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Coco Before Chanel
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (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
Arriving to Blu-ray via a 2.35:1 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 widescreen package, “Coco Before Chanel” sports a clean, genuinely good transfer. Shot anamorphically with Panavision lenses on 35mm film, the picture is decidedly a little softer than something captured on the Super35 format or digital video, but it does looks respectable and showcases a decent level of high frequency detail. Colors are surprisingly drab – however accurate and non-boosted they may be. The film relishes in browns, blacks, grays, whites, blues and other dreary hues. Contrast is sort of flat, but blacks are strong and “Coco” is otherwise natural in appearance. I see no evidence of edge-enhancement; nor blocking, noise, grain scrubbing or any other unwanted tinkering. It won’t be something to impress the neighbors with, but this is a disc that remains true-to-the-source and, sometimes, that’s enough.
Audio
Likewise, the French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) soundtrack is unremarkable, but faithful to the source. A period drama such as this isn’t going to blow your doors off with window-cracking bass or an over-active barrage of surround use, but “Coco Before Chanel” does make decent, minimal, appropriate use of both points via the warm score by Alexandre Desplat and in a smattering of small scenes, as well as delivering precise, clear dialogue. For this type of film the mix is more than satisfactory. The optional (default) English subtitles are displayed partly in, partly out of the active 2.35:1 area, with often one line in the image and one in the lower letterbox bar. No other language options are offered.
Extras
Extras on this release include an audio commentary, 7-part making-of documentary, a couple of additional featurettes, BD-Live connectivity, the film's theatrical trailer and a collection of bonus trailers. 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. The last of the featurettes, “Walking the Red Carpet: From Los Angeles to New York” (HD) runs for 7 minutes 49 seconds, is the only non-trailer extra to be encoded in high definition. The title is fairly self-explanatory, but for those who can’t figure it out, the featurette is comprised of footage from the various US premieres. A theatrical trailer for “Coco Before Chanel” (HD) runs for 2 minutes 2 seconds and is also included. Pre-menu and bonus trailers (HD) are for: - “Blu-ray Disc is High Definition!” Promo runs for 2 minutes 26 seconds. - “An Education” runs for 2 minutes 24 seconds. - “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” runs for 1 minute 44 seconds. - “Whatever Works” runs for 2 minutes 17 seconds. - “Paris 36” runs for 2 minutes 29 seconds. - “Soul Power” runs for 1 minute 58 seconds. - “A River Runs Through It” runs for 2 minutes 42 seconds. - “By the People: The Election of Barack Obama” (SD) runs for 2 minutes 28 seconds. - “Michael Jackson’s This is It” runs for 2 minutes 31 seconds. - “Easy Virtue” runs for 2 minutes 2 seconds. - “The Class” runs for 2 minutes 24 seconds. - “I’ve Loved You So Long” runs for 1 minute 42 seconds. The lone exclusive to the Blu-ray is Sony’s standard BD-Live web portal. However, there is technically nothing pertaining to “Coco Before Chanel” (curiously, not even Sony’s MovieIQ feature). The usual array of standard def and high def trailers for other films in the companies catalogue, of course, comprise the contents of the portal. Lastly, Sony offers the ability to bookmark your favorite scenes at the push of a button.
Overall
Good performances (especially from Tautou), impressive costumes and a notable period production design fail to keep “Coco Before Chanel” from being anything other than a by-the-book biopic. Hardly offensive and certainly competently made, I still found the film to be largely disappointingly dull, but with a few bright spots worthy of praise. The Blu-ray release sports faithful-to-the-source audio and video, and some decidedly decent extras. This is the very definition of rental material.
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