Coco avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel) Reviews and Ratings



  • November 21, 2009
    Is it just me, or does anyone else thinking this film is heavily sponsored (even suggested by) Chanel? I am certainly not the first to have noticed the strong links between the French movie industry and the fashion industry.

    The movie never ventures beyond the shallows. It skims...( read more) the surface of Coco's life before her company took off, and give us 3 pieces of information: (1) She was an orphan, (2) She worked as a seamstress, and (3) She determined not to marry. It is in the last of these that the film spends most of its time. However, the little information it divulges simply leaves us begging for more answers. At one point the prospect of war (World War I) is mentioned, but we learn nothing of the events in France in either war, or of any role she played in them. Instead it focuses on her seamstress eye for alterations, and her desire to wear unrestricted clothing.

    It's pretty enough. Just not in any way insightful or inspiring.
  • November 21, 2009
    A great biographic movie, Audrey is so lovely as usual..
  • November 21, 2009
    I love Coco Chanel and I love Audrey Tautou, so this combination was bound to be pure bliss, and it was. She plays the part perfectly. However, I do share the opinion of many others, the film is too focused on Coco's love life, whereas her relationships with men is the least inte...( read more)resting thing about her. She is not a woman who should be defined by that particular aspect of her life, as she is so much more than that. But although that was a bit of a letdown, I still enjoyed it tremendously and I love the way she was portrayed. When you cast Tautou, you don't need any more actors for she will carry the film entirely, and she didn't disappoint in this one.
  • November 15, 2009
    I really enjoy the film, but expect more. The criativity of Chanel for fashion lost space for romance. I want to see more about fashion, and after she get famous.
  • November 15, 2009
    I love Audrey Tautou! Lynn and I learned a few things....better mistress than wife; love hurts and (some) men cheat.
  • November 8, 2009
    Great movie...very interesting woman from historic point of view, from the fashion point of view. Takes us back to the fashions essential purposes: simplicity, elegance and femininity
  • November 8, 2009
    Audrey Tautou, with her sparkling eyes and winning smile, established herself as one of our most beloved screen actresses in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Amelie". Oddly enough, perhaps her least glamorous role is that of a fashion designer.

    Coco Chanel is still one of the most signific...( read more)ant names in the world of fashion. Her influence single-handedly changed the way women dressed - gone was the reign of corsets and lace, Chanel's simplistic and rather androgynous fashion sense liberated women into clothes that were at once elegant and comfortable: "I gave women a sense of freedom; I gave them back their bodies." In Anne Fontaine's latest effort, Tautou inhabits the formative years of the woman who would become an icon of the fashion world.

    Beginning in the 1890's, we first meet Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, along with her sister, Adrienne (Marie Gillain), working as singers in a bar. There, following a successful performance, she meets Étienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde), the man who would entice her to live with him in his mansion. Chanel accepts his invitation, but romantic love with the baron is the farthest thing from her mind: "A woman in love is helpless. Like a begging dog."

    Her resistance to love is compromised when she meets a friend of Balsan's, Arthur "Boy" Capel (Alessandro Nivola), who convinces her to leave the baron for Paris. There she begins a career selling hats and dresses, which becomes the prelude to her rise in France's fashion industry.

    The love-triangle at the center of the picture is a bit of a bore. The film doesn't go for high melodrama - it barely passes for drama, in fact. There's no fire, no intensity to the relationships. If the filmmakers didn't wish to make a soap opera, perhaps the film should've been kept to a typical rags-to-riches procedural - here, Fontaine's film seems completely without direction, meandering aimlessly through postcards until the conclusion. It's not necessarily a bad film, but there's nothing much of interest.

    If there's one thing to praise "Coco Before Chanel" for, however, it's the look of the film. Those interested in the fashion industry will not be disappointed - the costume design here is sumptuous, and Christophe Beaucarne's cinematography is exquisite. If only there was a compelling story to match the transendant beauty gracing the screen.
  • November 7, 2009
    Coadjuvantes roubam a cena
  • November 6, 2009
    Audrey Tautou's acting is near perfection. I found a bit of myself in the person of Coco Chanel. It's too bad that nowadays Chanel is not what it used to be. She dared to be different and do her own thing but it seems that now Chanel is a brand for fashion followers only. Oh well...( read more). It was still a nicely photographed film, very subtle and mellow.
  • November 1, 2009
    Tre bien! Standard period drama piece, but beautifully done.
  • October 28, 2009
    If their lives were that similar, I don´t know, but either bieng Chanel or Piaf, the movie is (almost) the same. Like Kyle Smith says (check critic review below), Anne Fontaine´s movie " begs to be compared to 'La Vie en Rose' ".

    As happened to "La Vie en Rose", "Coco avant C...( read more)hanel" is nothing but a typical drama like any typical Hollywood crap would be (it´s obvious that a car accident will happen when they are seeing off/saying goodbye). I´m being very honest when I say that after Chanel´s lover dies and we see a lot of "snapshots" of her work/life with a melty song in the background, I turned off the sound.

    (...)

    I know te movie is focused on Chanel´s life before the sucess, but after a very long view of her way to succeed, the movie suddenly jumps to her atelier in Paris as if right after leaving Étienne she had done it. Even having Boy lent her money, how did she really manage in the beginning in Paris? Why was her sister working with her? And, the most important, how and when she definitely became Mademoiselle Coco Chanel?


  • October 26, 2009
    No va mas allá de ser una biografía edulcorada, es decir, menos enfocada en apegarse a la realidad que a contar una historia romántica sobre las visicitudes de una joven y humilde joven que se convierte en la famosa diseñadora. Sin embargo tiene mejor calidad que una tipica biopi...( read more)c para la televisión francesa que pasan por Eurochannel. Cumple con su cometido.
  • October 25, 2009
    The film is telling nothing. However u can extract an idea that Life has no meaning without love. I accept that.
  • October 18, 2009
    Great acting by Audrey. Nice attention to detail, historically very true.
  • October 18, 2009
    Enjoyable and interesting. Told in a straightforward style without a lot of melodrama or moralizing.
  • October 18, 2009
    I liked this movie, probably more than I should have, because of Audrey Tautou. I admire Coco's persistence. She never backs down, while completely fearful at the same time...inspiring woman who knows how to use her resources well. Audrey conveys a lot through expression and sile...( read more)nce, which is what I like so much about her.
  • October 11, 2009
    Lo que me atrajo a "Coco Before Chanel" fue Audrey Tautou. En si, no estoy muy impresionado con el legado de Chanel en el mundo de la moda (realmente nunca me ha interesado mucho el mundo de la moda, para ser exactos). El filme no es particularmente bueno porque resulta ser un bi...( read more)opic convencional y monotono aunque muy bien ambientado y con una actuacion sobresaliente de Tautou. Si la tuviera que comparar seria a "La Vie en Rose", la cual mostraba la vida de Edith Pïaf. De hecho ambas mujeres tuvieron vidas similares. Aun asi recomiendo esta cinta por la calidad de la produccion y por Tatou, aunque presiento que la mayoria se decepcionaran al ver que la pelicula no se enfoca en casi nada del imperio Chanel. Quizas por eso se titula "Coco before Chanel".
  • September 24, 2009
    Un vistazo a los comienzos de quien sería luego un ícono de la moda por excelencia. Me pareció muy interesante por el hecho de que conocía poco de sus orígenes, y me llamaron la atención los puntos en común con la historia de Édith Piaf. Me gustó mucho la interpretación de Tautou...( read more) y Alesandro Nivola que está irreconocible fisícamente, también realiza una buena labor interpretando al amante y principal financista de Chanel. Buena.
  • September 15, 2009
    classical movie that i can realate to..
  • September 9, 2009
    Rather slow and bland. Btw the life of Coco was so similar to that of Edith Piaf! How come famous women always had such miserable lives?
  • September 8, 2009
    More a snapshot of a moment than conventional biography, and while less complex than it might want to be, still a quietly thoughtful look at one of the 20th century?s most influential characters. Tautou is just terrific, and to recall an actress who could so dominate your memory ...( read more)of a movie, one needs to think back to Audrey Hepburn.
  • September 3, 2009
    I liked that it focused more on coco's life pre-fashion days instead of what everyone was expecting. The fashion bits in the movie were decadent, Tautou's performance was splendid in bringing out coco's charm and the struggles she faced- be they of the heart or of the world.
  • August 29, 2009
    Watch her eyes, just watch her eyes..Audrey Tautou..woot! :)
  • August 25, 2009
    Very good movie and story!! But I would like to see Coco smiling a bit more. It's worth to see.
  • August 25, 2009
    Rather slow moving. Nice ending. Alittle boring.
  • August 24, 2009
    Love it. A fairly good french film about Coco chanel's early life.
  • August 23, 2009
    a bit diappointed that this film features mainly on coco's love life between 2 men instead of more on the fashion side. But then, its "coco BEFORE chanel" so do not expect much. Decent acting overall though.
  • August 15, 2009
    exelente me gusta este tipo de peli
  • August 14, 2009
    if you want to know more about coco chanel's life watch this movie
  • August 12, 2009
    Audrey Tautou is bewitching as Coco as a woman so very much ahead of her time.The look and feel of the film is mesmerising.
  • August 8, 2009
    Great cinematography, story nice, started well, went on to middle well, then ....it ended:)
  • August 4, 2009
    nice insight into Coco Chanel's early life
  • July 18, 2009
    Great french film. Audrey Tautou shines!
  • July 17, 2009
    beautiful. a real masterpiece about a strong women. sawthe film today in romania!
  • July 12, 2009
    I love Chanel NO.5 & NO.19. The perfumes like the CoCo Chanel lady. Secret smell like she in the movies. Every things she smell first.
    I like perfumes, I like the nature perfumes with lover.
    When? What's I choes?
    All we need know how and why?
    From the heart.
    We do the things we d...( read more)o, all because I love U.
    So if the world like the sea so deeply, We all need control the mind.
    Then when we to do, the all because we caring the one.
    In our life, we need one lover. to thinking, to mind, to deeply, to caring.....etc.
    Why we need another?
    In my life I like the special people and artlist people.
    They have different world in the heart.
  • July 4, 2009
    Respectable film, it is a bit overlong but the production is good as are the performances. The scenes with Shirley MacLaine come off best. Nice period detail, good cinematography.
  • July 3, 2009
    The beauty of simplicity....
  • July 1, 2009
    The scriptwriting has amusingly showed a deeply dimensional the characters of Coco, Gabrielle Chanel (Audrey Tautou) since she grew up in an orphanage and then tried to survive in men world, the way she insisted to wear his own style?s outfit against the corset, refused an over-d...( read more)ecoration?s dresses or hats, her outspokenness that expressed herself was a feminist, never trust to men (because the insecure feelings of her childhood), even she began an affair with the French playboy and millionaire Étienne Balsan that was only because he could lavished her with rich life, and then she met her true lover (Arthur "Boy" Capel) who couldn?t changed her thought too?

    It?s a story describing Coco who struggling to fit into a society that differed from her own idea, chasing her dream no matter how far it?s, gave women a sense of freedom, women?s clothes shouldn?t dress for men, her unique design of women?s dresses (comfortable and revealing) that was a media to express her thinking as well, hated to be deserve for men, tried to fly over the framed from society or men.

    Actually the character of Coco that seems outstanding while she lived in 19th century, but common if she alive at today 2009, while we?re already be free and treated much fair as men does. Not doubt she was marvelous as really understanding what she needed and never gave up, be independent!

    It was a power of pushing her became the fashion icon and feminist through climbing her first social ladders with opening her atelier in Paris of hats. Female would race as same as male, or much better!
  • June 27, 2009
    Could have been Audrey's La Vie En Rose oscar winner, instead is tedious and tepid. i wanted to see Coco as Channel with her wartime Nazi scandal and all her glamour.
  • June 24, 2009
    okay but not good enough
  • June 21, 2009
    The movie is divided into 3 parts. First scene is Coco?s miserable childhood in the orphanage.I am impressed by the little Coco?s tough look and her big black pupil. Love story scenes coming afterward,Coco wants to have true love but she finally chooses to be a mistress of ?E?tie...( read more)nne Balsan- acted by Benoit Poelvorrde? to have a better life in Paris, where she sees the upper class people with fascinating life. She has success in catching a man?s love by her charm and unique characteristic. She meets her true love ?Boy -acted by Alessandro Nivola? who unfortunately dies in a traffic accident. The final part is her career development. Coco uses her talent in designing until she reaches the climax of the fashion world. I admired Coco?s to enchantmen too; it is a climax of the movie. I expected to know more details about her efforts.I am so glad to see Coco?s way of seeing with her unique aesthetics. she is a post-modern feminiist.
  • June 19, 2009
    Really good biopic with strong performances and a script that will capture your attention.
  • June 16, 2009
    Her life is fully contradiction. To be a female orphan who living in a patriarchy society. To be a mistress with a stable living to exchange her freedom and love. All of those contradiction grew up her critical mind. Through her dresses, the only thing she can control, to express...( read more) her mind and complain the living of high society and it's taste.
  • June 16, 2009
    Gabrielle Chanel understand their own identity in a child, especially when she was at different classes in society, her women's status on their own more and more thorough, hands and insist, for example: when she as a singer, she will not be ashamed of themselves.Although the low ...( read more)status, however, is full of value. This belief to her own evaluation better than other people, when the nobles of her party to participate in absurd, she looked at them the beauty of clothes, she did not have that joy, just thinking about for a long time before the true sense of their apparel She was a kind of self-confidence out of their beliefs, so she loved her man in mind, her evaluation was "unique."
    From her at that time ridiculed women: they are a like a jewelry box, then all the women to their own wealth, through the performances of different methods, such as: hat, dress, jewelry, you can then enjoy the show and display of performance more demonstrate the use of strait jackets to build women's, Gabrielle Chanel was always only a few simple colors, she is focused on women's feelings: agreeable performance, take all the gorgeous and beautiful.
    Finally, she would show the marriage of her own feelings first. Valentine could not give her love and commitment can only live together. Husband and wife meet each day, resulting in tired, she shared. Although she has since felt the hope of love and the love marriage, but also feel sad because they can not reach. Finally, her lover's support, to become independent and establish the Kingdom of their own fashion.

Summary


Coco avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel) Summary