Another opening, another boring show. For someone who lived such a fantastic life, the movie Coco before Chanel does everything it can to prevent you from enjoying the life of a fashion icon of the world.
Granted, the title should have forewarned my expectations. Being the dunderhead that I am, I didn’t even realize that the movie was going to be in French with English subtitles. The self-proclaimed fashionistas in the audience yawned and sighed throughout the movie because nothing new was shown on screen. If you wanted to see a simplistic biopic of the life of Coco Chanel, you would have been better off watching the Lifetime special.
Because the movie ambles along as quickly as the carriage horse opening the movie, Chanel’s designs aren’t even highlighted until the last scene of the movie. Rather on the simplistic side, the movie presents itself so heavy-handedly, I actually groaned a couple of times. In the iconic trip to the sea where Chanel sees the fishermen hauling their catch, the camera pans back and forth between extreme close ups of Coco and the fishermen’s jumpers. This then blacks out until the next see in which Coco is wearing the woman’s version of the same jumper.
While the plot is heavy handed, the cinematography isn’t--it is an absolutely gorgeous movie to watch. The opulence of the countryside, the grandness of scale of the party scenes, and the costumes are stunning. I don’t think that it is worth seeing on the big screen and should be added to your Netflix queue when it is available.
If you are a fan of Chanel or of fashion, there really isn’t anything new to learn from this movie.
I rate this movie three watches.
Viewed on 9/25/09 at Clearview Chelsea Cinema (NYC).
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