Upon returning from seeing Coco avant Chanel I was asked by someone what I'd been to see. I told them that it was a biopic of Coco Chanel, to which they replied "Oh, well she had a very interesting life." If only the film could have been as interesting. For this is a film, as the title suggests, which focuses on the period of the iconic French designer's life before she became famous and what results is something which completely ignores fascinating aspects of her life such as her relationship with Igor Stravinsky and her Nazi collaboration during the war, instead focusing on a generic, flaccid love triangle.
Starring Audrey Tautou (herself a representative for Chanel, having done adverts for them like Nicole Kidman), it follows the rags to someone else's riches tale of Chanel, who is portrayed here more as a social climber than anything else. The director is Anne Fontaine, who carved out somewhat of a niche for herself as a genre filmmaker in the early part of this decade specialising in slow burning thrillers (but lacking the atmosphere of, say, a Claude Chabrol). She has fashioned a rather elegant film, which more than leans on the evocation of the period and setting, combined with Tautou's charm as an actress.
The cast are uniformly fine, Alessandro Nivola is probably the pick of the bunch brooding away as Chanel's lover, with Benoît Poelvoorde (so stunningly restrained in Fontaine's In His Hands) trying his utmost against a very 2-Dimensional character. Marie Gillain is utterly wasted (and not made to look her best so as not to upstage Tautou) as Chanel's sister, but Emmanuelle Devos fares better in a memorable turn as a famous actress and Chanel's first "client".
One of the more surprising things about this film is the length (105 minutes), as usually these kind of biopics are overstuffed well past the 2-hour mark. Even more surprisingly, it feels overlong as the arc of the story is so slight, going from poverty to moving in with an aristocrat and then falling for his best friend ... and that's it. There's just so little to the story, it's so devoid of any natural dramatic tension or compelling character arcs that it drags and limps its way to its overdue conclusion. The central performance, delightful score by Alexandre Desplat and gorgeous techs ensure this film is always watchable, but it's a by the numbers look at the beginnings of a woman who was far more intriguing in the time after the film finishes.
I did like Benoit, I always do, shame he's such a no-name internationally, he's a very fine actor. For me Tautou was basically the opposite of Cotillard in La Mome, this was a performance that complemented the film rather than *being* the film, and it makes it better overall because of that.
I agree with basically eeeeeeevery word. Really liked Tautou, a very untypical biopic performance, and as you say, great techs and score. I really sort of liked Poelvoorde though. I agree, the character was pretty 2d, but I think he got as much from it as was possible. Also, if they were really trying to dull Gillain down, I think they totally failed.