesting historically about the life of Coco (Chanel) as a young woman, before she became so famous.

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