Coco avant Chanel (2009)

Director:

Anne Fontaine

Writers:

Edmonde Charles-Roux (book)
Anne Fontaine (writer)

Release Date:

22 April 2009 (Belgium)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

Before she was France's famous mademoiselle...

Plot:

The story of Coco Chanel's rise from obscure beginnings to the heights of the fashion world.

Plot Keywords:

Nickname | Fashion | Hat | Orphanage | 1900s

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Audrey Tautou	...	Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel
Benoît Poelvoorde	...	Étienne Balsan
Alessandro Nivola	...	Arthur 'Boy' Capel
Marie Gillain	...	Adrienne Chanel
Emmanuelle Devos	...	Emilienne d'Alençon
Régis Royer	...	Alec, le jockey
Etienne Bartholomeus	...	Maître d'hôtel Balsan
Yan Duffas	...	Maurice de Nexon
Fabien Béhar	...	Patron boutique
Roch Leibovici	...	Jean, le palefrenier
Jean-Yves Chatelais	...	Directeur beuglant
Pierre Diot	...	Acteur théâtre
Vincent Nemeth	...	Gros homme théâtre
Bruno Abraham-Kremer	...	Tailleur Deauville
Lisa Cohen	...	Gabrielle Chanel, 10 ans

Also Known As:

Coco Before Chanel (UK) (USA)
Untitled Coco Chanel Project (France) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and smoking.

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Netherlands:AL | South Korea:15 | Ireland:12A | Hong Kong:IIA | USA:PG-13 (certificate #45445) | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Japan:G | Argentina:13 | Taiwan:PG-12 | Canada:G (Québec) | Sweden:Btl | Australia:PG | Mexico:B

Filming Locations:

Normandie, France

Company:

Haut et Court

Trivia:

Keira Knightley was offered the role of Coco Chanel.

Goofs:

Continuity: Costume continuity during the scene where "Boy" allows Coco to drive the motorcar. When they eventually stop the car, Coco is wearing a white scarf which she was not wearing when she first got into the car.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: (2009-09-26)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Little Black Baby

2 Dimensional

At no point during this film did I feel Chanel's character to be portrayed in anything other than a flat unnuanced way. There were no insights, no demonstration of how radical she was, how WILD. Instead all that the film seemed to trot out were stereotypical lesbo/cross dressing themes. There were many and some very famous women contemporaneous with Chanel who impersonated men on stage - Vesta Tilley for one, who could have provided the model her to follow - did we get any sense of their existence? No we didn't. Did we get a real sense of the limited options available to women at that time? Only slightly. I wasn't convinced by this film at all although I though Audrey Tatou did as much as she could do with the material she was given. the whole could have been a whole lot better.