Coco Chanel (TV, 2008) and Coco avant Chanel (Film, 2009) – on rental. The only thing I know about Chanel really is the fashion giant has something called “Chanel No. 5”, though what exactly that item is I had no clue until recently. In the last year or two, there seems to have been a new interest in film depicting the person who started the empire. The more well-known production was Coco avant Chanel starring the pixie-like Audrey Tautou which was shown in theaters here last year. There was also a second and earlier production – a 3 hour made-for-TV film called Coco Chanel from 2008. Both productions became simultaneously available on rental, and the TV drama the first to arrive.
Coco Chanel begins from the advanced stage of the Chanel’s life. We see a Chanel in her late 60s just having put up a fashion show that hasn’t gone well with the audience. Interestingly, the TV film doesn’t recollect her past from that point, but continually in the next 3 hours 10 minutes juxtaposes her life as an established and world-famous designer in the 1960s, and her early life and years from the nunnery from about 19, and her first romance with French textile heir Balsan. Unlike Tautou’s film, this TV production is more expansive and covers more ground than the film.
The old Chanel is played by 73 year old actress Shirley Maclaine (above, first picture), still amazingly feisty and sprightly for her age. It’s telling that while the film purports to tell the story of Chanel through the years from being unknown to international recognition, it’s Maclaine who receives title billing for scenes taking up perhaps just a quarter of the film’s total screen time.
The younger Chanel is played by Czechoslovakian actress Barbora Bobulová (above, second picture), whom I mistook for Juliette Binoche (prior to watching this movie I had no idea of this production or its cast) until the end credits rolled. The other recognizable face besides Maclaine is Malcolm McDowell, playing the older Chanel’s business partner, Marc Bouchier. I’ve never quite liked McDowell as an actor: it could be his snarly voice or his naturally sinister look. Either way, I thought him an ill fit for a character who’s supposedly looking out for Chanel’s interest.
The production with Audrey Tautou in the title role is a very different film. Visually, the film benefits from a bigger budget, so what you see on the screen looks appropriately more splendid. The costumes, the settings, the backdrops, the props etc. Both films present somewhat different perspectives of similar events: e.g. the famous singing scene where the title character got her nickname, her first romance with Baisan, then with Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel, her early struggles as a hat maker then transition to fashionable wear.
After watching the two productions over three evenings, I think I far prefer the Maclaine TV production than Tautou’s film. Many reasons. For starters, as stunningly beautiful and talented an actress as Tautou is, she perpetually scowls and pouts her way through most of Coco avant Chanel, even in scenes or story points that shouldn’t had called for that kind of negativity. It’s like she’s an angry woman throughout, and that made it difficult for me to empathize with the character – especially when the character just isn’t likable. Bobulová is far less well-known internationally, but she plays a Chanel of similar time period with a lot more subtlety and emotional range that you’ll feel for her, especially in her see-sawing relationship with Baisan.
The supporting cast was also a problem in Coco avant Chanel. The Baisans in both productions were written as playboys interested in horses, but Benoît Poelvoorde (film) also plays the character like a low-IQ dolt that it’s real difficult to see how any one would even fall for him, never mind the fact that the actor himself even looks a lot older than the 12 years between his and Tautou’s ages. The Arthur Capels in both films are played as suave, well-mannered gentlemen who’ll win Chanel’s heart, with Alessandro Nivola (film, picture below) easier on the eyes than Olivier Sitruk (TV). However, the Capel from Coco avant Chanel has far too little screen time to properly establish any sort of significant presence. He shows up at the couple of key points in Chanel’s life with little lead-in to establish either character’s motivations, then it’s the end of the film. Not satisfying.
The biggest problem I had with the film though lies in the script. Both productions covered at least the same material, with the TV production extending the Chanel story to her old age, but I never got the sense of the character’s journey or maturity development in Coco avant Chanel that I got with Coco Chanel. Scenes were quick-cut and transitions jarring. A lot of times when a new scene began, I was left going “huh…? What just happened?” And mind you – I watched the film after the TV production so I had a rough idea of the key story points. I wonder if dialog had been snipped out of the film’s final cut, but it’s really bad.
Case in point of a key story point left unexplored in the film: how Coco fell for Baisan. One scene has her dripping with sarcasm and dislike of Baisan, and in the next scene they’re ripping each others’ clothes off in lust. Sorry, didn’t work for me.
Equally as telling is the music used in the film. The TV production features an absolutely romantic and lovely soundtrack – which further underlines the production’s underlining agenda: that theirs is a Chanel love story. The film is on the other hand a by-the-numbers retelling of Chanel’s key points in her life, all dark and grim with little cheer throughout. You get moody music. You actually feel more depressed than inspired at what Chanel did for feminism.
Oh, and one final remark. The closing scenes of both productions are strikingly identical: both the film and TV drama closes with a Chanel fashion-show, and the models and audience applauding Tautou’s artificially aged 40 year old Chanel, and Maclaine’s naturally 74 year old wrinkled-looking Chanel. Food for thought and not sure if people noticed: the film’s models in that final scene all look so very 20th century: young, anorexic-looking models you expect out of a modern-day Victoria’s Secret catalog. On the other hand, the TV drama’s models in the same final scene all look like they’re indeed living in the 1960s with appropriate body styling, hair-dos and fashion ware. Sometimes, a mega budget works against you.
Coco Chanel (TV, 2008) 
Coco avant Chanel (Film, 2009)
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