Published: Friday, October 16, 2009
‘Coco’ builds steam on complicated relationships
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Associated Press/Sony Pictures Classics, Chantal T
Audrey Tautou portrays the youthful Coco Chanel, before her fame, in “Coco Before Chanel.”
Is there something in the air about the fashion world? Documentaries profiling big-name designers keep coming like clockwork, and “The September Issue” is all about Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour.
“Coco Before Chanel” joins this glossy parade, although this film’s existence probably has more to do with the international success of “La Vie en Rose,” the Oscar-winning bio of Edith Piaf, than with the fashion boom.
Like “La Vie en Rose,” “Coco” tells a rags-to-riches tale of a legendary French cultural figure. This time it’s Coco Chanel, the most famous fashionista of her time.
As the title suggests, the movie concentrates on Chanel’s youth, the rocky road toward her fame and fortune.
Along with providing much-needed focus (many biopics stumble in trying to cover everything), this also allows the movie to leave out Chanel’s less than admirable behavior during the German occupation of France in World War II.
A prologue shows Coco and her sister being dropped at an orphanage by their widowed father at a young age.
Skip ahead to find the sisters performing saloon songs in the provinces, where Coco (now played by Audrey Tautou) comes under the wing of a rich playboy, Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde).
Other than occasionally stitching away at a hat or two, there’s not much foreshadowing of Coco’s future — except that she’s a bossy woman who demands to be taken on her own terms (much to the frequent astonishment of her benefactor).
The relationship between Coco and Balsan is admirably complex, even though she’s a mistress who depends on him for her welfare. It would be easy to depict him as a one-note upper-class sleaze, but the film accepts the complicated nature of their relationship and suggests it was about, at the end of the day, mutual affection.
That’s almost the only interesting aspect of this movie, which is directed by Anne Fontaine (of the recent “Girl from Monaco”). The late-arriving love of Coco’s life, a polo-playing Englishman (Alessandro Nivola), pales by comparison.
Audrey Tautou looks dour and drawn, as though she’s determined to erase her sparkling “Amelie” image.
The movie’s Coco Chanel is refreshingly blunt and none too eager to please, which is a nice bit of honesty but makes for a somewhat tedious heroine.
At various points Coco lies without missing a beat, as though she believed her own fiction (mostly about her upbringing).
That’s an intriguing thread, but the film doesn’t follow through, unless it has a sequel in mind — which won’t be called “Chanel No. 5,” even though that would make a good title.
“Coco Before Chanel” ½
Audrey Tautou stars as the famed fashionista Coco Chanel, although this film covers Coco’s hard-luck, hard-working youth, from orphanage to mistress of a wealthy man, a complicated relationship that provides the movie’s main source of interest. The film is a rather dour experience and can’t coast on songs the way “La Vie en Rose” did.
In French, with English subtitles.
Rated: PG-13 for subject matter
Showing: Harvard Exit
“Coco Before Chanel” joins this glossy parade, although this film’s existence probably has more to do with the international success of “La Vie en Rose,” the Oscar-winning bio of Edith Piaf, than with the fashion boom.
Like “La Vie en Rose,” “Coco” tells a rags-to-riches tale of a legendary French cultural figure. This time it’s Coco Chanel, the most famous fashionista of her time.
As the title suggests, the movie concentrates on Chanel’s youth, the rocky road toward her fame and fortune.
Along with providing much-needed focus (many biopics stumble in trying to cover everything), this also allows the movie to leave out Chanel’s less than admirable behavior during the German occupation of France in World War II.
A prologue shows Coco and her sister being dropped at an orphanage by their widowed father at a young age.
Skip ahead to find the sisters performing saloon songs in the provinces, where Coco (now played by Audrey Tautou) comes under the wing of a rich playboy, Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde).
Other than occasionally stitching away at a hat or two, there’s not much foreshadowing of Coco’s future — except that she’s a bossy woman who demands to be taken on her own terms (much to the frequent astonishment of her benefactor).
The relationship between Coco and Balsan is admirably complex, even though she’s a mistress who depends on him for her welfare. It would be easy to depict him as a one-note upper-class sleaze, but the film accepts the complicated nature of their relationship and suggests it was about, at the end of the day, mutual affection.
That’s almost the only interesting aspect of this movie, which is directed by Anne Fontaine (of the recent “Girl from Monaco”). The late-arriving love of Coco’s life, a polo-playing Englishman (Alessandro Nivola), pales by comparison.
Audrey Tautou looks dour and drawn, as though she’s determined to erase her sparkling “Amelie” image.
The movie’s Coco Chanel is refreshingly blunt and none too eager to please, which is a nice bit of honesty but makes for a somewhat tedious heroine.
At various points Coco lies without missing a beat, as though she believed her own fiction (mostly about her upbringing).
That’s an intriguing thread, but the film doesn’t follow through, unless it has a sequel in mind — which won’t be called “Chanel No. 5,” even though that would make a good title.
“Coco Before Chanel” ½
Audrey Tautou stars as the famed fashionista Coco Chanel, although this film covers Coco’s hard-luck, hard-working youth, from orphanage to mistress of a wealthy man, a complicated relationship that provides the movie’s main source of interest. The film is a rather dour experience and can’t coast on songs the way “La Vie en Rose” did.
In French, with English subtitles.
Rated: PG-13 for subject matter
Showing: Harvard Exit
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