Film File - Coco before Chanel

In the beginning, there was a little girl sent with her sister to an orphanage in the heart of France who waited in vain every Sunday for a father who never came; a cabaret performer who sang to an audience of drunken soldiers; and a humble seamstress who stitched hems at the back of a provincial tailor's shop. This is the story of Gabrielle Chanel (Audrey Tatou), who began her life as a headstrong orphan, and through an extraordinary journey transformed into the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman and became a timeless symbol of success, freedom and style. Film director Anne Fontaine had long been fascinated by the figure of Coco Chanel, not so much for her legendary fashion as the characteristics of the woman behind the myth - poor and uneducated but endowed with an exceptional personality and drive destined to make her an icon ahead of her time. She studied the life of Coco Chanel at length, particularly the years of her apprenticeship right back to the Aubazine orphanage, with its black skirts and white blouses that would influence her style for decades. To create the critically important costumes for the period of Chanel's life depicted in the film, Fontaine turned to costume designer Catherine Leterrier, who had previously collaborated with directors like Alain Resnais, Louis Malle, Robert Altman, Luc Besson and Jonathan Demme. Her aim was not to make a movie about the history of fashion, but the personality behind the brand - and, to achieve this, occasionally she had to take liberties with the chronology of Chanel's life. To fit in with the storyline, the famous striped mariner's sweater worn by Chanel in the legendary photos of the 1930s appears earlier in the movie, depicted in a scene where Chanel is walking along a beach and notices the sweaters of the fishermen as they pull in their nets. At another point, the film re-imagines the origin of the famous Chanel bag made from the black cotton canvas used for peasants' clothing in that period, similarly ahead of its arrival. While Karl Lagerfeld adapted the style of Chanel to the future, Fontaine went backwards towards the past for the origins of a unique style that became to generations of women a clothing experience distinctive in its cut, the supple hang of its fabric and the perfect simplicity of its finish. The film tracks Chanel's life right back to her youth and teen years, where she first earned the nickname 'Coco' from a song she and her sister (Marie Gillain) frequently performed at the Moulins cabaret - Coco qui a vu Coco. In the atmospheric world of 'le club', she meets the older and wealthy Etienne Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde), the lover and patron who encourages her inclination towards fashion and the designing of hats and clothes which radically challenge the norm of the period. Her first real break happens when Balsan's former mistress, a successful actress, dons a Coco-made straw boater, launching her career. Flaunting the cultural conventions of the time, Chanel dares to imagine the clothes that still remain her epitaph - the little black dress, lines with masculine influences and couture without frills. Even when she transfers her affections from her older lover for the possibility of true romance with Boy Chapel (Allesandro Nivola), Chanel remains ultimately faithful to the only enduring love of her life - fashion. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to the real woman, Tautou, who admits she wanted the role "since I became an actress", gives striking life to Chanel's emancipated and unconventional approach to life allied to an utter dedication to greatness formed in her dirt-poor beginnings. With a relatively small budget - around €20 million - the combination of Fontaine's affectionate direction and Christophe Beaucarne's luscious cinematography delivers a film capturing an era to perfection in everything from smokey clubs to the origins of Chanel's iconic costumes. Tatou, in the role of her life, aquits herself well as the resolute and appealing Coco, the first woman to launch a brand name.