It's surprising, really, that Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel's life has never quite made it successfully into film (or theater, for that matter). A fascinating woman with a fascinating life, hers is probably the most public, most obvious example of the changes in women's lives over the twentieth century - both because she lived her own with such
ferocious independence, and because she then changed the world for a lot of other women, through her pioneering efforts to change women's fashion.
Coco Before Chanel (Coco Avant Chanel) is the latest attempt, infinitely more satisfying than much of what's come before... and yet, still, only hinting at a lot of the possibilities. A lush, beautiful film, beautifully realized, Coco Before Chanel may be a great film about fashion, indeed one of the best yet... and still manages to leave a sense of not being entirely complete.
Abandoned by her father to an orphanage in the French countryside, Chanel grew up with her sister, learning the kinds of things girls learned in orphanages run by nuns - how to sew, and serve - until eventually the two girls struck out on their own as aspiring cabaret singers. With limited options for them financially and personally, both women move to find older men who will "take care" of them - i.e. as courtesans or mistresses - and both succeed. Coco's sister winds up the mistress of a Baron, and Coco gets involved with Etienne Balsan, a wealthy horse breeder and businessman.
The film presents Chanel as very much, from the beginning, her own woman. She does what she has to do to survive, but she doesn't feel bound, especially, to either convention, or the expectations of others (how very French!). It helps that Chanel is played by Audrey Tautou, luminously beautiful, as always, and capable of conveying volumes in a glance. As Chanel, she keeps herself slightly set apart from the world around her, and we see how Coco takes in what she sees - what people wear, what fanric does, how people react. And we see, gradually, how Chanel's personal style eveolves, and how it brings her to making her own style of clothes for others.
Eventually, Chanel meets Arthur "Boy" Capel, the young scion of a family of British merchants (who speaks impeccable French and thanks to Alessandro Nivola, is drop dead handsome), and falls in love. But any dreams she has of finding respectability in marriage are thwarted, again, as Capel marries someone considered more suitable by his family, while continuing his relationship with Chanel.
It's all very sophisticated and French and stylish... and it bears a close relationship to what actually happened... if, for instance, you completely ignore Chanel's relationship with the Duke of Westminster or her friendship with Misia Sert. Obviously intended to simplify and straighten out a fairly complicated, often messy life, Coco Before Chanel does better than most to suggest the evolution of style and the development of a free spirit's life... but by cleaning up the details, eliding past major characters and oversimplifying (admittedly more gracefully than others) the development of ideas like Chanel's exposure to fine tailoring, the little black dress or the use of jersey, the film does itself, and the viewer, a disservice. It's Chanel reimagined for the small, independent
arty film... and that's fine for what it is... but Chanel's life was, in many ways, bigger than that. It was opera, it was theater, it was big budget cinema. Shrinking it... tends to shrink the possibilities.
Director and cowriter Anne Fontaine clearly sees the feminist elements at work here, and more than previous attempts, Coco Before Chanel notes the pioneering role Chanel had in redefining the possibilities in women's lives, especially the possibility that a woman can lead her own, independent life, without marriage or other traditional notions, as a man would. And Fontaine does better than many French directors at balancing the need to keep the story coherent while showing considerable artistry. The film soars, in part, because it doesn't succumb to the American need to hammer home every development with an exclamation point... it trusts our ability as an audience to figure some things out.
Though the ending can seem tacked on, I think it was also vital - seeing Chanel, as she became, giving one of her later fashion shows ensconced, as she was, on the stairs of her shop in the Rue Cambon, makes clear what the early going, by itself, cannot: that you couldn't do what she did, without the life she led. I believe that's true, and I wish, still, someone would take on Chanel as she deserves to be taken on - courageously, ruthlessly, demandingly... and big. A lovely, gentle bonbon of a film, Coco Before Chanel hints at the possibilities... but only hints. Think bigger.
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