COCO AVANT CHANEL

By
Elizabeth Marchetti
05/02/2010

Coco Chanel is a bit of a legend. A petite woman, she was the modern embodiment of style, yet maintained a mystery in her life that contributed to her allure. It would be an arduous task to tell her life story in less than two hours, so a film like "Coco Avant Chanel" is only a small piece of the puzzle.

Based on a book Edmonde Charles Roux, it´s not extremely accurate, but it makes for great story-telling. As the title justifies, this French colossal (by French standards) directed by Anne Fontaine deals with the phase pre- WWI in which Mademoiselle Coco is young and inexperienced, yet charming, talented and headstrong. We get the image of Coco as an orphan who grew up with little or nothing, but managed to seize every opportunity that life offered her. She is a blossoming woman burning with ambition, which works as a seamstress but doesn´t see fashion as her calling. Her dream is to move to Paris. Hence, she becomes the protégée of Étienne Balsan , a much older man (Benoit Poelvoorde). Living in his lavish castle, she soon gets bored of the routine of dinners and parties, and rebels to the image of women as an embellishment. So, fashion becomes her way of escaping and claiming back freedom- she starts creating her own tomboyish and practical designs as moral liberation. Meanwhile, she lowers her guard when she falls in love with a charming English self-made man, Arthur "Boy" Capel (Alessandro Nivola). A love triangle and tragedy, become unavoidable.

The film is a romantic and poignant costume drama, but it does little at explaining how Chanel became the fashion empire that it is today. What is fascinating is precisely this- the fragments. For example, of how the fishermen and the races inspired her in every day life. It´s subtle snapshots. In the end, it´s a film about the simple dreams of a complicated woman. Choosing Audrey Tatou as Coco is a no-brainer: she wears it well, and she hits the right notes in the portrayal of Coco´s contradictive character. But who is she, an opportunistic cynical or a romantic dreamer? It´s still hard to tell. To be fair, Tatou could probably melt ice just by batting her big brown eyes. But she gives Coco an earthly realness and roughness that contradicts her poised appearance.
The risk with "Coco Avan Chanel" was to create something style over substance, too pompous and frou frou. But it´s a stylishly simple in all its forms, making the luminous performances and beautiful dialogue stand out.