REVIEW: COCO AVANT CHANEL

After much publicity, director Anne Fontaine brings us the highly-anticipated Coco Chanel biopic Coco Avant Chanel. The film stars the enchanting Audrey Tautou (Amélie, The Da Vinci Code) as Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, an impoverished girl who dreams of stardom and eventually plots her own path to success.

In this film we learn that Chanel started off working as a seamstress during the day, while moonlighting along with her sister Adrienne (Marie Gillain) as bar entertainers. After failing to impress as an entertainer, Chanel catches the eye of Baron Balsan (Ben Poolvoorde) with whom she has a complicated affair with, paving her way into the life of the French elite. It is her no-nonsense charm and unconventional sense of style that leaves an impression on the influencial. This enables her to develop the connections she needs to break out on her own after struggling to find a true passion in life. Along the way, Chanel falls in love with one of Baron Balsan's colleagues Arthur Capel (Alessandro Nivola), more affectionately known as Boy. Sadly though, Capel dies in a car accident just as Chanel is thriving as a hat designer. It is this tragic turn of events that inspires her to devote herself completely to fashion and fragrance, becoming France's most prominent Mademoiselle.

Interestingly, Sony Pictures Classics is distributing both Coco Avant Chanel and another forthcoming Chanel pic Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky. I saw the latter recently at TIFF and enjoyed it very much. The former focuses primarily on Chanel's early life prior to her becoming an iconic figure. She is depicted as being a rebellious spirit, who is vulnerable yet still full of hope and ambition. The Chanel portrayed in the latter is hardened by years of toil and heartbreak after Capel's untimely death. Really, both films are meant to complement one another and should be seen in succession.


Like Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky however, Coco Avant Chanel lacks any focus on the fundamental creative aspects of Chanel's rise as one of the biggest icons of her era. The decision is made in both films to dwell mostly on her love life which makes for good cinema, but at the same time defeats the true purpose of a biopic - to educate. Nonetheless, I enjoyed Coco Avant Chanel immensely and walked away from it feeling nothing but sympathy for her. Despite her great success, Chanel was a true romantic who never fully gave her heart to anyone else after her first true love had died. As it would seem on film, Chanel never fully was able to celebrate her success and this if anything is tragic.

Aside from all of this, the costumes (especially at the end) are stunning, as is the art direction and cinematography. Tautou's understated elegance drives this film and she will most definitely be a contender as Best Actress come Oscars time. Coco Avant Chanel continues to expand throughout North America and hopefully will be coming to your city soon. Grade: A-.