Coco Before Chanel

I’ve wanted to see Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky ever since it was given the coveted “last slot” at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. I was captivated immediately, since it starts with a recreation of a ballet performance that caused one of the most notable classical music riots in history: the 1913 Paris premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring: Pictures from Pagan Russia. The performance was collaboration between some of the most famous avant-garde artists of the day: Vaslav Nijinsky...Read Full Story

I’ve wanted to see Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky ever since it was given the coveted “last slot” at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. I was captivated immediately, since it starts with a recreation of a ballet performance that caused one of the most notable classical music riots in history: the 1913 Paris premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring: Pictures from Pagan Russia. The performance was collaboration between some of the most famous avant-garde artists of the day: Vaslav Nijinsky...Read Full Story

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is a 2009 French film directed by Jan Kounen. Based on the 2002 fictional novel Coco & Igor by Chris Greenhalgh. This movie is about Coco Chanel who is infatuated with the rich and handsome Boy Capel, but she is also compelled by her work. Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is about to be performed. The revolutionary dissonances of Igor’s work parallel Coco’s radical ideas. She wants to democratize women’s fashion; he wants to redefine musical taste. Coco...Read Full Story

On the heels of the Audrey Tautou biopic about Coco Chanel, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky strives for a somewhat uncharted approach to tackling the career-oriented portion of Coco Chanel’s life. Based on the 2003 novel by Chris Greenhalgh, the film focuses so comprehensively on the affair between Chanel and Stravinsky that the nuances are almost unfathomable. Promotional poster for Coco & Igor The opening night to Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” in 1913 Paris is a categorical failure (and to be...Read Full Story

The first thing Audrey Tautou does is leap out of her seat and declare: "I love your glasses! I want some. Where did you get them?" At five feet three inches she is petite rather than small, slight as opposed to thin. Excruciatingly gamine, she would make the perfect Peter Pan. Her jet-black hair is cut characteristically short, brushed forward like Audrey Hepburn's in Funny Face, her lips are femme-fatale scarlet, and a white lace blouse perfectly complements old-school Levi's that hang...Read Full Story

Tight corsets, frilly, oversized hats, restrictive garments, and unflattering silhouettes were the fate of well-dressed woman before Coco Chanel. It sometimes took hours for women from polite society to get dressed and it sometimes took the same amount of time to get out of their birds-of-paradise contraptions. Before Coco Chanel women dressed for their husbands or the men they wanted to marry; after Coco Chanel women dressed more for themselves. In Coco Before Chanel, director Anne...Read Full Story

Now Available to OwnRelated TitlesPhoto SlideshowAKA Coco Avant ChanelPerhaps since her nickname of Coco came from a flirtatious little cabaret number she sang to collect coins from drunken men, Gabrielle Chanel (Audrey Tatou) was acutely aware of the way that men had a tendency to look at the opposite sex as desserts ready to be devoured.Instead of giving into the ridiculous trends, the orphan whose first taste of male disappointment came from being abandoned by her father whom she loyally...Read Full Story

If you’ve ever wanted inspiration or an epiphanic moment to stimulate your fashion creativity – this isn’t the story for you.  This is the story of Nazi-led espionage, drugs, lesbian tendencies and a fashion trailblazer with a lot to hide. Lisa Chaney’s forthcoming biography, Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life, lays bare hard evidence of the fashion maven’s use of opiates, as well as new insights into Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel’s bisexuality, multiple affairs and love with a Nazi spy. Penguin says...Read Full Story

Director: Jan Kounen, 2009. (R) Having seen Coco Before Chanel, I was hoping that this film would be a continuation of the story of Gabrielle Chanel, even though it is not a sequel. To some degree it is. But it offers little in the way of story development.This film recounts the relationship between Coco (Anna Mouglalis), the radical fashionista of Paris, and Igor Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen, Casino Royale) the revolutionary Russian composer, in the 1920s. Coco has lost her lover, Boy Capel...Read Full Story

Coco Before Chanel Review Coco Before Chanel Overview Audrey Tautou (The Da Vinci Code, Amélie) shines in this intriguing portrait of the early life of Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, the orphan who would build a fashion empire and be known universally by her nickname, Coco. She journeys from a mundane seamstress job to boisterous cabarets to the opulent French countryside, possessing little more than her unwavering determination, unique style and visionary talent. Also starring Benoît...Read Full Story