Coco Chanel

Coco Before Chanel stars Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel directed by Anne Fontaine, and Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky stars Anna Mougalis as Coco Chanel directed by Jan Kounen are French films about the early life of famed French fashion designer Coco Chanel.

Coco Before Chanel (July 31, 2009)

Director: Anne Fontaine
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Benoît Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola, Marie Gillain, Emmanuelle Devos

Audrey Tautou (The Da Vinci Code) plays the legendary "Coco" Chanel in an enthralling exploration of her early life before she rose to worldwide fame as the most celebrated fashion designer of the 20th Century. We meet the young Gabrielle Chanel, illegitimate daughter of a traveling salesman who learns to sew in a Catholic orphanage before following her singing ambitions lead her to a cabaret club. It is here where Chanel earns the nickname Coco and also where she catches the eye of several high society gentlemen who would ignite her passion and become instrumental in the development of her remarkable career. From director Anne Fontaine Coco Before Chanel is the fascinating untold story of how one woman rose from humble beginnings to become one of coutures most important icons.

 

Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky (June 11, 2010)

Director: Jan Kounen
Cast: Anna Mouglalis, Mads Mikkelsen, Yelena Morozova

Paris 1913, Coco Chanel is devoted to her work and madly in love with the handsome and very wealthy Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel. At the Theatre des Champs-Élysées, Igor Stravinsky premieres his Rite of Spring. Coco attends the premiere and is mesmerized. But the revolutionary work is too modern, too radical: the enraged audience boos and jeers. A near-riot ensues. Stravinsky is inconsolable. 7 years later. Now rich, respected and successful, Coco is devastated by Boy Capel’s death. She meets Stravinsky again - now a penniless refugee living in exile in Paris after the Russian Revolution, The attraction between them is immediate and electric. Coco offers Stravinsky the use of her new villa in Garches, so that he will be able to work, and he moves in straight away, with his children and consumptive wife. And so a passionate, intense love affair between two creative giants begins.