If you liked La Vie en Rose, then you'll love, well, energetically acted films about French chanteuses featuring authentic Gallic atmosphere. But there's certainly no guarantee you'll enjoy this torpid, directionless plod through the early life of Coco Chanel.
Audrey Tautou stars as the fashion designer whose sleek, unfussy designs defined mid-20th century couture, but, a few clumsy nods towards later developments aside, you will discover little about Coco’s signature innovations in Anne Fontaine’s film.
Taking its lead from Batman Beginsas much as from La Vie en Rose, the picture follows Coco from her time as a cabaret singer – "We'll call you Coco," an admirer tells the young Gabrielle Chanel – to her relationship with two unsuitable men and, after an age of inactivity, to modest success as a milliner.
Every now and then the perky young woman makes a tart observation on the undesirability of corsets or the overly ornate nature of contemporaneous hats, but, for the most part, she just lies in bed, prances around on horses and wrinkles her nose at aristocrats.
There are undoubtedly some superficial pleasures to be drawn from this uninspiring film. Though lacking in range, Tautou has the patent on a particular class of twitchy child-woman and, widening her already vast eyes and pursing her flexible mouth, she drags the creature out of the attic for one more passably engaging trot round the track.
Also, some of the larger set-pieces are quite elegant, and Benoît Poelvoorde (posh older chap) and Alessandro Nivola (English charmer) nearly make human beings of the men in Coco’s life.
But Coco Before Chanelremains a dull story about a dull woman with dull friends. (I mean the characters, not the real people.) Does our knowledge that she will later turn into an icon lend depth to the protagonist? Not really. If you make a film about a boy playing marbles in a shed, that character becomes only a tad more interesting when you tell us he will grow up to be Napoleon.
Directed by Anne Fontaine. Starring Audrey Tautou, Benoît Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola, Marie Gillain, Emmanuelle Devos 12A cert, lim release, 105 min
