Filmography
Oct. 17th, 2009 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lilyCoco Before Chanel
There seems to be a bit of a Thing about making films about Coco Chanel going around; when I originally added this to my Netflix list, I also added Coco Chanel (2008) and Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky. When G suggested we go to the cinema this evening and BAM happened to have this showing, I thought to myself - why not?
First off, as a warning, it is a French film in French. As it should be. The idea of the film is to explore Chanel's early life - how she got to being in the position she was to set up shop in Paris and break into what was then the male-dominated world of haute couture, starting with hats and moving up. The short thread is that she began by being abandoned in an orphanage with her sister at nine; sang in a cabaret; followed a man she picked up as a lover there to his aristocratic home outside France; ended up falling in love with his British stockbroker, who helped set her up in business; and was then devastated by his death in a car crash. And lo, Chanel was born. This is a very pared-down version of the narrative.
Although the screen is normally full of people, there are very few actual characters - Coco (Audrey Tautou); Étienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde), the first lover; Arthur 'Boy' Capel (Alessandro Nivola), the second lover; Adrienne, Coco's sister (Marie Gillain); and Emilienne d'Alençon (Emmanuelle Devos), an actress who befriends Coco and stands for the Parisian demi-monde. One suspects this is deliberate; the busy-ness around Coco rarely seems to be what she wants. I should put this into context that Balsan's main activities seem to be raising horses and holding extravagantly huge parties to which he invites women of loose moral character and men who wish to behave badly with them. These parties, although lively, are soulless, and Coco obviously feels that. There's an emptiness there, which Coco's presence eventually fills - just in time for her to fall for Boy, and then for there to be one of those very French relationship triangles, which works jolly well.
Another important theme is that of Coco's refashioning and reshaping of her past history to suit whoever she is talking to; she quite happily makes things up in order to sound less - well, common. This leads to a brilliant moment when she is discussing her past at a key emotional moment and you don't know whether she's telling the truth or not; it also explains the side-lining of her sister, who really feels like she lives in another world. There's a constant tension there between sisterly affection, clearly genuine, and the risk that she will say something that isn't in keeping with Coco's carefully structured personal mythology.
The acting throughout is fantastic, as are the visuals themselves; there are some nice touches in the things Coco sees and what she later designs, although one might have wanted that theme to be a bit more developed. A couple of scenes miss by a fraction, at least one because it evokes Amelie too strongly, which otherwise Tautou completely escapes (at least to my mind). But those minor missteps aside, I can't think of anything that this could have done better. It was beautiful.
G thought there should have been giant robots. I mention this for the sake of completeness.
Five stars, then - the fashion elements are not foregrounded, so even if you know nothing about Chanel and care less, there is still a fabulous story and great acting to enjoy.
There seems to be a bit of a Thing about making films about Coco Chanel going around; when I originally added this to my Netflix list, I also added Coco Chanel (2008) and Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky. When G suggested we go to the cinema this evening and BAM happened to have this showing, I thought to myself - why not?
First off, as a warning, it is a French film in French. As it should be. The idea of the film is to explore Chanel's early life - how she got to being in the position she was to set up shop in Paris and break into what was then the male-dominated world of haute couture, starting with hats and moving up. The short thread is that she began by being abandoned in an orphanage with her sister at nine; sang in a cabaret; followed a man she picked up as a lover there to his aristocratic home outside France; ended up falling in love with his British stockbroker, who helped set her up in business; and was then devastated by his death in a car crash. And lo, Chanel was born. This is a very pared-down version of the narrative.
Although the screen is normally full of people, there are very few actual characters - Coco (Audrey Tautou); Étienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde), the first lover; Arthur 'Boy' Capel (Alessandro Nivola), the second lover; Adrienne, Coco's sister (Marie Gillain); and Emilienne d'Alençon (Emmanuelle Devos), an actress who befriends Coco and stands for the Parisian demi-monde. One suspects this is deliberate; the busy-ness around Coco rarely seems to be what she wants. I should put this into context that Balsan's main activities seem to be raising horses and holding extravagantly huge parties to which he invites women of loose moral character and men who wish to behave badly with them. These parties, although lively, are soulless, and Coco obviously feels that. There's an emptiness there, which Coco's presence eventually fills - just in time for her to fall for Boy, and then for there to be one of those very French relationship triangles, which works jolly well.
Another important theme is that of Coco's refashioning and reshaping of her past history to suit whoever she is talking to; she quite happily makes things up in order to sound less - well, common. This leads to a brilliant moment when she is discussing her past at a key emotional moment and you don't know whether she's telling the truth or not; it also explains the side-lining of her sister, who really feels like she lives in another world. There's a constant tension there between sisterly affection, clearly genuine, and the risk that she will say something that isn't in keeping with Coco's carefully structured personal mythology.
The acting throughout is fantastic, as are the visuals themselves; there are some nice touches in the things Coco sees and what she later designs, although one might have wanted that theme to be a bit more developed. A couple of scenes miss by a fraction, at least one because it evokes Amelie too strongly, which otherwise Tautou completely escapes (at least to my mind). But those minor missteps aside, I can't think of anything that this could have done better. It was beautiful.
G thought there should have been giant robots. I mention this for the sake of completeness.
Five stars, then - the fashion elements are not foregrounded, so even if you know nothing about Chanel and care less, there is still a fabulous story and great acting to enjoy.
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 11:13 am (UTC)Thanks for the review!
no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 02:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 02:38 am (UTC)Not to be a creeper, but I just checked out your LJ because I liked your name, and lo, you are friends with two of the people I have known longest in my life (folzgold & leahseraph), although we've been pretty out of touch.
Just a "Lord, LJ is VERY small indeed" moment I needed to share.
Liz- This popped up on my netflix recently, coincidentally. I'll definitely check it out.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 07:17 am (UTC)