In Anne Fontaine’s admiring but not uncritical “Coco Before Chanel,” Audrey Tautou plays an iconic designer who was also a kind of philosopher.

She wanted to liberate women from their crushing corsets, peel away their suffocating veils and let them move freely. In the process, she designed an adventurous life for herself.

Although sumptuously produced, the film is a staid account of her early years. We meet Gabrielle Chanel as her father dumps her at an orphanage with hardly a backward glance. The nuns’ black habits make an impression on the aspiring seamstress but don’t influence her adolescent wardrobe choices. Performing a saloon cabaret act with her sister, “Coco” dresses in French can-can froufrou.

Fontaine films with a romantic eye and moments of inspiration. In a ballroom scene, women in stuffy formal attire swirl and part until Tautou is revealed dancing in an evening gown of elegant simplicity. At that moment you can appreciate how radical her vision was.

Tautou makes Chanel crafty, sometimes unsympathetic, but always restlessly intelligent. But the film glosses over her complex, sometimes unpleasant personality, and skips the heart of the story: her growth from a designer of hats to a visionary entrepreneur.

“Coco Before Chanel” is exquisite on the surface but barely peeks behind the seams.

Source: theday.com