Movie summary of Coco Before Chanel by Michael the Moviegoer.
COCO BEFORE CHANEL = **
“Before Her Life Became Interesting”
There is so much truth in the title “Coco Before Chanel” that it almost feels like a disclaimer. This is, in fact, a movie based on the life of the groundbreaking French fashion designer before she broke ground to change the fashion industry forever. But why is the early part of her life more interesting? This movie ends right at the point where the good stuff is about to begin. Call it a prequel in desperate need of a sequel.
It’s not that the movie isn’t well made. It’s consistently beautiful to look at. And the score by Alexandre Desplat is absolutely gorgeous. But the events in this girl’s life are so uneventful and average at best, that if she were not to grow up to become an icon, would this story be worth telling?
This same material has already been covered in 1981’s “Chanel Solitaire”. It’s time to focus on her career, not her love life. Chanel was one of the first successful career women of the last century. She broke down the barriers in a male-dominated business world. Surely there’s some drama to that part of her story.
I had a similar problem earlier this year with “Julie & Julia” in which Meryl Streep plays Julia Child in the years before Child became famous. In ‘Chanel’, French actress Audrey Tautou plays a young girl about to take over the world. If only we could fast forward to that chapter of her life. In the same running time, the French biopic “La Vie En Rose” tells the entire life story of Edith Piaf practically from womb to tomb. So watching Coco’s two-hour transformation into Chanel is quite astonishingly dull. There’s no icing on this cake.
DVD Double Feature: 1995’s documentary “Unzipped” is a superb behind-the-scenes look at the life of current iconic fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi. You can sense the designer as an artist. You can learn what movies and inspires him. And it doesn’t hurt that the film is filled with real supermodels like Cindy Crawford, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.
Michael The Moviegoer
