Coco Before Chanel

The name Chanel has long been synonymous with simple elegance; this film tells, who she is and how she came to be, as comic origins stories like to put it. We first see little Gabrielle, or Coco, as she's being dropped off at an orphanage by her widowed father. Dad never even looks back at her, and she seems to realize at that moment that she'll never be able to truly rely on any man for emotional support. The film quickly moves forward, and before you can say Amelie, Coco has turned into Audrey Tautou. She's now singing in a cabaret at night, while working as a seamstress by day. She's introduced into upper crust society by Balsan, her wealthy lover at whose estate she stays. Here, she begins designing simple hats as a response to what she sees as the overly ostentatious and burdensome fashion of the society ladies she mingles with, but, is never a part of. Coco is a well told story of the subject and of the times. It portrays a determined and independent woman of the early twentieth century, who succeeded on her own; when she could have enjoyed a life of leisure and luxury if she so chose. See it, to learn about the woman behind the perfume.

Rating - 3 Stars