'Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky' is worthwhile for some sumptuous visuals and great Stravinsky music, as well as some excellent additional music by Gabriel Yared. The film begins quite nicely with a depiction of the original Paris performance of Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring' in 1913. That performance of course was considered scandalous at the time, not only for the iconoclastic rhythms introduced by Stravinsky but also for Diaghilev's frenzied choreography. At the performance is Coco Chanel, the famed designer, who admires the piece despite the derision from most of the clueless 'bourgeoisie' in the audience.Flash forward seven years and Stravinsky, his wife and children, have fallen on hard times. In steps Chanel who offers to put them up at her estate in the suburbs of Paris. At first Stravinsky declines but changes his mind after he realizes that the fresh suburban air would be good for his wife, who suffers from what appears to be pneumonia.The rest of the Coco and Igor narrative is rather predictable. Coco, the free spirit that she is, seduces Stravinsky, and makes love to him frequently, as the rest of the family enjoys the good meals and gifts, the designer magnate bestows upon them. Eventually (wouldn't you guess), Stravinsky's wife falls into despair as she becomes quite aware that Igor has strayed into the arms of Ms. Chanel. Historically, this all plays out for approximately nine months until May of 1921, when the wife and children left (and Stravinsky soon followed).There are some rather perfunctory sex scenes between Chanel and Igor with the great composer uttering the best line to Chanel that she's not an artist but rather a "shopkeeper." This is probably the worst thing you could say to someone like Chanel, who suddenly loses all interest in Stravinsky and gives up on him as a lover. Nonetheless, Chanel remained generous toward Stravinsky, bankrolling a new production of the 'Rite of Spring' and remaining friends with him, in the years to come.The implication here is that somehow Coco Chanel was a muse for Stravinsky which is not borne out by any evidence. The entire narrative is based on a fictional book entitled 'Coco and Igor', inspired by Coco Chanel's claims that she had an affair with Stravinsky. This was disputed by Stravinsky's second wife as well as his long-term assistant.Chris Greenhaigh, who wrote both the screenplay and the novel it was based on, also throws in an irrelevant sub-plot about how Chanel goes about coming up with her famous fragrance, 'Chanel No. 5'. It's a pointless aside due to the lack of conflict (Chanel has meetings with her chemist, sniffs various experimental fragrances, and finally decides on her final pick). Voila!What's much more interesting about Chanel is completely left out in this film. That of course is that she had a long relationship with an anti-Semitic British aristocrat, was probably (more often than not), a Nazi sympathizer during the war, may have been a Nazi spy and aided a Nazi war criminal after the war.'Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky' details a footnote in the career of a great composer. We're asked to get excited about this imagined relationship and I'm not sure why. I get the idea that Chanel and Stravinsky were sexually attracted to one another. And that's about all I get from Greenhaigh's speculations. Anna Mouglalis is quite good as Chanel but Mads Mikkelsen (the Danish actor who was cast perfectly as a man falsely accused as a pedophile in 'The Hunt'), seems much too stiff as Stravinsky (the great composer was known to be quite a social, genial soul).I would recommend 'Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky' mainly for the look and feel of the visual and musical aspects of the production. But I remain unconvinced there's enough drama here to sustain one's interest for a full 119 minutes.

This movie is often very beautiful to look at. Some of the camera-work is innovative, other times it references famous scenes in previous movies. If this were a silent picture, these things would stand out more and make for a more enjoyable experience.Because, sadly, the movie is a bore.It recounts the story of two not particularly attractive and certainly not pleasant individuals who have a lot of very uninteresting and apparently passionless sex that is quite clearly but not at all erotically filmed. There they are again, in bed, completely unclothed, going at it, and I found myself wondering if I should make popcorn. They are presented as they evidently were: two individuals intensely devoted to their work, work that took a lot of solitary creation. When they have sex, it is as if Stravinsky does it, quite methodically, in order to get rid of his urges - since he apparently can't have sex with his quietly suffering wife anymore, because of her illness - so that he can get back to his composing. That may be what the movie wanted to suggest. But that doesn't make for a very interesting movie. We never see much of any relationship between him and Chanel, just the sex.It took me three days to get through the whole thing. I just couldn't keep watching for but so long at a stretch, and only finished it so that I hadn't totally wasted my money on renting it."Coco before Chanel" shows that Chanel could be interesting. I'm willing to believe that Stravinsky could be interesting too. But I didn't get that from this movie. We see Chanel's involvement in the creation of Chanel No. 5, but there's no joy in it, so we don't get excited about it either.We get even less involved in Stravinsky's composition.It looks like a Masterpiece Theater where all the money went into the production values and nothing into the script. When you're dealing with two intellectual persons for an audience who, given the subject matter, is likely to be fairly intellectual themselves, this is not a good thing.

The good thing about the two movies centered on the life of Coco Chanel is that there is still room for more inasmuch as we are still only up to 1920. If Mads Mikkelsen is hopelessly miscast as Stravinsky and is unable to compensate by offering anything approaching acting Anna Mouglalis is perfect as Chanel, contriving now to resemble Princess Margaret, now Ava Gardner which is quite a trick given that the former was icy, aloof and regal as befitted her status whilst the latter was earthiness personified. If anything this is an Art Director's film and the decors are indeed stunning though never quite matching the shot in Coco Avant Chanel when the door to the dormitory is thrown open to reveal the crisp, white linen against black. It's doubtful if an audience today - with the exception of historians/classical music buffs etc - will know just what is going on in the opening twenty minutes and for whom Diaghilev, Nijinsky and even Stravinsky himself won't ring even a remote bell, but if you like Stately and Stylish then you may well enjoy this one.

The scene is Paris on the 29th of May,in 1913. Although World War 1 would not envelope Europe for another year,or so, another battlefield would take place. The Paris premiere of Igor Stravinsky's 'The Rite Of Spring' would open to an outraged Parisian audience (tipping off a small scale riot,causing the police to break things up). In the audience, fashion designer,Coco Chanel was in attendance (trying to move on,since the death of her lover,Arthur 'Boy' Capel),utterly captivated that a piece of work could evoke such a reaction. Flash forward seven years later. Coco Chanel is now a widely respected business woman with a line of clothes (and hats),while Igor Stravinsky is living penniless as an exile with his family,living in what ever hotel that would take them. Coco Chanel suggests that they move in her chalet. With family in tow,Igor Stravinsky moves in Chanel's opulent palace,where he & Coco eventually have an affair that is mainly a lot of sweaty, joyless sex (Stravinsky rarely displays any kind of joy,even while he is composing music,as does Chanel---perhaps both their passions are held within themselves). This begins to have an impact on Stravinsky's wife & family (Kayta Stravinskaya is almost always depicted as sickly),and his sons begin to suspect that dad is up to no good. All of this makes for a film that is breath taking to look at,as well as to listen to (some of Stravinsky's music graces the soundtrack,including the original 1913 arrangement of his now celebrated 'Rite',as well as the 1947 revised version,as well as snippets of some of Stravinsky's other music). Dutch born director,Jan Kounen ('Darshan:The Embrace','Renegade')directs from a screenplay written by Chris Greenhaulgh,adapted from his own novel of the same name. The film's striking cinematography is by David Ungaro,with editing by Anny Danck. The cast includes Anna Mouglais as Coco Chanel. Denmark's own Mads Mikkelsen as Igor Stravinsky,Yelena Morozova as Katya, and Grigori Manukov as Sergei Diaglev. With Clara Guelblum,Maxime Danielou,Sophie Hasson,Nikita Ponomarenko,and far too many more to mention here. I especially admired the creative use of expressionism to convey visual metaphors (Coco's abode is a wash of bold,striking washes of black & white in every room,while Mrs.Stravinsky favoured a more colourful motif,as exemplified by her use of red,gold,etc.) A film that is well worth seeking out,if you've always admired the creative and/or performing arts. Spoken in French & Russian with English subtitles,and a wee bit of English. Rated 'R' by the MPAA for some strong sexual content & nudity.