Long before the trappings of success took hold, Coco Chanel was a not more than a peasant living life abandoned in an orphanage. Immediately this shocking situation for one of history’s most prolific designers sets us up for a rags-to-riches tale like no other, and it’s virtually certain that without the hard and lonely upbringing in which she was forced to more or less fend for herself, Coco would not have had the strength or grit to found one of the great fashion houses.

A little girl who is sent with her sister to an orphanage in the heart of France, who waits in vain every Sunday for her father to come for her…
A cabaret performer with a weak voice who sings to an audience of drunken soldiers…
A humble seamstress, who stitches hems at the back of a provincial tailor’s shop…
A young, skinny courtesan, to whom protector Etienne Balsan offers a safe haven, amongst the idle and decadent…
A woman in love who knows she will never be anyone’s wife, refusing marriage even to Boy Capel, the man who returned her love…
A rebel who finds the conventions of her time oppressive, and instead dresses in her lovers’ clothes…

This is the story of Gabrielle Chanel, who begins her life as a headstrong orphan, and through an extraordinary journey becomes the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman and became a timeless symbol of success, freedom and style.

Directed by Anne Fontaine, Coco Before Chanel (Coco avant Chanel) stars the fantastic Audrey Tautou as Coco, along with a collection of dreadful designs featured as the early “originals” created by the famed designer as we are taken on a trip through the turbulent and hard-fought life of one of fashion’s greats.

Coco Before Chanel tells the story in an almost unflinching manner right up until the dawn of the young designer’s success as she gleefully tears through men’s clothing to create something truly unique and dare I say, historic – thereby skilfully sidestepping the awkward story of Chanel’s own ties to The Third Reich. Played fantastically by Tautou, Chanel manages to inspire and captivate as the once beaten-down peasant woman finally finds her calling in life and shares with the audience a hope that there is more to life than the constant struggle.

Joining Tautau in this selective biopic are Benoît Poelvoorde, her blunt object of a lover and Alessandro Nivola as the suave and seductive Arthur “Boy” Capel. Fontaine’s film is gorgeous, with a colour palette befitting of the subject material. It goes without saying that there has been some artistic license, but none more so than other films of a similar vein. Tautau is perfectly cast in a role that was almost made for her and dare I say it – nobody else would have been able to fill.

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DVD Features

Making of Featurettes
Audio commentary with Anne Fontaine

Coco Before Chanel is out on DVD NOW!