Review of Coco Before Chanel (2009) by Julie K — 28 Mar 2010

I'm not sure what I expected with this one. I wanted an angsty world of fashion, the blossoming of ordinary woman into the queen of modern design. I think I kept waiting for her to blossom like a butterfly somehow when, really, she just keeps a dour face and doesn't appear to know what she wants.

This is an era where women must freeload off of various men and so the social circles reflect this: Coco's sister seems to be living with this guy who may or may not be married (either way, he's not that committed, but she gets a room in his house I guess... and gets to wear hats with poofy things on them); Coco herself lives with Etienne Balsan, whom she doesn't really like, but tolerates for the sake of getting to ride horses.

Coco's romance with Arthur Capel was lovely...and his death was slightly predictable. It's almost as if someone as gorgeous as him just can't live very long or else the balance of nature would be drastically disrupted. I could tell that just by looking at his face.

My biggest disappointment with this movie was that it got boring. The scenes between Coco's annoyance at Balsan and her slow meandering between social gatherings where she mildly pointed out "that hat looks pretty stupid, I bet you I can make a better one" were way too long. I wanted to fall asleep. I wanted to race ahead to the part where her business or ingenuity really starts to shine. When it finally took root, there wasn't much of a commotion - it was more like, of course she could have a store if she wanted to, she just didn't feel like it before. So what exactly did she want out of life then? If she wasn't afraid of failing at her ventures, what was driving her? It didn't really feel as if she cared about anything.

What this movie did do well was that it eloquently portrayed Chanel's sadness. All thoughout the movie she seems distant from everyone else, constantly dissatisfied. We see her smile just a teeny bit with Boy, but even then he is already separated from her through his marriage to the other woman.... and finally taken away from her. As she sits on the steps of the fashion show - dozens of models walking to and fro, displaying all the works she has created - she reviews her life and all of the people who had helped her become the person that she is. All of them seemed to have sailed in and out of her life, and at the end she is left with only herself and the things she has created. It is strange, the way she sits by herself, the audience clapping at her ingenuity of design; she almost seems not to see them, but rather sits off to the side in a private space where there is only her. It seems terribly lonely. I could imagine myself in that position, wondering in the future what I'd really done with my life, if I bothered to make those connections that matter. I feel unsettled at the prospect of such large questions. I wish this movie were faster paced.