Luxembourg-born Anne Fontaine is a filmmaker who remains under the radar across the film network – of any gender. Even though renowned French actresses of varying eras of cinema – Emmanuelle Béart, Stéphane Audran, Fanny Ardant, Miou-Miou, Isabelle Huppert – have all featured in Fontaine-directed films. And it was Amélie herself, Audrey Tautou, with a cunning physical likeness to her character, that was cast as the fashion pioneer, Coco Chanel.
Coco Before Chanel (Coco avant Chanel in French) is casually labelled a biopic, like many other pictures that focus on crucial aspects of a person’s life rather than flitting through the whole thing. Fontaine’s 2009 film is not literally about the conception of a little black dress, though. Those craving a story thread on the fashion film niche might need to decipher the title for themselves.
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This is not exactly about how Coco Chanel actually became the household name in fashion design we all know. But not far from it. Anne Fontaine directs and co-writes with her sister Camille – adapting the screenplay from the book by Edmonde Charles-Roux – Coco Before Chanel hits almost every note perfectly. If only those notes were captivating enough to warrant this being Fontaine’s finest work. Instead that remains, according to this particular fan, the 2016 film, Les Innocentes.
Coco Before Chanel begins at the orphanage where little Gabrielle Chanel dwells after being dropped off by her back-turned father. The remaining eighty minutes follow our protagonist as a young woman, galivanting between her daytime seamstress job and the evening scene sing-songs akin to the cabaret scene. It is the latter where she earns her ‘Coco’ name, singing of a lost dog for the higher class social gentlemen with her sister Adrienne (Marie Gillain).
Coco is no servant to the male of the species though, nor is she at war with them. Fontaine and Tautou’s collaboration is something of a marvel, if often a meek one in impact. Together they bring to life a woman who simply refuses to follow the pack in their conforming to fashion fads and classic costumes – that appear to represent that very era. Coco is also shrewd and forthcoming by personality, not afraid to speak her mind and do as she pleases.
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Fontaine scatters across her lavish picture the map pins of Chanel’s sartorial brain. It is in these flourishing, eye-catching segments of the film where it truly succeeds beyond the perhaps-too-carefully structured narrative.
It could be argued that the opening scenes with Coco as a child might have benefited from being stretched out somewhat. But the little girl in the hat waiting for a father that never returns is a beautiful image, having instead to watch the more privileged girls in their fluffy dresses ride off in horse drawn carriages with their guardians. This foretelling of a grand career is replicated with Coco as an adult, standing out as the one in the boyish suit amidst the colourful frocks. And then soon after, in a ballroom, she is the one in the black dress, among the ladies in white.
Moments of contemplation as Coco wanders among the classes at a racecourse, the cogs of inspiration grow before our – and her – eyes. Accompanied by Alexandre Desplat’s signature score it makes for one of the film’s finer scenes. But Fontaine never lays it on thick, as to dress the audience without them lifting a finger. They are fleeting moments, that serve a greater purpose of poise in someone who would direct the fashion senses of women more internally. Blooming cleavage is lovely, but are you comfortable?
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Fontaine performs her duties, with the aid of a deft crew, to allow her audience to witness subtle inspiration oozing from Coco. Cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne makes gorgeous use of the varying depths of his canvas. And as expected, but also essentially so, the production design and – yes – costume design exquisitely deliver on the period remit.
Coco’s relationship with two particular men in the picture also well accompany Fontaine’s tale. Alessandro Nivola plays Arthur Capel, a thriving British businessman (speaking rather good French too), Coco’s key love interest. In their first intimate contact, he comments he is not used to undressing boys, and with that blend of humour and attraction, Coco starts to deliver a more frequent smile. Her big challenge is resisting his subtle organic charms. Love indeed.
Fontaine semi-regular, Benoît Poelvoorde, as the charming Baron Étienne Balsan, proves to be as crucial a part to the film’s chemistry as any corset or dress coat. Having kind of taken her under his wing, at one point he tells Coco she almost looks feminine after she has compared herself to a curtain. A playboy he might be, but portrayed as much more than that, Balsan serves as both the frolicsome gentleman and the unlikely companion for Coco. A far stretch from his iconic Man Bites Dog role, Poelvoorde threatens to steal the movie on many occasions.
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Given such a vast distance from the matchmaking vibrancy of Montmarte, Audrey Tautou gives us new reasons to be enraptured by her expressions. The French actress brings Coco Chanel to life in all her androgyny, cynicism and brash independence. For fashionistas who only know Tautou from Amélie, then you might be forgiven for being dubious at this casting. Seeing Coco Before Chanel only for a few minutes quashes that.
There’s no question that Tautou is photogenic, she glimmers even in her moments of resentment or desperation. She plays Coco with the confidence of the cat who wants all the cream. Her inner spirit, which she guards ever so well, is the true persona that Tautou’s Coco carries with pride.
In the end, or indeed during proceedings, it just feels a bit of a missed opportunity that the film seems content to not excel on the material that could have expanded this picture to a much larger audience attention. And indeed further critical acclaim. Like much of it’s source material, evident flair of costumery, and the rich depiction of character – Coco and Balsan out in front – Anne Fontaine’s Coco Before Chanel is a charismatic, handsome picture, if not the best-dressed in the room.
