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Coco Avant Chanel
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - Australia - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson & Noor Razzak (21st March 2010). |
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The Film
 “I always knew I’d be no one’s wife. Not even yours. It’s just that sometimes… I forget” True to her word, Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel never married, not even once in her 87 years of life, despite maintaining numerous affairs and courting numerous gentlemen and noblemen in her prime. A strong, independent, and deeply willed individual, she single-handedly built a vast empire, which had, at its center, one of most successful companies in the world. It still persists today and her influence is present not only in fashion and the arts, but felt in many other aspects of daily life, including women’s rights and methods of conducting business. As such an interesting, important person it should come no surprise then that her life has been the stuff of cinema and books for some time; there have been no less than three films about her in (less-than) as many years, the latest of which is “Coco Avant Chanel” or “Coco Before Chanel”, an import from France written and directed by Anne Fontaine, based on a book Edmonde Charles-Roux and starring the lovely Audrey Tautou as the young designer. Even if you don’t know fashion, I think you probably know the name Coco Chanel. Or at the very least are familiar with the Chanel brand. But, as is often the case with people of her stature, details of her personal life aren’t so widely known, unless you do know fashion or have some interest in Coco, her company, or what have you, which would lead one to seek out such information. This film, a dramatic retelling of real events, looks at a relatively small window in Chanel’s life, before she became famous the world over, at a time when she was but a nameless mistress to a French Nobleman, designing hats for her “friends” in her free time. “Orphaned” (lets use that term loosely here) by her father shortly after her mothers death, a young Gabrielle and her sister are left at a Catholic Monastery to grow up in the watchful eye of nuns. Jump ahead some years and Gabrielle is now “Coco”; nicknamed as such after a song she sings to drunken “gentlemen” every weeknight. By day Coco and her sister, Adrienne (Marie Gillain), are but lowly seamstresses. By night, they sing at a cabaret club. When a Baron takes a liking to Adrienne, and a rich aristocrat named Etienne Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde) becomes interested in Coco, the two sisters look like they may finally have an “out” – a way to get to Paris and become the famous actresses that they wish to be. This plan is suddenly upended when Adrienne announces that the Baron wants to marry her and that she won’t be going to Paris with her sister. Lonely and alone, Coco travels to Paris with the aide of Balsan, bombs her audition and in the face of homeless-failure, imposes herself on the noblemen’s hospitality; announcing that she will be staying with him for the long term. In a short time Coco becomes disenchanted with the haughty upper crust lifestyle; regarding the temperamental, at-times-off-putting Balsan and his friends with much disdain. That is, until she meets Arthur “Boy” Chapel (Alessandro Nivola), an alluring English business partner of Balsan, who she quickly falls in love with. As their romance brews, Coco begins to dabble in hat making and defining herself as a woman of simple elegance. Lurking in the shadows is also a now jealous Etienne, who only realizes when he does not have her, that he wants Coco, badly. Those looking to learn about the origins of the Chanel Company, for a storied biopic or basically any of the woman’s elegant, simple and attractive designs, should look elsewhere. Perhaps I shouldn’t have expected the film to be anything more than what it is; in fact, I didn’t. It’s right there in the title, “Coco Before Chanel” so it makes sense that the film wouldn’t look at her designs, business and everything that happened to her after she became a notable person. But, that’s just really unfortunate, because for a woman whose first business failed, second business took a long time to become profitable, changed the way of fashion and empowered a whole generation of females to dress for themselves and not for men, had connections with Nazi’s, was subsequently disowned by the French people, might have been a spy (or not), reinvented herself numerous times to become loved and successful even after various missteps, and worked until the day she died at the age of nearly ninety, it seems almost criminal to make a biopic that basically reduces her life to a (frankly trivial) love-triangle drama. “Coco Before Chanel” isn’t a bad movie. It’s the opposite of that really, at least on a technical level (and the script is not terrible either; just dry), with beautiful cinematography, apt direction, gorgeous; artsy set design and impeccably detailed and lavish costumes. Audrey Tautou is, as I’ve come to expect every time she’s on screen, simply wonderful in her role. She embodies Chanel, mixing the right amount of independent flair, forceful and smart savvy, seductive womanliness and funneling all these qualities through the full array of emotions needed to convey her characters journey. But, for all of the good on display, “Coco Before Chanel” seems hopelessly ordinary. To make a movie about Coco Chanel and shrink the story down to a few tedious years in the French countryside where two men fight for her affection would be like if James Mangold had turned in a “Walk The Line” (2005) that was a two-hour discussion on Johnny Cash’s first failed marriage and only at the end of the film did we get to hear any of the man’s music. In the supplements director Anne Fontaine talks about how she wanted to make a biopic that wasn’t the expected, generic norm. Not only did she not deliver on that promise – the film is dreadfully normal – but she managed, in her strife to produce something unique and unexpected, to focus on one of the dullest, most bland aspects of a life full of grandeur, hardship and scope. “Coco Before Chanel” is a huge missed opportunity.
Video
Warner Brothers delivers this film to Blu-ray in it's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 in high definition 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 widescreen. The package states the ratio as being 2.40:1 but it's really closer to 2.35:1, upon closer inspection this transfer is identical to the US release from Sony. The image is soft at times but overall clean looking. The film's colour palette is drab and the image suitably replicates this aesthetic. Skin tones appear natural and black els are suitably bold. Clarity and detail remain consistent throughout the print, there was no edge-enhancement or other noticeable compression related flaws. Overall it's a good image, nothing impressive but solid throughout.
Audio
Warner Brothers has only included standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks in either French, German or Italian. Seriously? Only standard Dolby? I'm not sure what Warner Brothers are up to sometimes, on the one hand they deliver some excellent Blu-ray releases with impressive images and equally impressive HD audio tracks, and on the other they drop the ball with excessive DNR (re: "Amadeus" (1984) on Blu-ray) or they drop any HD audio option... this is Blu-ray people! HD audio tracks should be the standard (unless the film is a classic catalogue title, then include the original audio). But a recent film such as this to not have a DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD track is just plain insulting. That being said the 5.1 track is about as good as a DVD audio track can be within the context of this film. It's a subtle track that focuses on dialogue, ambient sound and music to propel the story. While mostly front heavy the surrounds kick in during key scenes and the score makes use of the sound space well and helps with immersion. Optional subtitles are included in English, English for the hearing impaired, German, German for the hearing impaired, Italian and Italian for the hearing impaired.
Extras
Extras on this release include an audio commentary, 7-part making-of documentary, and a featurette. Bonus Material is presented in a mix of 480i/p (SD) and 1080p (HD) video. A further look at the extras reveals: First up we have an audio commentary (in French with English subtitles) with writer/director Anne Fontaine, producer Phillipe Carcassonne and editor Luc Barnier. First I must comment that the menu and rear case only list Ms. Fontaine, but luckily she isn’t left to her own devices and the presence of two additional voices smoothes out what could have been a problematically dull discussion. This is certainly an informative chat, with topics of conversation including the projects origins, Fontaine’s intentions, the production design and costumes, characters, actors and the like. There’s rarely a quiet moment with each participant constantly offering factual details and anecdotes, but I admit that the track is often tedious and commentaries that I have to read (i.e. subtitled discussions) are among one of my least favorite supplements. (Subtitles in a main feature, however, I have no qualms with; obviously). “The Making-of ‘Coco Before Chanel’” (4x3 SD) runs for 46 minutes 12 seconds and is a serviceable, at times interesting, multi-part behind-the-scenes documentary chronicling the making-of the film from script to screen. Partly shot on set during the shoot there’s plenty of B-roll footage intermixed with interviews from the primary cast and crew. Like most of the material on the disc, this is in French with optional (default) English subtitles. Broken up into seven parts, with a much preferred “play all” option also offered, the various smaller segments that comprise the documentary are: - “The Project’s Origins” - “Coco’s Look” - “An Extraordinary Destiny” - “Etienne Balsan” - “Boy Capel” - “Historical Reconstruction” - “Anne Fontaine” “Coco Before Chanel: The Meeting” (16x9 SD) runs for 18 minutes 17 seconds and is a featurette, more generic than the making-of and, from what I can gather, would be best considered an EPK piece of sorts. Some interesting bits here, with the cast and crew talking about the real Coco, but compared to the longer multi-part documentary outlined above, nothing all that special and definitely not required viewing, even for devoted fans.
Overall
Film review and extras reviewed by Ethan Stevenson. Technical specs reviewed by Noor Razzak.
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