With Coco before Chanel release here in Singapore on August 24, the french couturier is in the spotlight again, 38 years after her death.
The first of two Chanel biopics skedded to hit screens this year, this one, co-written by helmer Anne Fontaine and her sister Camille, limits its scope to the time in the designer's late 20s when she began showcasing her distinct creative voice. The opening, purely visual flashback shows the young Chanel arriving at an ominous Catholic orphanage after her mother has died and her father has left to support the family.
The stark setting and drab religious garb -- superbly rendered by production designer Olivier Radot and costume designer Catherine Leterrier -- will have an enduring impact on her future designs, whose cornerstones will be simplicity and sophistication.
The action then jumps to a decade or so later, as busy bee Chanel (Tautou) is working days as a seamstress and nights as a cabaret entertainer ("to pay for her dresses"), alongside her sis, Adrienne (Marie Gillain). During a fun and flashy dance number, she crosses paths with debauched heir Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde); before long, she's moved to his country estate, where she serves as his friend, mistress and inhouse style consultant.
Caught in a lavish world where women overdress themselves in bails of lace, suffocating corsets and hats oozing with flowers, Chanel begins to experiment with her lover's clothing, designing outfits that are both easier to wear and easier on the eye. These sequences are among the film's strongest, revealing the contrast between the heavy 19th-century styles worn by the epoch's wealthier class and Chanel's vision of a sleek, intelligent wardrobe to help place women on an equal footing with men.
Pic's third section brings a melodramatic twist to Chanel's sudden and impossible affair with a British industrialist (Alessandro Nivola). The drawing-room drama and ensuing love triangle feel a tad forced, but they do explain how Chanel is pushed to liberate herself from kept-woman status through her relentless work ethic and gifted eye.
For a film that is, after all, about fashion, helmer Fontaine ("How I Killed My Father" and the glossy "The Girl From Monaco") and d.p. Christophe Beaucarne ("Irina Palm") make things extremely pleasurable to look at. Between lingering wide shots and gliding p.o.v. camerawork, the crisp visuals show Chanel forever analyzing the stylistic tendencies of her surroundings.
Tautou's perf is one of her finest to date, revealing her character's headstrong personality through smart delivery and a permanent but attractive pout. As with his portrayal of a serial killer in "Man Bites Dog," Belgian thesp Poelvoorde manages to make the fairly despicable Etienne seem quite likable by the end of the movie.