Directed by Jan Kounen. Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Anna Mouglalis 15A cert, Gate, Cork; Cineworld/IFI/ Light House, Dublin, 120 min
THOUGH GREETED with shrugs and harrumphs on its French release, Jan Kounen's meditation on a supposed romance between Igor Stravinsky and Coco Chanel was, following the success of
Coco Before Chanel, always going to make its way to our shores.
More Prélude à l'après-midi d'un Faunethan Le sacre du Printemps,the film is less energetic than you'd expect from the director of the nasty Dobermann.
Beginning with a bravura recreation of The Rite of Spring'scontroversial 1913 premiere (Chanel was known to be among the audience), the picture then skips forward a decade to find the designer enjoying early success while the composer huddles in a garret with his hungry family. She invites them all for a weekend in the country. Before too long, Igor and Coco are getting sweaty in the potting shed.
Sparse in its dialogue and cautious in its characterisation, the film is certainly not overburdened with plot: the second half comprises little else but sultry glances, furious silences and the odd bit of perfume testing. But slowly, steadily, lucid impressions of these very different artists emerge. The reliably unsettling Mads Mikkelsen emphasises Stravinksy’s apparent dislocation. Anna Mouglalis makes an angry scarecrow of the imperious Chanel.
The film is less lively than
Coco Before Chanel, but it hangs around the brain much more pervasively. A perfumer might (as I understand it) describe the piece as having strong base notes.
