Coco avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel) Reviews and Ratings



  • December 5, 2009
    Romantic, beautiful and moving... Coco Chanel comes alive with Tautou's remarkable portrayal of a legend. The film started out strong but tapered off to a weak ending, which was a pity. Overall, an enjoyable movie worth watching.
  • December 4, 2009
    a nice insight into the life of a stubborn simplicity-obsessed fashionista. good performances from all, especially the brit "gentleman"
  • December 3, 2009
    Audrey Tautou did a great job portraying one of the most important women of the past decade. But the really amazing features in this film are more like technical. The music is great, cinematography is beautiful and well, the costumes are freaking amazing! I hope it will take at l...( read more)east the best costume design award this year.
  • November 29, 2009
    now I want one movie called Coco depuis de Chanel
  • November 27, 2009
    This is a Love Story. The Love of and for the two men in her life at that time, and Her love of simplicity! The story that shows how Mlle. detested fussy styles, and designed with elegant and simple lines to eschew, as much as possible complicated and overly worked style of la...( read more)dies clothes in the early decades of the 20th century!

    Mlle. influenced fashion for about 6o years. This film shows how it started! This is a GOOD FILM. I highlyt recommend that you see it.
  • November 26, 2009
    Ya had to get past the subtitles. I have read subtitles before but there was something about these... Anyway, the story was alright but I felt like something was missing as I watched it. I don't remembe "Boy" asking her to marry her although someone else did so I don't know wh...( read more)ere that came from on the discription above. "Boy" was to marry someone else and was happy to keep her as a Mistress. Co Co did things on her terms pretty much as some women today that end up getting called less than favorable things. This movie was not terrible, pretty good.
  • November 26, 2009
    Esta es la historia de Coco Chanel, desde sus días en el orfanato, hasta convertirse en una de las diseñadoras mas importantes de la historia.
    Me pareció que esta increíblemente bien contada y las secuencias están bien logradas.
    Me sorprendió la actitud de Chanel hacia la socieda...( read more)d y en general su punto de vista hacia la vida, no le importaba lo que los demás pensaran de ella, estaba orgullosa de ser como era y se atrevió a ser diferente en una época donde era mal visto.
    Audrey Tatou es una de mis actrices favoritas y encarna a Chanel perfectamente, durante toda la película pare de verla como la actriz ya que para mi era el personaje.
    La cinematografía bella y el director capto el ambiente de la época como debía ser.
  • November 25, 2009
    I love Coco Chanel and I love Audrey Tautou, so this combination was bound to be pure bliss, and it was. She plays the part perfectly. However, I do share the opinion of many others, the film is too focused on Coco's love life, whereas her relationships with men is the least inte...( read more)resting thing about her. She is not a woman who should be defined by that particular aspect of her life, as she is so much more than that. But although that was a bit of a letdown, I still enjoyed it tremendously and I love the way she was portrayed. When you cast Tautou, you don't need any more actors for she will carry the film entirely, and she didn't disappoint in this one.
  • November 21, 2009
    Is it just me, or does anyone else thinking this film is heavily sponsored (even suggested by) Chanel? I am certainly not the first to have noticed the strong links between the French movie industry and the fashion industry.

    The movie never ventures beyond the shallows. It skims...( read more) the surface of Coco's life before her company took off, and give us 3 pieces of information: (1) She was an orphan, (2) She worked as a seamstress, and (3) She determined not to marry. It is in the last of these that the film spends most of its time. However, the little information it divulges simply leaves us begging for more answers. At one point the prospect of war (World War I) is mentioned, but we learn nothing of the events in France in either war, or of any role she played in them. Instead it focuses on her seamstress eye for alterations, and her desire to wear unrestricted clothing.

    It's pretty enough. Just not in any way insightful or inspiring.
  • November 21, 2009
    A great biographic movie, Audrey is so lovely as usual..
  • November 15, 2009
    I really enjoy the film, but expect more. The criativity of Chanel for fashion lost space for romance. I want to see more about fashion, and after she get famous.
  • November 15, 2009
    I love Audrey Tautou! Lynn and I learned a few things....better mistress than wife; love hurts and (some) men cheat.
  • November 8, 2009
    Great movie...very interesting woman from historic point of view, from the fashion point of view. Takes us back to the fashions essential purposes: simplicity, elegance and femininity
  • November 8, 2009
    Audrey Tautou, with her sparkling eyes and winning smile, established herself as one of our most beloved screen actresses in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Amelie". Oddly enough, perhaps her least glamorous role is that of a fashion designer.

    Coco Chanel is still one of the most signific...( read more)ant names in the world of fashion. Her influence single-handedly changed the way women dressed - gone was the reign of corsets and lace, Chanel's simplistic and rather androgynous fashion sense liberated women into clothes that were at once elegant and comfortable: "I gave women a sense of freedom; I gave them back their bodies." In Anne Fontaine's latest effort, Tautou inhabits the formative years of the woman who would become an icon of the fashion world.

    Beginning in the 1890's, we first meet Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, along with her sister, Adrienne (Marie Gillain), working as singers in a bar. There, following a successful performance, she meets Étienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde), the man who would entice her to live with him in his mansion. Chanel accepts his invitation, but romantic love with the baron is the farthest thing from her mind: "A woman in love is helpless. Like a begging dog."

    Her resistance to love is compromised when she meets a friend of Balsan's, Arthur "Boy" Capel (Alessandro Nivola), who convinces her to leave the baron for Paris. There she begins a career selling hats and dresses, which becomes the prelude to her rise in France's fashion industry.

    The love-triangle at the center of the picture is a bit of a bore. The film doesn't go for high melodrama - it barely passes for drama, in fact. There's no fire, no intensity to the relationships. If the filmmakers didn't wish to make a soap opera, perhaps the film should've been kept to a typical rags-to-riches procedural - here, Fontaine's film seems completely without direction, meandering aimlessly through postcards until the conclusion. It's not necessarily a bad film, but there's nothing much of interest.

    If there's one thing to praise "Coco Before Chanel" for, however, it's the look of the film. Those interested in the fashion industry will not be disappointed - the costume design here is sumptuous, and Christophe Beaucarne's cinematography is exquisite. If only there was a compelling story to match the transendant beauty gracing the screen.
  • November 7, 2009
    Coadjuvantes roubam a cena
  • November 6, 2009
    Audrey Tautou's acting is near perfection. I found a bit of myself in the person of Coco Chanel. It's too bad that nowadays Chanel is not what it used to be. She dared to be different and do her own thing but it seems that now Chanel is a brand for fashion followers only. Oh well...( read more). It was still a nicely photographed film, very subtle and mellow.
  • November 1, 2009
    Tre bien! Standard period drama piece, but beautifully done.
  • October 28, 2009
    If their lives were that similar, I don´t know, but either bieng Chanel or Piaf, the movie is (almost) the same. Like Kyle Smith says (check critic review below), Anne Fontaine´s movie " begs to be compared to 'La Vie en Rose' ".

    As happened to "La Vie en Rose", "Coco avant C...( read more)hanel" is nothing but a typical drama like any typical Hollywood crap would be (it´s obvious that a car accident will happen when they are seeing off/saying goodbye). I´m being very honest when I say that after Chanel´s lover dies and we see a lot of "snapshots" of her work/life with a melty song in the background, I turned off the sound.

    (...)

    I know te movie is focused on Chanel´s life before the sucess, but after a very long view of her way to succeed, the movie suddenly jumps to her atelier in Paris as if right after leaving Étienne she had done it. Even having Boy lent her money, how did she really manage in the beginning in Paris? Why was her sister working with her? And, the most important, how and when she definitely became Mademoiselle Coco Chanel?


  • October 26, 2009
    No va mas allá de ser una biografía edulcorada, es decir, menos enfocada en apegarse a la realidad que a contar una historia romántica sobre las visicitudes de una joven y humilde joven que se convierte en la famosa diseñadora. Sin embargo tiene mejor calidad que una tipica biopi...( read more)c para la televisión francesa que pasan por Eurochannel. Cumple con su cometido.
  • October 25, 2009
    The film is telling nothing. However u can extract an idea that Life has no meaning without love. I accept that.
  • October 18, 2009
    Great acting by Audrey. Nice attention to detail, historically very true.
  • October 18, 2009
    Enjoyable and interesting. Told in a straightforward style without a lot of melodrama or moralizing.
  • October 18, 2009
    I liked this movie, probably more than I should have, because of Audrey Tautou. I admire Coco's persistence. She never backs down, while completely fearful at the same time...inspiring woman who knows how to use her resources well. Audrey conveys a lot through expression and sile...( read more)nce, which is what I like so much about her.
  • October 11, 2009
    Lo que me atrajo a "Coco Before Chanel" fue Audrey Tautou. En si, no estoy muy impresionado con el legado de Chanel en el mundo de la moda (realmente nunca me ha interesado mucho el mundo de la moda, para ser exactos). El filme no es particularmente bueno porque resulta ser un bi...( read more)opic convencional y monotono aunque muy bien ambientado y con una actuacion sobresaliente de Tautou. Si la tuviera que comparar seria a "La Vie en Rose", la cual mostraba la vida de Edith Pïaf. De hecho ambas mujeres tuvieron vidas similares. Aun asi recomiendo esta cinta por la calidad de la produccion y por Tatou, aunque presiento que la mayoria se decepcionaran al ver que la pelicula no se enfoca en casi nada del imperio Chanel. Quizas por eso se titula "Coco before Chanel".
  • September 24, 2009
    Un vistazo a los comienzos de quien sería luego un ícono de la moda por excelencia. Me pareció muy interesante por el hecho de que conocía poco de sus orígenes, y me llamaron la atención los puntos en común con la historia de Édith Piaf. Me gustó mucho la interpretación de Tautou...( read more) y Alesandro Nivola que está irreconocible fisícamente, también realiza una buena labor interpretando al amante y principal financista de Chanel. Buena.
  • September 15, 2009
    classical movie that i can realate to..
  • September 9, 2009
    Rather slow and bland. Btw the life of Coco was so similar to that of Edith Piaf! How come famous women always had such miserable lives?
  • September 8, 2009
    More a snapshot of a moment than conventional biography, and while less complex than it might want to be, still a quietly thoughtful look at one of the 20th century?s most influential characters. Tautou is just terrific, and to recall an actress who could so dominate your memory ...( read more)of a movie, one needs to think back to Audrey Hepburn.
  • September 3, 2009
    I liked that it focused more on coco's life pre-fashion days instead of what everyone was expecting. The fashion bits in the movie were decadent, Tautou's performance was splendid in bringing out coco's charm and the struggles she faced- be they of the heart or of the world.
  • August 29, 2009
    Watch her eyes, just watch her eyes..Audrey Tautou..woot! :)
  • August 25, 2009
    Very good movie and story!! But I would like to see Coco smiling a bit more. It's worth to see.
  • August 25, 2009
    Rather slow moving. Nice ending. Alittle boring.
  • August 24, 2009
    Love it. A fairly good french film about Coco chanel's early life.
  • August 23, 2009
    a bit diappointed that this film features mainly on coco's love life between 2 men instead of more on the fashion side. But then, its "coco BEFORE chanel" so do not expect much. Decent acting overall though.
  • August 15, 2009
    exelente me gusta este tipo de peli
  • August 14, 2009
    if you want to know more about coco chanel's life watch this movie
  • August 12, 2009
    Audrey Tautou is bewitching as Coco as a woman so very much ahead of her time.The look and feel of the film is mesmerising.
  • August 8, 2009
    Great cinematography, story nice, started well, went on to middle well, then ....it ended:)
  • August 4, 2009
    nice insight into Coco Chanel's early life
  • July 18, 2009
    Great french film. Audrey Tautou shines!
  • July 17, 2009
    beautiful. a real masterpiece about a strong women. sawthe film today in romania!
  • July 12, 2009
    I love Chanel NO.5 & NO.19. The perfumes like the CoCo Chanel lady. Secret smell like she in the movies. Every things she smell first.
    I like perfumes, I like the nature perfumes with lover.
    When? What's I choes?
    All we need know how and why?
    From the heart.
    We do the things we d...( read more)o, all because I love U.
    So if the world like the sea so deeply, We all need control the mind.
    Then when we to do, the all because we caring the one.
    In our life, we need one lover. to thinking, to mind, to deeply, to caring.....etc.
    Why we need another?
    In my life I like the special people and artlist people.
    They have different world in the heart.
  • July 4, 2009
    Respectable film, it is a bit overlong but the production is good as are the performances. The scenes with Shirley MacLaine come off best. Nice period detail, good cinematography.
  • July 3, 2009
    The beauty of simplicity....

Summary


Coco avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel) Summary