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Coco Avant Chanel

Article published 24th Jun 09
Coco Avant Chanel Watch

What:
Coco Avant Chanel 

When:
In cinemas Jun 25

Watch trailer:
Here

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This elegant, French-language biopic of iconic fashion designer Gabrielle ‘Coco' Chanel shows how she rose from humble origins to revolutionise the way women dressed. It also reveals how much her business was inspired - and financed - by her early affairs with louche aristocrat Etienne Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde) and dashing Englishman Arthur ‘Boy' Capel (Alessandro Nivola, who learned French for the part).

Having previously studied Chanel's life - which has inspired various biopics, including a recent telemovie starring Shirley MacLaine as the elderly couturier - I found the perfectly cast Audrey Tautou oddly unsympathetic. Chanel was famous for her savvy networking and her charm with men, yet Tautou presents her as an irritable, socially awkward sook who's almost unwillingly seduced.

However, Tautou does evocative work with intense black eyes in a pale, makeup-free face. The camera follows Coco's gaze, alighting on a nun's pin-tucked habit, the stripes and layered textures of ladies at the races, and fishermen hauling their catch in shapeless jackets and striped T-shirts. It's a clever way to show that Chanel transformed the quotidian into luxury - and that this, ultimately, is what made her designs so radical.

By Mel Campbell

Format: Cinema

Genre: Foreign

Keywords: Film, Audrey Tatou, chanel

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