A little girl who is sent with her sister to an orphanage in the heart of France, who waits in vain every Sunday for her father to come for her...
A cabaret performer with a weak voice who sings to an audience of drunken soldiers...
A humble seamstress, who stitches hems at the back of a provincial tailor's shop...
A young, skinny courtesan, to whom protector Etienne Balsan offers a safe haven, amongst the idle and decadent...
A woman in love who knows she will never be anyone’s wife, refusing marriage even to Boy Capel, the man who returned her love...
A rebel who finds the conventions of her time oppressive, and instead dresses in her lovers' clothes...
This is the story of Gabrielle Chanel, who begins her life as a headstrong orphan, and through an extraordinary journey becomes the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman and became a timeless symbol of success, freedom and style.
From Haut et Court, Cine@, Warner Bros France and Films Distribution comes Coco Avant Chanel, starring Audrey Tautou (Amélie, The Da Vinci Code) in the title role, along with Benoît Poelvoorde (Entre ses mains/In His Hands, Podium), Emmanuelle Devos (Rois et reine/Kings and Queen, L’Adversaire/The Adversary), Marie Gillain (L’Enfer/Hell, Les Femmes de l’ombre/Female Agents) and Alessandro Nivola (Junebug, Jurassic Park III). Coco Avant Chanel is directed by Anne Fontaine (La Fille de Monaco/The Girl From Monaco) from a screenplay by Anne Fontaine and Camille Fontaine, with the collaboration of Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons), loosely based on L’irrégulière by Edmonde Charles-Roux. The producers are Philippe Carcassonne (La Fille de Monaco/The Girl From Monaco), Caroline Benjo (Entre les murs/The Class) and Carole Scotta (Entre les murs/The Class).
The director of photography is Christophe Beaucarne. The production designer is Olivier Radot. The film is edited by Luc Barnier. Catherine Leterrier created the original costumes. The production was given the assistance of the Maison CHANEL, who opened their archives and collections. Alexandre Desplat composed the score.
Shot in French in the Paris region and in Normandy, Coco Avant Chanel will be released by Warner Bros Pictures, opening in Australian cinemas on June 25th.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Director Anne Fontaine has long been fascinated by the figure of Coco Chanel. “It was not so much the fashion as the characteristics of this exceptional woman that interested me,” says Fontaine. “I had been particularly touched by the fact that she was a self-made person. This girl, coming from the heart of the French countryside, poor, uneducated, but endowed with an exceptional personality, was destined to be ahead of her time.”
Years after her imagination was first sparked, the opportunity to make a film about the legendary woman presented itself. “I had to think whether it was possible to stick to the first period of her life - the training years, what had happened before Chanel, herself, understood her dazzling destiny,” the director explains. “So, I went back and read her biography by Edmonde Charles-Roux, Chanel and Her World: Friends, Fashion, and Fame. The other imperative condition was to find an actress to embody such a character, and not someone who would ape or make a pale imitation of Chanel.”
Fontaine found Chanel personified in Audrey Tautou. “On my first encounter with Audrey, I was struck by her will, her audacity, and the density of her gaze that goes through you,” Fontaine recalls. “Chanel looked at everything. Her culture was not one of knowledge, but a culture of observation. I had not yet written a single line of the screenplay when I met Audrey, but I knew that if she gave me her trust and if the production agreed to stick to the years of apprenticeship, I could then embark on the adventure of my first period movie.”
Tautou was likewise fascinated by Chanel, and though the prospect of the role had long been hovering around her, she was captivated by Fontaine’s vision. “I was secretly hoping to get an offer with a particular point of view because the modernity of this character - her spirit, and the position she gave women - fascinates me,” says Tautou. “In addition, when Anne Fontaine explained how she intended to treat the subject, I immediately agreed.”
“Anne has allowed me to develop the nature of Chanel by searching different aspects of this role, by shading the emotions, being fragile and sweet and, at the same time, commanding and proud,” the actress continues. “The fact that a woman directs this movie is already a great advantage to express how difficult it was to be of ‘the weaker sex’ at that time. The intelligence of Anne Fontaine, her finesse, her global vision of the character and the story have been of utmost importance in her direction of the film.”
To successfully complete this ambitious project and faithfully portray Coco Chanel's formative years, Fontaine was determined to assemble accomplished and acclaimed creative department heads. "It was the first time I was doing a period movie, so I wanted to work with technicians who were experienced in their respective fields," she says.
Fontaine worked at length beforehand with her key crew members and proposed a survey of various great films from the time period in which the story is set. "Some are still classics, others were made by talented directors but are now considered old fashioned," says Fontaine, adding, "The historical film is a very tricky genre because it is easy to fall into the trap of flirting with the conventions of a TV movie. From the outset, we had to take a hard-line attitude against the weighty, picturesque drawbacks of the period film.”
The production designer, Olivier Radot, was responsible for the sets in The Lover, Queen Margot, Lucie Aubrac and Gabrielle (which won the French César Award 2006).
“From our very first meeting, Olivier Radot appealed to me with his corrosive vision for the design of the sets,” she says. “I immediately felt we would be esthetically in agreement."
Radot studied the life of Coco Chanel at length. "You must be careful to always focus more on the subject than on the period, and dedicate the world you create to the story, the sentiments and the director's viewpoint,” says Radot. “That's what gives a film substance. Instead of just copying the archives, I prefer to interpret, transpose, and feel free to keep the essence, the sensation. In any case, very few documents show Chanel during her years of apprenticeship. What I found most interesting in the end was to trace back to the source to find what had influenced her creation. We paid particularl attention to the sets for the orphanage and Aubazine at the beginning of the film, emphasizing the graphic, black and white aspect. The Aubazine uniform, with its black skirts and white blouses, also influenced her style. This starkness resurfaces at the end when Coco Chanel watches a triumphant fashion parade from the steps of the Maison CHANEL.”
Fontaine wanted the initial sets - the orphanage where she grows up, the cabaret in Moulins where she and her sister perform - framed in tight shots to create a sense of oppression. Then, liberty is made manifest when Coco arrives at Etienne Balsan’s château at Royallieu, which is a complete contrast to the severity of Aubazine. "We visited dozens of chateaux but eventually chose the first place we had seen!" Radot recalls. "Some were too ornate, others too pompous. We eventually chose the 18th-century château of Millemont in the Yvelines, as its white exterior with its chic simplicity could have inspired Coco. It was in these surroundings of Balsan's that she discovered the world."
The other concern the filmmaker shared with her production designer was finding locations that would enable them to shoot the film entirely in France. "Chanel embodies French elegance,” says Radot. “Her character is so Parisian that it would have been a shame not to shoot in France.”
Fontaine and Radot also collaborated on finding creative ways to bring naturalism to the atmosphere depicted in the film. “One of Anne’s qualities is to reject resorting to futile conventions,” Radot explains. “For the more spectacular scenes with a lot of extras, she prefers natural, true conditions to ultra-wide frames where considerable means are splashed over the screen for maximum effect. There is greater sensitivity when you feel some things are going on outside the frame. Anne is more into miniature and naturalistic effects than ostentation. In fact, hers is a very contemporary approach. Similarly, we understated the picturesque image of the ‘beuglant’ - the rather coarse, colorful, thigh-slapping cabaret. I modeled it more on the American Café in Paris, with its dark wood paneling. We felt we had to tone down a place that was going to act as a setting for Mademoiselle Coco Chanel.”
The payoff for Radot was seeing the complete vision come alive. “I remember the day we filmed in the milliner's workshop, the first Parisian set, which was the setting for Chanel's initial success,” he notes. “When I saw Audrey Tautou wearing a new fingerwave hairstyle, with a cigarette at her lips, adjusting the trimmings of a hat, I had an impression I was really looking at Coco Chanel. It was incredible!"
To create the critically important costumes for the period of Chanel’s life depicted in the film, Fontaine turned to Catherine Leterrier (French César Award winner in 2000 and 2004), who demonstrated her talent working with Fontaine herself on her previous film, The Girl From Monaco (La Fille de Monaco), as well as collaborating with such acclaimed filmmakers as Alain Resnais, Louis Malle, Robert Altman, Luc Besson, Jonathan Demme, André Téchiné, Bertrand Blier and Ridley Scott. Leterrier started her career in fashion (she graduated from the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Haute-Couture Parisienne) before branching into the cinema and becoming one of the most sought after costume designers in the movie business.
"The whole crew was adamant that we should avoid all the traps of imagery, representation or the picturesque, in particular where costumes were concerned," Fontaine says.
“The aim was not to make a movie about the history of fashion,” Leterrier says. "We occasionally had to take liberties with time. To fit in with the storyline, the famous striped mariner's sweater worn by Chanel in the legendary photos of the 1930s appears earlier in the movie, in the scene where Coco is walking along the beach with Boy and notices the sweaters of the fishermen as they pull in their nets. At another point, as Anne wanted me to imagine how the world-famous CHANEL bag originated, I drew a quilted sewing pouch in the shape of the bag, and had it made out of an old, black, flecked cotton canvas that peasants' clothing used to be made of, as if the young Coco had made it out of a remnant given to her by her aunts.”
A key element of the costume design was to show the influences that shaped the style of CHANEL. “In fashion, every designer has their own line, color and material codes,” Leterrier continues. “CHANEL's is instantly recognizable. What Karl Lagerfeld did in adapting the style of CHANEL to the future, I did backwards towards the past. I went back in time, designing the first models that Chanel might have created and which could have fashioned her style. The style of CHANEL is distinctive in its cut, the supple hang of its fabric and the perfect simplicity of its finish. The costumes designed for the film had to be up to the exacting standards of Haute Couture.”
Leterrier set up a temporary workshop for the movie, complete with dressmakers’ apprentices and lead hands, that worked full-time to fabricate the extensive costume demands for the film. “For the scenes where there are a lot of extras - the dance hall, the racecourse, Emilienne's theatre etc. - we made, in addition to the costumes, nearly 800 different hats, created by two great milliners, Stephen Jones and Pippa Cleator. Before she made dresses, Chanel was a successful milliner, and her hats were more architectural and less fussy than those of the times. She made fun of the over-ornate hats that some women wore: 'With that on their head, how can they think!'“
One particular challenge was integrating the more contemporary looks with the era in which Chanel introduced them. “The difficulty for me was to contrast the elegance of Chanel's simple and fluid style with the fashion in 1900,” Leterrier explains. “I wanted to keep its beauty, with the blouses that enhanced the bust, the ribbons, lace, feathers and frills, whilst showing its excessive, showy and formal side so I could contrast it with CHANEL's pure, flowing lines.”
For the final catwalk scene, Leterrier chose authentic models and jewelry from different periods in the Conservatoire of CHANEL. “The collaboration of CHANEL was indispensable to us, particularly for the final sequence where it was unthinkable not to have dresses by the CHANEL label,” says Fontaine. “In this sequence, all the dresses come from the Chanel Conservatory of CHANEL. I met Karl Lagerfeld several times; we showed him the sketches of the clothes Catherine Leterrier was making.”
To accessorize, the costume designer went on a scavenger hunt. “I hunted down the cotton braids, silk ribbons, buttons and other period accessories at flea markets and antiques dealers,” she remembers. “I even found a platinum and diamond necklace that had belonged to Mademoiselle Chanel at the Louvre des Antiquaires. In the film, this magnificent piece adorns Audrey Tautou's graceful neck in the restaurant scene where she appears in a black sequined evening dress. Audrey showed great interest in the costumes, and during fitting sessions I watched her concentrate and suddenly metamorphose into Coco Chanel.”