Coco Before Chanel

"Before she was France's famous mademoiselle…"

2009 1h 50m FR

👍

6.9

SOLID

★6.9TMDB · 1,056

DramaHistory

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Several years after leaving the orphanage, to which her father never returned for her, Gabrielle Chanel finds herself working in a provincial bar. She's both a seamstress for the performers and a singer, earning the nickname Coco from the song she sings nightly with her sister. A liaison with Baron Balsan gives her an entree into French society and a chance to develop her gift for designing.

“Before she was France's famous mademoiselle…”

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Cast

Audrey Tautou
Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel
Benoît Poelvoorde
Étienne Balsan
Alessandro Nivola
Arthur 'Boy' Capel
Marie Gillain
Adrienne Chanel
Emmanuelle Devos
Émilienne d'Alençon
Régis Royer
Alec, Jockey
Étienne Bartholomeus
Balsan Butler
Yan Duffas
Maurice de Nexon

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Anne Fontaine
Writers: Anne Fontaine, Camille Fontaine
Languages: French, English
Countries: Belgium, France

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 17 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Belgium, France.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Anne Fontaine, shot by Christophe Beaucarne. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alexandre Desplat. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Luc Barnier shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Audrey Tautou and Benoît Poelvoorde and Alessandro Nivola carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Before she was France's famous mademoiselle…".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Anne Fontaine directs. Christophe Beaucarne behind the camera. Alexandre Desplat scores. Luc Barnier cuts. Produced in Belgium, France. Dialogue in French, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 17 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.
3International production across 2 countries: Belgium, France.
4Directed by Anne Fontaine, shot by Christophe Beaucarne. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Alexandre Desplat. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Luc Barnier shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Audrey Tautou and Benoît Poelvoorde and Alessandro Nivola carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Before she was France's famous mademoiselle…".
9IMDB entry: tt1035736 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 10 themes, including "based on novel or book", "based on true story", "fashion designer", "wealth".
11Released under 12 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Christophe Beaucarne
Original score: Alexandre Desplat
Editing: Luc Barnier
Production design: Olivier Radot
Costume design: Catherine Leterrier
Makeup / hair: Jane Milon
Runtime: 110 min · 1h 50m
Status: Released
Original language: FR
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Coco Before Chanel (2009)

Awards

César Award for Best Costume Design

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Anne Fontaine

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-04-10
★ 6/10
Audrey Tautou is actually quite impressive here as the legendary French designer, but the rest of this rather blandly photographed melodrama is really more about her love life than her career. She's born Gabrielle and having left the orphanage in which she was abandoned with sister Adrienne (Marie Gillain), takes a job as a seamstress and supplements that with some cabaret work. Clearly she has skill - at both, but it's her charms at the latter that interest the wealthy Baron Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde). His name and association opens many doors for this aspiring woman but she tends to look upon him more, to his increasing chagrin, like a brother as she takes a shine to visiting British coal millionaire Arthur "Boy" Capel (Alessandro Nivola) who agrees to fund her first millinery enterprise. Like so many of these rags-to-riches biopics, we spend way too long on the childhood and family dynamic before almost accidentally ending up at the how she got her break stuff. We hardly build at all on just how she became the woman she was. Those elements are sparingly portrayed and rushed leaving us with large parts of this drama delivering more of a Merchant Ivory style love triangle, peppered with some "House of Eliot" that has more of the soap than the salon to it. That said, Tautou rarely puts a foot wrong and does go some way to convince - despite the over scripting and underwhelming screenplay, and there's an hint of chemistry with Nivola too. It's fine, but sadly - nothing more, and it does little justice to Chanel as a woman or a brand.

Production companies