Review: Coco Avant Chanel
Coco avant Chanel reveals the story of the woman before she became the fashion icon. Director Anne Fontaine and the sublime Audrey Tautou bring to life the orphan Gabrielle Chanel and present the extraordinary history of this tenacious and talented woman.
From the orphanage to the cabaret, to a Baron’s back bedroom, Chanel’s beginnings are a series of cages. Such were the strictures of the ‘weaker sex’ in the early 20th century; though Chanel’s fierce and at times furious independence is well captured as she manipulates these circumstances to her advantage.
Coco Chanel was a role Tautou was born to play, and she certainly doesn’t disappoint. Her intricate performance sees a rather uncouth peasant transform in to an assertive and passionate businesswoman. The camera adores her face, the vibrancy of which is augmented by Christophe Beaucarne’s handheld camera. In fact, unlike most biopics, the cinematography avoids grand establishing shots in favour of a much more intimate portrayal of Chanel’s world, almost as if we were seeing it through her eyes.
The supporting cast matches Tautou’s masterful performance. Chanel becomes entangled in a love triangle, caught between the old and new world of class, commerce and independence. Her lovers, the Baron Étienne Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde) and Englishman ‘Boy’ Capel (Alessandro Nivola) are both given enough depth to avoid becoming mere thematic props, and both actors impress with their confidence and subtlety. American actor Nivola deserves special mention for holding his own in a demanding French role, while Emmanuelle Devos was also a stand out as the sensual showgirl Emilienne d’Alençon.
As a biopic of a French female icon, comparisons with 2007s La Vie en Rose are probably unavoidable. Yet unlike the epic lifetime of Edith Piaf, the strengths and weaknesses of Coco avant Chanel stem from the fact that it only shows Chanel’s early life. In choosing to focus on her beginnings, we get to see the detailed germination of Chanel’s interest in fashion, and the events that potentially contributed to her stoic and solitary life.
Unfortunately, however, the romanticism of the love triangle takes over her story, which sees her life and her fashion empire essentially become the sum total of her romantic dalliances. Now granted that given the era, it is probably anachronistic to assume Chanel’s upward social mobility could have been achieved without the help of men, yet the film’s focus on her lovers as the source of her astounding achievements still rankles a bit. In this way the film is annoyingly reminiscent of Becoming Jane.
For some Coco avant Chanel may end just where you’d like to begin. But the final parade of stunning clothes (from throughout Chanel’s career) are imbued with so much more meaning once you’ve spent some time with the ambitious and the androgynous Coco, before she all but disappeared behind the fashion fortress Maison de Chanel.
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Coco avant Chanel
Director: Anne Fontaine
Cast: Audrey Tautou,
Country: France
Australian Release Date: 25 June 2009
