Review

Review Date: 25-October-09
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Coco Before Chanel (2009)

If I had not already written about Amelia when I went to see Coco Before Chanel I probably would have bundled them together into one review. After all, both movies are directed by women and deal with women from the past who defied tradition, were involved in love triangles, and liked to wear men's clothes. But whereas Amelia is a dud, Coco is a polished success. It creates a portrait of a famous person and uses part of her life to illustrate cultural and emotional ideas.

Audrey Tautou stars as Gabrielle Chanel, icon of the fashion business remembered as "Coco." It is a fine performance in which determination is conveyed without bluster. At a young age Gabrielle and her sister are dumped at an orphanage by their father and left to survive as best they can. Upon reaching maturity they work as seamstresses by day and barroom singers by night. ("Coco" is their signature song.) Although a rung above prostitutes, they must snare a man of means if they want to escape poverty. The sister finds love with an aristocrat who supports her for years without being able to marry her. Coco is too jaded an individual to act the coquette. Her destiny lies at the end of a more complicated route.

Hoping to break into show business, Coco sleeps with Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde), a middle-aged hedonist with prominent friends. He leaves town just after she fails her audition, and she follows him to the countryside near Paris. He is richer than she imagined, owning an enormous estate where he hosts decadent parties and indulges a passion for horses. Balsan lets her stay the first night out of lust, the second and third nights out of kindness, then more nights out of capitulation. Coco simply will not leave, and Balsan comes to enjoy her constant presence.

The arrangement is not all canoodling and camaraderie. Well-modulated moments show how Coco, for all her lover's affection, is a peon in his house, an instrument of his comfort like a competent stableboy or soft settee. Knowing her status as a kept mistress, his friends are free to disrespect her as well. An actress counsels her to swallow her pride and get as much from the position as she can. On a more positive note, the actress also admires Coco's distinctive mode of dress and encourages her skill at millinery.

Coco's cool self-sufficiency is challenged when Balsan introduces her to an American coal baron played by the breathtaking Alessandro Nivola. In love at last, she is soon reminded that paupers do not find happily-ever-after. With native grit she sucks the marrow from their relationship until fate brings it to a close. From then on, the movie concludes, she channels all her spirit into becoming financially independent and promoting her own dream of beauty. That she hits the jackpot lends some satisfaction to the ending. But the real point of Coco Before Chanel is that an unusual woman overcame abandonment, heartbreak, and a socially entrenched lack of options before making a mark on the world.

"Coco Before Chanel" is in French with English subtitles.

Copyright © 2009 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.