Customer Reviews

Coco Before Chanel ( Coco avant Chanel ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ]

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'm a guy. Okay. Let's get that out of the bag right now. I'm not overly fond of what I wear. Blue jeans and a t-shirt suit me just fine for most occasions. So when my wife wanted me to watch a foreign film about some gal named "Chanel" who was a famous clothes designer, I felt like I was in for an early bedtime (I can easily fall asleep during boring films).

So we slipped the DVD in and proceeded to watch what I assumed would be an incredibly monotonous film about a lady making clothing. I could hear my wife already: "Oooh. Isn't that beautiful." Or "Look how well she hemmed that pinafore" (whatever the hell a pinafore is ...and can you hem it? I still don't know).

But, much to my surprise, the film was more a myopic on the early life of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. Hence the name Coco BEFORE Chanel. Duh. Guess I should've paid better attention to the title.

There's certainly information and dress-wear visuals throughout, but the movie is more honed toward what made Coco who she would become later in life. Audrey Tautou plays the prime role of Coco and does so with grace, beauty, and a unique gruffness and individuality that struck me as incredibly honest (I did not enjoy her performance in The Da Vinci Code, so this was a nice change). She really carried the entire film and made every scene extremely watchable.

But the screenplay by writer/director Anne Fontaine was what helped keep this film together. Like I said at the beginning of my review, I felt that if it had expressly focused on clothing and the making of clothing, I would've been sawing some serious Zs before 30 minutes into the film. But I wasn't. Similar in concept to The Devil Wears Prada (which I also enjoyed mostly because of Meryl Streeps stellar performance), the film never lingers overly long on things that simply don't matter at that point in Coco's life. It is her lovers, her fiery desire to do something with her life, and her heartbreaks that made her who she would become, not the clothes (those were developing and came later).

So if you're like me, and don't know Chanel from Shinola, you still might give this one a try. Your wife will probably love it, and you'll score some points with her for watching it. Just don't give her the credit cards after finishing it. I just looked online at the cost of Chanel wear and ...well ...you don't wanna know.

Coco Before Chanel is aptly titled; it follows Coco Chanel from her time in an orphanage, but it stops where most people become familiar with her story. The film stars the delightful Audrey Tatou as Coco. Perhaps my favorite thing about Coco Before Chanel was it's honesty. I confess to loving the feel-good rags to riches biopics as much as anyone, but it's rare to see a biographical film provide hope with honesty and without sappiness. Most of the film is not feel good. It's hardly depressing, but it is real. Coco didn't have an easy life. She and her sister were orphans, and they fought for opportunities. Coco makes some decisions she may not be proud of, but she doesn't regret them. She doesn't have the dream of becoming a fashion designer from day one, just as few of us truly know what we'll end up doing from the beginning. Her skills, experience and desire for self-sufficiency slowly evolve to lead her to it.

The film is a little slow, but it's similar to the pace of her life. It seems like it's not going anywhere for awhile, and if you didn't know what Chanel is, you might think that. I personally thought the subtitles were a little fast. My French is decent enough to understand some of the dialogue, but I often read the subtitle before the characters had begun to speak their lines. The beautiful lulls of dialogue featured the next subtitle, which threw off the pace a bit for me.

The beauty of the film comes in its last half hour, when it becomes clear the slowness was in fact subtlety leading to a mesmerizing and poetic final half-hour. It's the kind of film one might be tempted to stop watching if she were at home, but ends up loving. It truly is a film that is the sum of it's parts. It works as a whole, but it's not necessarily riveting from the opening frame.

It's a beautifully feminist film; it's an honest look at one woman's struggle and journey for her place in the world. It's not a film with universal appeal, but it is a fantastic, beautiful, and inspiring film. If you like foreign films, historical films, biopics and strong female leads, then I highly recommend this film.

This film about Coco Chanel in her early years is a delight to see. The cinematography is beautiful, the musical score romantic, the actors make the characters come to life. This film is more about her early relationships and first love and her non-conformistic view on fashion and independence. I loved every minute of it. Audrey Tautou is wonderful as Coco. Alessandro Nivola is a captivating Boy Chapel and Benoit Poelvoorde is a great cast as Balsan.

If you are looking for a fashion history with lots of dresses a la project runway, this is not your movie. It is a moving portrait of the very early life and influences on Coco Chanel. The film is beautifully shot, scored, acted, and subtitled. As other reviewers have noted for the CD sountrack,the music is fabulous, and the movie is visually gorgeous. The acting is superb. Audrey Tautou is another great french beauty and star; I'm sure I will not be the first to compare her to Katherine Deneuve.
This movie unflinchingly shows the young women of the time for whom love with marriage was rarely an option as they were simply chattel forced to marry well by birth, become nuns, sleep their way to wealth and security as mistresses and courteseans, or have nothing as prostitutes. The only single working women other than prostitutes and a few writers were on the stage, in convents,or providing clothes for wealthy women. The film follows the young Coco through her world as a abandoned child in a catholic orphanage and then a mistress/houseguest of a vastly wealthy nobleman. It touches on her good luck in timing to get her accounts away from her lover in time to save her fledgling business.
We see how the lifestyles and even the health of wealthy and frivolous women were drastically changed by the comfort and function of her designs and her eye for beauty. This picture is a period piece that builds slowly, is very French and assumes you already know a bit about Chanel. It is at times quite subtle leaving a lot of the plot obvious but not presented onscreen. It would companion well with a more detailed documentary like "Chanel Chanel" with Chanel and Lagerfield, but it does present an excellent picture of "Coco's" youth and is a good picture on its own. The whole picture is beautifully acted eye candy and the dessert at the end is lovely as we are given a show of Chanel looks throughout her life. I did not give it five stars only because at times I think it was a bit too subtle as those not familiar with the period could watch the film and not fully understand the dramatic changes in the lives of women led by the dramatic changes in fashion they were witnessing.

Loved Tautou as Chanel in this beautiful biopic! It covers Coco's life as a young child and then proceeds to adulthood as she finds her passion for fashion! It is beautifully filmed and tells the story of her life in lush detail as she proceeds from a not-so-talented cabaret singer to a seamstress and then to the quintessential and innovative designer of haute couture and gorgeous yet sensible fashion. I loved it! I can't wait until it is released all over the US or released as a DVD so I can see it again. I highly recommend it!

Coco Chanel lied habitually about her life; she didn't like it, so she made up a better one. Anne Fontaine has created one possible version of Coco's formative years, settling on a girl who is perpetually observing, who grows up into a woman who surprises herself with her influence. Audrey Tautou is almost determined to be grim, an anti-Amelie, in her portrayal of this haunted, driven woman. Benoit Poelvoorde is astonishing as Etienne Balsan, one of the men she uses and is used by -- and ultimately develops a friendship with. He is bawdy, raucous, jaded ... and falls in love with Coco when it's too late. His scenes with her when he realizes his mistake are mesmerizing. "Does that bother you?" she asks, about her leaving for Paris with Arthur Capel, and he simply replies, "Affreusement (frightfully)." Watch how Poelvoorde turns him from a cad into her friend. And Alessandro Nivola did one of the wildest, dumbest things when he agreed to learn French for this role. It's not clear whether he should be commended or committed. Commended, I suppose, because his accent stays pretty good -- and it was a good decision not to cast an English actor precisely because of the accent. It's Nivola's English accent that is a little dodgy here and there. I can't think what to make of his characterization. On the one hand, Coco is attracted to restraint, and presumably he had that personally. On the other, the effect is somewhat that his foreign lines are too studied for him to deliver naturally. Nevertheless an interesting performance from him.

Emmanuelle Devos is always good, and she's great here as a composite of two people in Coco's life at this time. Likewise Marie Gillain as another composite of her sister/aunt.

Coco and her sister were abandoned by their father, raised in an orphanage, and according to the conventions of the time, destined for little but prostitution or the life of a mistress. The movie depicts a silent girl who above all becomes a keen observer of the textures of her world: the nuns' habits, the excesses of women's dress of the period. This point is somewhat overdone by the end of the film, but nevertheless makes the point that she developed her sense of style by paying close attention to everything she saw; in some sense she sensed also that she needed to see more in order for that to develop. Her sense of style, her sense of restraint, became her armor against the pains of her existence, but not even it can protect her at a pivotal moment with Arthur.

At the end, a time-warping retrospective of her work in a re-creation of her famous salon in Paris reminds us that, with little in the way of resources, she made a lasting impression on the world. I found the substance of the movie far more dramatic than I would have thought; impressive performances make it a movie you must see.

I rented this and I am so Thankful I did. I speak English, Spanish, Italian, some German and learning French. However I wanted to badly to see the early life of Coco that I did rent it. I have to say unless you do understand and or speak French do not rent or buy this film. When it comes to the so called " sub titles", they are not there for us. At times there are none, then they will appear suddenly way behind making no meaning to watch is currently showing. I am sure that if I spoke French fluently I would have enjoyed the film. It is for this reason that I must say take a chance rent it if you are not fluent in French. As well the manufacture is at fault for the worngful sub tilting on the dvd. Hope this helps even one person who is thinking on renting this film prior to buying it. Cheers, Peace & Blessings.

I'll be VERY brief - already amazing reviews here.
Please-please don't fogret that the movie is called "Coco BEFORE Chanel".
It's about her childhood and youth and HOW she became Chanel, not about fashion in general...although you can see already how great she will become, how she's changing women's fashion in the beginning of the century - simple hats,stunning glorious elegant dresses, no corsets,sailor shirts,mans pants,short hair & coveted little black dress and why...
She's just starting out and the movie is showing you HOW - that's the point!!!
P.S.A great movie to see after this one is "Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky" - not available yet,it was shown in Cannes and you can see the trailer on Youtube( the book is FINALLY available in States, I bought my copy of Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky in London in 2002.Buy the book for now - you won't be able to put it down!!! I read it in 2 days. )

Gabrielle Coco Channel with her personallity, fashion designs and perfume line is an icon for fashion industry. I have read many books about her and she definitely was fascinating and determined woman. This film is focusing on her early life, from the time she and her sister were dropped off at the orphanage until the time when she starter fer haute couture business in Paris. However, I find film to be showing her life as a romantic adventure and I firmly believe that it was anything but.

Audrey Tautou gives wonderful performance of a woman who was both strong and fragile. Coco was determined to separate herself from the crowd she is surrounded with. After all, her involvement with rich Parisian military officer has proved to her that she did not belong to the social classes of the higher standing and she had to pave her own way to financial independence. Although film focuses on her petite constitution and propensity to wear men's clothing - it does not address the fact that Coco earned her fame after WWI when she started sawing women's clothing from untraditional heavy materials such as wool, boucle and others.

The end of film is absolutely fascinating - the run show of her finest feminine dresses and hats is breathtaking. Definitely a film worth watching. Fine acting, music and clothes all around.

If you like costume dramas, you will like this movie as it regales in early 20th century fashion with young Coco cutting through the frilly Victorian outfits with her clean cut dresses and peasant suits and hats. Unfortunately, the movie didn't seem to rise very far beyond beautiful photo shoots with the most interesting character being the Baron Balsan, who provides much needed humor given Coco's deadpan earnestness, as if she were taking on the world.

Of course Coco Chanel is one of the 20th century's fashion giants, but there was hardly anything original in her work at the time. It was just that she found herself in a stuffy environment and managed to design her way out of it and into the hearts of Parisians who were clamoring for something new. I expected more from this biopic than just an elaborate promo for the House of Chanel.