Coco Before Chanel (2009)
Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 127
Fresh: 79 | Rotten: 48
Though it doesn't quite capture the complexity of its subject's life, Coco Avant Chanel remains a fascinating, appropriately lovely tribute.
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 29 | Rotten: 9
Though it doesn't quite capture the complexity of its subject's life, Coco Avant Chanel remains a fascinating, appropriately lovely tribute.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 39,468
Movie Info
Amélie and The Da Vinci Code star Audrey Tautou stars as legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel in this biopic penned by director Anne Fontaine and screenwriter Camille Fontaine in collaboration with Christopher Hampton. Based on the Chanel biography L'Irrégulière (The Nonconformist) by author Edmonde Charles-Roux, Coco Avant Chanel features dresses from the Chanel collection. House of Chanel art director Karl Lagerfeld also steps onboard to supervise the creation of accessories and costumes. ~
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Cast
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Audrey Tautou
Gabrielle Chanel -
Benoît Poelvoorde
Etienne Balsan -
Marie Gillain
Adrienne -
Emmanuelle Devos
Émilienne, Émilienne, ... -
Alessandro Nivola
Boy Capel -
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Coco Before Chanel Trailer & Photos
All Critics (128) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (79) | Rotten (48) | DVD (9)
A movie that is tres chic even if it sometimes resembles those corsets Coco banished, a little stiff and confining.
Top CriticThe thread connecting the ambitious girl to the acclaimed woman is enough to make us wish for a sequel titled Chanel No. 2.
The film is unfailingly funny.
Coco Before Chanel only starts to get interesting when she asserts her creative and financial freedom -- and that's right when the movie's about to end.
We are used to seeing Tautou play the sweetheart. Here, she's anything but. Constantly smoking, dour, unsmiling, critical, she plays a character difficult to warm to but fascinating to watch.
Although technically a biopic based on a nonfiction book by Edmonde Charles-Roux, Coco Before Chanel plays more like an engrossing, classy period piece.
The movie leaves you with the depressing feeling that not everyone deserves a biopic.
Fashion biopic is OK for teens; more style than substance.
full review at Movies for the Masses
If Chanel's early years were really this boring, why bother with them?
An interesting, but slow, look at the life of the legendary Chanel before she became famous.
... handsome but not particularly enlightening.
Traces the troubled life of the famed clothing designer noted for an unstoppable drive to smash gender and garment ceilings alike.
It begs the question of why such a painstaking effort would be taken to re-create a life that could not seem less dramatic to the woman who's living it.
there were better ways to portray fascinating life of Coco Chanel
Coco Before Chanel cannot get out from under the romantic fabrications and excesses that ostensibly annoyed its subject.
I don't remember ever seeing a photo of Chanel before, but when we see Tautou as the middle-aged, iconic Chanel, a cigarette dangling insouciantly from her lips, I knew it was an uncanny resemblance.
Ultimately, [Benoit Poelvoorde] is the one who holds this knotty yarn in place.
This guilty pleasure costume drama leaves you wanting to know more about this extraordinary woman considered one of the most influential in the 20th century. Let's hope that Fontaine can do a follow-up with "After" in the title.
The script...adheres closely to biopic conventions but is brought alive by the magnetic performance of Tautou with strong support particularly from Poelvoorde and Devos.
'Coco Before Chanel'? Whose bright idea was that? Isn't that like 'Amelia Before Airplanes'? Or 'Frankenstein Before Med School'?
A better title: "Coco Before She Was Interesting."
Earlier in the year we had Julia Childs, two weeks ago we has Amelia Earhart, and this week we have Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. Who's next? Rachel Ray and her journey to invent edible crayons? Hannah Montana's battle against Dissociative Identity Disorder?
A familiar lemonade-from-lemons period biopic or, in the case of the fashionista, a smart-suit-from-tattered-threads tale.
There's a lot to like here. The film looks beautiful, and Alexandre Desplat's score is suitably moody.
Audience Reviews for Coco Before Chanel
Super Reviewer
Audrey Tautou suits the role so well, I could now not imagine her any other way. A good true story about a strong and inspirational woman who rose way above her circumstances.
Super Reviewer
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- Boy Capel: Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves.
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Movie: ID: 770805147 Title: Coco Before Chanel Release Date: 2009-09-25 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 3 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- Coco Chanel - Der Beginn einer Leidenschaft (DE)
- Coco Before Chanel (UK)
