Ooh, Coco!

I've been to see a film today – Anne Fontaine's Coco Avant Chanel starring the ubiquitous Audrey Tautou and the outstanding Benôit Poelvoorde. I already knew the story of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel's life – I read a biography about her many years ago (it's a pity I can't remember who wrote it, because it was fabulous and I'm sure it's long out of print), and so I was reasonably familiar with the film's plot.

Strangely though, for the first half hour of the film I didn't think there was going to BE any plot. Although it looked exquisite, and the photography was in places stunning, I wasn't convinced that the director wasn't just using this merely as a vehicle for an exhibition of Tatou's famous pout. That pout was irritatingly omnipresent and I was beginning to wonder whether we would ever move forwards from it. However, the film improves beyond the high cheekbones and gamin-like features of its star, and reveals to us something about Chanel's unique qualities of self-determination and steadfast vision. It was unfortunate that the dénouement of the film was approached with such laboured and obvious prediction – having read the book, I knew what was coming, but even if I hadn't it wouldn't have been hard to spot the somewhat gauche clues in the dialogue. I won't spoil it by giving it away here. Nevertheless, it was all visually gorgeous and in the main, terrifically well-acted. Poelvoorde deserves an Oscar in my view, but if the film receives one at all, it will undoubtedly be awarded to the camera's sweetheart, Tautou. That pout has a lot to answer for.

On another subject, I overheard a conversation in the corridor the other day. First woman: "So we were getting to a state where, well, I said that we were fast approaching a crisis". Second woman (nodding sagely): "So you needed some crisis management then?" Second woman (looking vindicated): "Oh, absolutely." Talk about stating the bleeding obvious.