I really enjoyed this. Anne Fontaine really did a fine job of showing the trials and tribulations, the ordeals that Coco had to go through in order to be vastly successful. Probably one of my fifty favourite films by a female director.The film grew over its course as she herself bloomed and gained more self-confidence, and was a sumptuous delight with ravishing and inspired performance by Audrey Tautou. Beautiful to look at and with wonderful soundtrack too, showing the multi-faceted beauty, both inside and out, of the amazing French woman. She is always watchable, gorgeous and fervently likable--and was a fine choice to do the portrayal. This was Important in showing that she was nobody's wife, mistress or fool, and was one of the best in coming from awful circumstances which could have crippled others, but through discovering and believing in herself became an icon without peer.

Coco Chanel had an amazing, fascinating life, though I don't think one would know it from "Coco Before Chanel," released in 2009.This is the story of Chanel (Audrey Tatou) from her shabby beginnings as an orphan to the beginning of her great success as a couturier. It is through men who take an interest in her that Coco succeeds - first, Étienne Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde), and the love of her life, Boy Capel (Alessandro Nivola). Capel is the man who first established her salon in Paris, and she was so successful, she was able to repay him all of the money he invested. He also may be in part responsible for the look of the "Chanel No. 5" bottle.The production is dazzling -- costumes, scenery, and Tatou is good as Chanel, a young woman who takes a dim view of love before even falling in love. Once she does, she wants it all - marriage, settling down, but it is not to be. Alessandro Nivola is stunning.Unfortunately, Mr. Nivola's handsomeness and the lovely Ms. Tatou can't make up for the dreadfully slow pace and dull story. The beginning, with Gabrielle (Coco) and her sister as a singing duo was really the best, and then it kind of fizzles out after she becomes involved with Balsan.I haven't seen every single thing ever made about Chanel, but I know that there were aspects of her life, such as her Nazi leanings, friendships within the British government, her dealings over Chanel No. 5 with the Wertheimers - that are very compelling. I'm not sure how they would play out on screen, but she was an important figure in the 20th Century, and as such, deserves to have her entire story told. The TV movie with Shirley MacLaine told the story of the late part of her life, whitewashing what went on before, and this tells the beginning. Let's see something of her activities in the '30s and '40s on the big screen.

The portrayal of Chanel's character is throughout the film flat and unnuanced. You'd never believe she was in real life the 'life and soul of the party', capable of wheedling her way into the hearts and minds of monsters and angels alike. There were no insights, no demonstration of how radical she was, how WILD. Instead, all we see are broadly drawn stereotypes. There were some very famous women contemporaneous with Chanel who impersonated men on stage – e.g. Vesta Tilley for one, any of whom could have provided the model for Chanel to follow. We got no sense of their existence. Did we get any real sense of the limited options available to women at that time? Only slightly. I wasn't at all convinced by this film although I thought Audrey Tatou did as much as she could do with the material she was given. The whole could have been a whole lot better.

Roger Ebert said Audrey Tautout was amazing in this film, she really is! And she looks a lot like Gabrielle Chanel... Alessandro Nivola, so handsome, American born he worked to learn French for his role in this, a tender romance. The atmosphere and mood is strictly Chanel No. 5, authentic I do believe, sophisticated and elegant. My brother lives now in France and I have to add a word or two with the description in French... ravissant, merveilleux... I did not find it "slow" and I was not bored at all as one reviewer commented. My goodness it's a romance and the director has crafted it carefully. The music score by Alexandre Desplat is lush and romantic (that word again!) finely orchestrated, I was at a loss when it finished... Oh incidentally check out "Coco and Igor", the wonderful companion piece to this "Coco avant Chanel" DVD Comment from Malcolm in Toronto Aug 2011