Audrey Tautou Movie:

				Label: Sony Pictures Classics Salesrank:
		MPAA Rating: Media: Theatrical Release

Editorial Review:
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

Coco Before Chanel [Theatrical Release] Reviews:
A Little Too Much "Before",
2009-12-26 - "Coco Before Chanel" is an interesting attempt at a biopic but rather little more. The story is told in good old fashioned way - no jumping back and forth, no experiments, and rather slowly too - the problem is that it takes so long that there is not enough time for the story to end in an interesting way. Or may be it was the idea from the start to get the audience begging for more? Another possibility is that they took it for granted that the audience knows what happened next. The French may know it, I don't. Actually, I may be utterly wrong but I have a hunch that the life of Coco Chanel gets really interesting only once the movie ends.
This is a movie full of missed opportunities - Tautou has little chance to show her charms (she can do that, we all remember Amelie Poulain ;) - she hardly has a chance to smile... Chanel made her name as a dress designer? Well, don't expect to see any. Coco in the movie spends quite a lot of time watching fishermen at work. Does she find them so sexy? Not really, she finds their apparel an inspiration for her designs but... you won't see them in the movie. The fascination with how nicely the producers could recreate the fin-de-siecle provincial France on the screen reaches such proportions that it gets in the way of telling the story in an interesting manner. Too much attention to details, too little of a broader view.
The director and screenplay writer intended to present to the audience the humble beginnings of Coco Chanel's career. The succeeded in that perfectly but the final result is far from perfect - there was, apparently, no room left for the actual career. All we get is a brief show just before credits rather loosely connected with what happened earlier - we just have to believe that she made it. They wanted to show how difficult it was to be an independent woman before the Great War. They succeeded again... but the message is brought to you in such a slow and painstaking manner that you hardly care in the end.
In short: a moderatly interesting biopic but not really a movie. Keep your expectations fairly low if you choose to buy it.

Amazing movie
2009-12-23 - 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. )

Excellent movie draws out Chanel's influences
2009-12-14 - 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.

Tautou is Coco!!
2009-12-12 - 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!

slow, subtle and absolutely beautiful
2009-11-28 - 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.