By snoadmin
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was an artist. But before she devoted her life to women’s couture, she was a lover.
Anne Fontaine’s French biopic film, “Coco Before Chanel,” manages to show Chanel’s life before fashion without annoying the audience with her obvious iconic image.
Audrey Tautou’s portrayal of Chanel is perfection. Although not completely a gorgeous woman, Tautou manages to bring out the lover in Chanel in a majestic way.
Chanel was unlike other women in the early 20th century. She doesn’t wear corsets, she wears pants, and is oblivious to lady-like manners. Tautou takes all of those rebellious habits and manages to be elegant and delicate at the same time.
The film starts off as a melancholy tale told one too many times. Chanel’s father abandoned her and her sister, Adrienne (Marie Gillian), in an orphanage one day. Every Sunday, Chanel would wait for her father only to find out her wait was in vain.
Chanel’s resentment toward men plays out in the film. Chanel doesn’t believe in love. She thinks men are meant for sex and even pities the idea. While working as a cabaret performer, Chanel meets a rich horse-racer Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde). In a way, Balsan is Chanel’s savior. He rescues her from poverty.
The relationship between Chanel and her rich friend Balsan is no more than sex. However, both develop a bond and a chemistry that is almost sickening, but I mean that in the most flattering way. Chanel and Balsan become family, like a brother and a sister, who are infatuated with one another.
Later in the film comes Chanel’s one true love, Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel (Alessandro Nivola), a fair English soul. The moment when these two lock eyes is magical, even in film. Chanel sneaks into a room where Capel is playing a minor melody on the piano and becomes interested in the beautiful man. The two are in awkward situations and forced to talk to each other. Capel becomes interested in this boyish woman who refuses to wear a corset and both eventually fall in love.
The direction and acting in “Coco Before Chanel” make this foreign film unravel like a romantic novel. The relationships built in the film are so strong. One falls in love with them as they fall in love with each other. Fontaine is able to transcend that passion the characters feel for one another and because of that her version of Coco Chanel’s life is near perfection.
There are times when the film starts to fall flat because it lacks conflict, but Fontaine distracts the viewer with the characters’ obsession for one another.
In the end, the viewer leaves with a sense that all Chanel went through inspired her as a designer.
