Product Details

• Actors: Audrey Tautou, Benoît Poelvoorde
• Directors: Anne Fontaine
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: French
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click .
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
• DVD Release Date: February 16, 2010
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002LE8MGW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,027 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Coco Before Chanel" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Before she became Coco, the world-famous fashion designer, Gabrielle Chanel (Audrey Tautou in a fiercely determined performance) struggled to make ends meet. After her mother's death, her father deposited her and her sister, Adrienne (Marie Gillain), at an orphanage, where they learned to sew (and where Chanel developed a taste for monochromatic ensembles). They went on to become cabaret singers, but when Adrienne runs off with a wealthy suitor, the newly christened Coco must go it alone until she meets gentleman farmer Étienne Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde). She lives comfortably at his chateau, but he refuses to take her out in public, so she puts her skills as a seamstress to good use and designs outfits for his lady friends, like Emilienne (Emmanuelle Devos), an actress. Chanel's situation improves further when British investor Arthur "Boy" Capel (Alessandro Nivola with an impeccable French accent) enters the scene. Her working-class origins present less of a problem with Capel, though the couple will have other issues with which to contend. In the meantime, he gives her the money to open her own Parisian studio, and the film ends with the tweed suit-clad Chanel of the popular imagination. Until that time, writer-director Anne Fontaine (The Girl from Monaco) presents a very different character, a woman who wasn't worldly or sophisticated, but who saw no reason why fashion--or "style," as she called it--should be complicated or uncomfortable. In transforming herself, Coco Chanel transformed an entire industry and, arguably, an entire gender. --Kathleen C. Fennessy


Stills from Coco Before Chanel (Click for larger image)

Product Description

Audrey Tautou (The Da Vinci Code, Amélie) shines in this intriguing portrait of the early life of Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, the orphan who would build a fashion empire and be known universally by her nickname, Coco. She journeys from a mundane seamstress job to boisterous cabarets to the opulent French countryside, possessing little more than her unwavering determination, unique style and visionary talent. Also starring Benoît Poelvoorde (In His Hands) and Alessandro Nivola (Junebug). Featuring lush settings and stunning costume design, Coco Before Chanel is the gripping and dramatic story of an icon who defied convention and defined the modern woman.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

92 of 95 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars I Didn't Know Chanel From Shinola... March 13, 2010

By B. Merritt VINE™ VOICE

Format:Blu-ray

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. Read more ›

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent movie draws out Chanel's influences December 14, 2009

By charmnday

Format:DVD

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. Read more ›

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars One point of view of an iconic life April 27, 2010

By Wry Wreviewer

Format:DVD

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. Read more ›