COCO AVANT CHANEL

Coco Avant Chanel tells the extraordinary rags-to-riches tale about Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel (Audrey Tautou), the impoverished woman who created a fashion empire in a man’s world. The film gleans over her childhood spent in an orphanage following her mother’s death and father’s abandonment. Instead, it focuses on her formative years balancing jobs as a cabaret performer by night and humble seamstress by day. Tautou does a fabulous job embodying this witty, charming, ambitious and headstrong woman, and is supported by multi-faceted characters. The elder, Étienne Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde) shields her from harm, but it is the love for Englishman Boy Capel (Alessandro Nivola) that liberates her. The cinematography in this dramatic biopic is stunning and the fashions represent the elegant simplicity synonymous with the icon’s later creations. Ultimately, it is a graceful homage to a truly inspiring and uncompromisingly independent woman.