MOVIE REVIEW
'Coco Before Chanel': A film with the same classic appeal as Chanel’s designs
“Coco Before Chanel” is a simple, elegant and well-crafted film with as much style and appeal as one of the iconic fashion designer’s legendary little black dresses.
The filmmakers, unlike those who made the regrettable “Coco Chanel” for Lifetime television in 2008, wisely chose to confine their story to what is arguably the most interesting time of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s life — the period before she became famous. By skirting the years when business ups and downs were paramount, the filmmakers have created a film with as much drama, tension and romance as a piece of fiction, resulting in a film that feels more like a costume drama than a biopic.
The film opens just after the death of Gabrielle’s mother. Her father, unable to care for his family on his own, leaves preteen Gabrielle (Audrey Tautou) and her sister Adrienne (Marie Gillain) at an orphanage. When they are older, the Chanel sisters work as seamstresses by day and sing in a music hall at night. They display more piquant charm than talent in their act (their girlish duet about a missing dog named Coco inspires her nickname), which helps distinguish them from the prostitutes who frequent the club in search of affluent male patrons.
There is a sense of deja vu to these early scenes, which call to mind the Edith Piaf biopic “La Vie en Rose.” Both films underscore the fact that for poor women of that era, finding a man for financial support was the only sure way out of destitution, and that the line between performer and prostitute, mistress and courtesan, was a fine one.
Adrienne falls in love with a rich married man, and moves off to one of his country homes to wait comfortably for him to divorce his wife. Coco, too, meets a rich man, bon vivant and playboy Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde), but unlike her romantic sister, Coco is coolly cynical about her prospects for love.
Coco’s tough demeanor hides a deep vulnerability that traces back to her abandonment by her father. Desperate for love but afraid of being left again, she insulates herself against it with sardonic quips and a steely tone. She chafes at the mention of the word love, and considers women in love to be pathetic and desperate fools. Nonetheless, with Adrienne gone, and her chances to make a career as a solo singer dashed, Coco travels to the country and presents herself to an accommodating Balsan.
The relationship between Coco and Balsan is fascinating to watch unfold. Coco remains largely aloof from Etienne’s affectionate advances, though she accepts them as part of the deal she has made for herself. But she resents when Balsan attempts to hide her away from his high-living crowd, and she insinuates herself into his circle with the stubborn determination that she will continue to display as she moves closer to launching her fashion career.
Balsan’s friends are intrigued by Coco, who by this time is showing her contempt for the contrived and confining fashions of the day and has taken to wearing simple, menswear-inspired outfits she has made from items in Balsan’s wardrobe. Among the most fascinated is the actress/ courtesan Emilienne (Emmanuelle Devos), who is intrigued by the way Coco eschews the fashion conventions that are her stock and trade — corsets, feathers and froufrou — and yet remains attractive to men and women alike. She becomes one of Coco’s first customers.
Most smitten with her is Balsan’s friend, British industrialist Arthur Boy Capel (Alessandro Nivola), who cracks Coco’s brittle facade. Unlike Balsan, who considers Coco’s sewing and hat-making hobbies she can do while living under his roof, Capel recognizes Coco’s fierce individuality, and encourages her to move into the city and set up shop. That their love is ill-fated heightens the drama and adds poignancy to a story of a woman who is tough as nails.
Throughout the film, writer and director Anne Fontaine gives the audience a sense of how Gabrielle takes her inspiration from the world around her, and how the roughness of her upbringing informed her aesthetic.
Perhaps the one disappointment for fashionistas is that many of the film’s fashions were made by costume designer Catherine Letterier, and glimpses of what will become Chanel’s most iconic looks are few and far between. However, Maison Chanel opened its archives and collections to the filmmakers, and the film’s stunning closing scene more than makes up for the lack of little tweed jackets and quilted handbags in the rest of the movie.
Coco Chanel is the role of a lifetime for Tautou, who is also the face of Chanel in corporate advertising. Though the actress might never fully divest herself of the gamine sweetness she embodied in “Amelie,” she comes close here. She imbues Coco with a fierce defensiveness, her eyes hardened with cynicism, her mouth — often seen dangling a cigarette — taut, as if holding some tart comment in reserve. Her Coco is blunt, serious, feisty — a woman far less easy to love than her designs.
COCO BEFORE CHANEL
Two and a half stars
STARRING: Audrey Tautou, Benoit Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola, Emmanuelle Devos
DIRECTOR: Anne Fontaine
RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes
RATING: PG-13 for sexual content and smoking
THE LOWDOWN: Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel rises from obscure beginnings to the heights of the fashion world.
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