Coco Avant Chanel Review
By David Kempler
Smells Worse than Cheap Perfume
As I settled into my seat for the screening of "Coco Avant Chanel", the story of how Ms. Chanel evolved into one of the world's most famous designers, I was struck by the fact that the audience was perhaps 95% female. While this would normally be a ratio I am greatly in favor of, in this case it made me wary that perhaps I was about to be taken hostage by a "chick flick".
Director Anne Fontaine focuses on what led up to Chanel's fame rather than on her life while famous. It opens with her at age 12, being led into a Catholic orphanage. She is confused and a little uneasy but does possess a sense of self that prevents her from losing control. A part of her has already become an adult. The child is already a veteran of reality's disappointments. In the orphanage she learns how to sew and becomes a talented seamstress.
Fast-forward to Coco as a young adult (Audrey Tautou). She is now working for a local tailor, and coldly takes up with Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde), a wealthy man that she fancies not in the slightest. This is about the cash. She stays with him merely in order to enjoy the comforts of life. For his part, that is just fine. He is free to enjoy his life and have her waiting for him in his palatial home whenever he desires.
Everything gets turned upside down for Coco when a British playboy, Arthur ‘Boy' Capel (Alessandro Nivola), shares eye contact with her for the first time. Coco finally has genuine feelings for a man, something that she had assumed she would never experience. Until that moment she seemed not only to not enjoy life but she even did not understand what love was, at any level whatsoever.
Ms. Tautou plays Coco with zero emotion and, not unexpectedly, her performance left me cold. Oddly, despite both of them trying to convince us that they were madly in love with each other, there are no sparks at all between Coco and her British playboy. Their scenes together could not be less stimulating to watch. It would not be surprising to find out that off-screen they didn't care too much for one another.
"Coco Avant Chanel" looks great but it evokes nothing. Consequently, it fails. I do readily admit that I am not the one that is supposed to want to go out and plunk down my cash on this type of biopic, so perhaps I am not the one to seek an opinion from. If you are a female with a keen interest in Ms. Chanel, fashion or relationships with no heat, this just might be a glass of expensive champagne for you. For the rest of you, forget it.
