Dir. Jan Kounen, France 2009, in French/Russian/English with Engl. subtitles, Dur. 118 mins
Cast: Anna Mouglais, Mads Mikkelsen, Elena Morozova, Grigori Manoukove
Review by Carlie Newman
Following Anne Fontaine's enjoyable Coco Before Chanel , which starred Audrey Tatou as the young Coco , who rose from obscure beginnings to become the style icon of the world, hopes were high for this continuation of her story. Now played by Anna Mouglais, Kounen's film follows Coco once she becomes Chanel. While still involved with her lover Arthur "Boy" Capel (Anatole Taubman), the night she attends the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's (Mikkelsen) avant-garde Rite of Spring , she is on her own. Coco is blown over by the amazing and as it turns out historic production, choreographed by Vaslaw Nijinsky and presented by Sergei Diaghilev (Manoukove) at the Theatre des Champs Élysées in Paris on May 29, 1913 . The controversial show has a disastrous reception though, and ends in a near riot. It is here that Igor and Coco first meet.
Seven years later in 1920 Coco , who is now rich and famous, meets Igor again and the two feel a mutual attraction. Learning that his wife, Catherine (Morozova), is suffering from tuberculosis, Coco invites Igor to come to live at her country villa, ‘Bel Respiro' with his wife and four children. Although he is now virtually penniless, Stravinsky at first protests but realising his wife needs country air, agrees to the arrangement. Chanel, who is now mourning the death of Boy Capel in a car crash, gives Stravinsky a room and a grand piano so that he can compose in comfortable privacy. Eventually the two become lovers; a situation Catherine is forced to endure as she has no means of moving the family away. Chanel and Stravinsky's wife are very different but Igor still cares for Catherine, even while being at the same time passionately in love with Coco . At one point Catherine asks Coco , "Don't you like colour?" during a tour of the house. "As long as it's black," she answers. We see this reflected years later when Chanel designs the ‘little black dress.'
All sounds potentially good, but, unfortunately, apart from the exciting beginning with the Rite of Spring, the rest of the film is rather dull and becomes more boring as it goes on - and on. Part of the trouble is with the casting: Mikkelsen never comes across as the genuine article, the true tortured artist trying to marry the conflicting needs of his work, his family and passion d'amour. As for Mouglais, who happens to be Karl Lagerfeld's muse and the accepted face of Chanel fashion, she is certainly lovely to look at (although taller than the real Coco) and makes an excellent clothes horse, but we want to believe that she could create the legendary perfume Chanel No 5. An enigmatic smile plays around her lips, but that doesn't in fact change very much even in a passionate embrace with her lover. While the film looks lovely and the dresses are gorgeous, it is uninteresting, with little dialogue, and what should have been the tale of two interesting lives merging together to achieve greater works than if they had remained separate, falls far short of both the director's intentions and the audience's expectations.
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