Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Jose Cruz Like The Iron Lady, this is also a solid biography that does what is sets itself to do but fails to truly engage the viewer in a more profound way. It never attains dramatic greatness and doesn't try to. I would rate it slightly higher than Iron Lady (this one 6.5/10, Iron Lady, 6/10) but it is not anything out of this world: just a solid, well executed story of a fashion designer. It uses many of the classic tropes of fashion as well.A good film for those who like autobiographies but not a good film for general film buffs. Watch Akira Kurosawa, instead, for a much greater film experience than those provided by these numerous mediocre biographical films.

gkeith_1 Fascinating story. Chanel's designs were simple and elegant. I love Chanel No. 5; it is my favorite perfume. It is worth every penny of the cost. I enjoyed this movie. Coco wanted to be in charge of her life. She did not mind having a few men help her. Besides, men always have more money than women, anyway. She seemed to have more brains than they did, however. I saw the other movie about her, where she hooks up with Igor Stravinsky. In this movie, she was a very hard worker who knew how she wanted her fashions to turn out. She was very exacting. Her hats were beautiful. She was stark in her criticisms of the popular frou frou fashions of the day. She showed that one can believe in one's talents, provide a needed service, and make money that makes up for all of the hard work and dedication.

Syl Audrey Tatou does a remarkable job in bringing Coco Chanel to life. Her portrayal of Coco is a far cry from Amelie. I'm surprised that she wasn't nominated for her performance. Whie her performance is perhaps the film's best feature, the screenplay needed a lot of work. There are gaps and missing info from when she leaves for Paris or to the château. Anyway, I found the film to be entertaining but slow at times. I enjoyed the period costumes which were first rate and the rest of the cast's performances as well. But still it's Tatou's performance as the legendary fashion icon Coco Chanel who stands out in the film. She really captures her in a way that she is humanized to the audience. One can't help wondering who Coco Chanel was. She was a woman but determined, ambitious and driven to succeed independently in a man's world. Coco Chanel deserves movies to be made about her. She defied convention in fashion and in life.

jonathanruano "Coco Avant Chanel" presents a different set of problems for the reviewer. The performances are very well done, especially Andrey Tautou's performance in the lead role of Gabrielle Coco Chanel, the unorthodox and somewhat cold fashion designer whose uncompromising vision brought dramatic changes to women's fashion. Technically the movie is great to look at, from the antique towns and cities of early 20th century France to the beautiful countryside.But the problem with "Coco Avant Chanel" is the screenplay. The first hour was slow and directionless. So much was said about Chanel's early life, with her failing singing career, her awkwardness with men, her deplorable standard of living, the prostitutes and her relationship with Etienne Balsan (if it can be called that because Balson came across as a bit of a drunken rapist), that I was asking myself when was this film going to experience take off. The first hour did not advance plot in the film, but represented a prolonged situation; an unnecessarily long background to Gabrielle's life. Smart editors could have cut back on the background portion and focused on the more interesting part of the story where Gabrielle gets her store, immerses herself in her work, develops new kinds of fashion(the art of fashion making is completely overlooked in this film), gains a fortune and wins her independence.In contrast to the first hour, the next 40-45 minutes of the film were so much better that I wanted to see more. The love story involving Gabrielle and Arthur Capel (Alessandro Nivola) worked in my view. The scenes in the story, where Gabrielle efficiently runs her store, were great, even though I wanted them to be lengthened considerably. Then the moment of triumph at the end of the film was superb. It was a pity that the people who made this film did not reorient the focus of the film to how Coco made her name in the fashion world. I would have liked to know, for instance, what inspired Coco to go against conventional fashions and chart her own path. I would also like to understand the art of fashion designing and why anyone would be passionate about this profession. The film seems to have overlooked this part of the story or lacks the nerve to tell it. But overall there is enough good stuff in this film to give it the thumbs up or 7.5/10. If you show up late to the cinema and see the last 45-50 minutes, you may even come away feeling that you have just seen a great film.