Movie Review - 'Coco Avant Chanel'

Coco Avant Chanel Starring Audrey Tautou, Alessandro Nivola, and Benoît Poelvoorde Directed by Anne Fontaine Rated PG-13

In her performance as Coco Chanel, you can see the wheels turning with Audrey Tautou, the gamine French actress who made such an indelible mark on audiences eight years ago in Amélie. That's not to say you can see her acting. For a recent example, watch Hilary Swank in another bio-pic about an important woman from the first half of the 20th century. With Tautou, as it perhaps was with Chanel, you can see her navigating the chess pieces, from the clothes to the actors. The portrayal is vastly different from Amélie, a determination for herself and for those around her. However, this is called Coco Avant Chanel, so the arc of the story leads up to Chanel's great success, so the determination Coco sees is probably far different here than it would be in the next chapter of her life. There is a matter-of-fact attitude about Tautou's work, one that is also embodied in Chanel's work; after all, she liberated women from those pageants of inefficient, cumbersome design of the 19th century, delivering time and again on her ethos, "simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance." There was nothing simple about her life, however. She dared to be different, but not for the sake of being different. As a result, we know something of the rest of her story. But those early years, a woman bent on making something out of herself but not knowing precisely what that would be, are pretty revealing, even though we lose the golden era. It might be good to go back in a few years and give that significant piece in time its own film, too. If that happens, I wouldn't mind a reunion between Tautou and director Anne Fontaine. That's not because this film is perfect, but because it's imperfect and feels as though it would take on greater significance as part of a larger story. There's really nothing wrong with it; it just feels unfinished, as if the best is yet to come. We get a sense for how Chanel drove herself in life and in love, though love doesn't expressly mean romantic relationships in her world. There's plenty of that as well, if you're interested. Tautou shares a few great scenes with Alessandro Nivola, portraying English polo player Arthur "Boy" Capel. In addition to their decade-long affair, he was one of the major influences on her style.

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Audrey Tautou in U.S. Trailer for 'Coco Avant Chanel'

This September, the gamine Audrey Tautou returns to American theaters with Coco Avant Chanel, her first major release in this country since The Da Vinci Code, although most movie fans in the states (rightly or not) just know her as Amélie.

If you have only seen her in either or both of those movies, there are a few perfomances you might want to check out, like Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement, an odd little number called He Loves Me...He Loves Me Not, and in Stephen Frear's underrated Dirty Pretty Things, although Amélie is among the most charming characters in I don't know how long. In Coco Avant Chanel she's obviously portraying the legendary Coco Chanel, although the title tells us this is the famed designer's life before she became a brand name. We finally have a U.S. trailer for Coco, so take a look:

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Audrey Tautou in Chanel No. 5 Short Film

Audrey Tautou is best known for Amélie, and she had a major role in The Da Vinci Code, as well. But she is not exactly a big French export, preferring to work in Europe than in Hollywood.

Even still, her performance this year as Coco Chanel should once again garner her international attention. How could it not, playing one of the most legendary figures in fashion? Today is May 5th, officially Chanel No. 5 Day in New York, and part of Fifth Avenue has been renamed Avenue No. 5 until May 10th. As part of the Chanelebration, the fragrance has hired Tautou and her Amélie director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, to create a short film, a beautifully photographed postcard to Chanel No. 5:

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Trailer - Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel

Next month, a new bio-pic about one of the world's most beloved fashion designers will debut in European theaters, likely with a U.S. release later in the summer or in early fall. It's Coco avant Chanel, or Coco before Chanel, meaning this film covers the period in Chanel's life before she became an international icon.

Playing the legendary Chanel is Audrey Tautou, the world's girlfriend several years ago when Amelie was released. Of course, I haven't seen the film yet so this opinion might change, but just knowing Tautou's work through about ten movies and watching her in this trailer, I'd like to see Tautou revisit this character later in life as Chanel inevitably changes. One word of warning before you watch the trailer: It's in French with no subtitles, so if you get a lot of your social commentary from Bill O'Reilly, this might turn you into a socialist.

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First Look at Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel

I think Audrey Tautou and Amélie were robbed for some Oscar nominations several years ago. Though she has popped up in a few major films since - think The Da Vinci Code and Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things - she has kept a fairly low profile in the U.S., but then, she always maintained that she preferred to work in Europe, anyway.

How does that jive with playing one of the more high profile women of the 20th Century? We'll find out, probably at the end of the year, when we see Tautou as designer Coco Chanel in Coco avant Chanel (Coco before Chanel), a biopic chronicling the early years in the career of one of Time's 100 most influential people of the 20th century. The Bad and the Ugly has some new production photos of Tautou as Coco, and I think we call all agree it's pretty terrific casting.

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