Well the challenge is still alive and well. When is somebody actually going to make a film about Coco Chanel that is actually any good. When Audrey Tatou (‘The Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Ensemble, c’est tout’) and director Anne Fontaine (‘La fille de Monaco’, ‘Nouvelle Chance’) teamed up to make ‘Coco Avante Chanel’ it failed to fire at all and now the team behind ‘Coco Chanel And Igor Stravinsky’ have also produced an awful film.
Adapted from Chris Greenhalgh’s novel ‘Coco Chanel And Igor Stravinsky’ follows the emotional journey that Coco Chanel (Anna Mouglalis – ‘Mare Nero’, ‘Romanzo Crimanale’) went on after the death of her partner, Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel (Anatole Taubman – ‘Secret Defense’, ‘Same Same But Different’). When Coco sees the alternative styling of composer, Igor Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen – ‘Flammen & Citronen’, ‘Quantum Of Solace’) she is impressed. Eager to keep him in France she invites him and his wife, Catherine (Elena Morozova – ‘Hysterical Psycho’, ‘Kletka’) and their family to stay with her. Soon Coco and Igor are involved in a passionate affair together.
Director, Jan Kounen (‘8’, ’99 Francs’) makes the same mistake with this film that Tom Ford made with ‘A Single Man’. Both Kounen and Ford have thought by making their films artistic it can win over the public… a very, very wrong concept indeed. Kounen uses an artistic style to try and drag out scenes because really when you scratch under the surface there is no substance to this story at all. The basic storyline of Coco meets Igor and has an affair just isn’t enough to keep the audience interested and the fact that Kounen believes that things such as an artistic opening (that seriously goes too long) will make up for that is in a way an insult to the audience’s intelligence.
The two leads work well with what they have and in many ways Anna Mouglalis is better in the role of Coco than Audrey Tatou ever was. However the let down here is there is no chance for her to explore the character at all. All this version of Coco ever seems to do is try to look seductive, and in a further let down the erotic scenes fail as Mads Mikkelsen is the wrong choice for Igor Stravinsky. There is very little chemistry between Mouglalis and Mikkelsen meaning that once again the audience find themselves bored out of their mind.
This is one novel that should never have been turned into a film. There just isn’t enough to the story of ‘Coco Chanel And Igor Stravinsky’ to make this an interesting film. Director, Kounen tries to replace substance and storyline with art and ends up with one very boring film indeed. A boring film that never gets out of first gear… avoid!
Year: 2009
Director: Jan Kounen
Stars: Anna Mouglalis, Anatole Taubman, Mads Mikkelsen, Elena Morozova
Classification: MA
Runtime: 131 mins
Rating:
