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Coco Before Chanel

2009 1h 50m
Drama History
MOVIEVIBE Rating
6.9/10
1,053 reviews
Your Rating
Coco Before Chanel

Several years after leaving the orphanage, to which her father never returned for her, Gabrielle Chanel finds herself working in a provincial bar. She's both a seamstress for the performers and a singer, earning the nickname Coco from the song she sings nightly with her sister. A liaison with Baron Balsan gives her an entree into French society and a chance to develop her gift for designing.

"Before she was France's famous mademoiselle…"

Top Billed Cast

Audrey Tautou
Audrey Tautou
Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel
Benoît Poelvoorde
Benoît Poelvoorde
Étienne Balsan
Alessandro Nivola
Alessandro Nivola
Arthur 'Boy' Capel
Marie Gillain
Marie Gillain
Adrienne Chanel
Emmanuelle Devos
Emmanuelle Devos
Émilienne d'Alençon
Régis Royer
Régis Royer
Alec, Jockey
Étienne Bartholomeus
Étienne Bartholomeus
Balsan Butler
Yan Duffas
Yan Duffas
Maurice de Nexon

Detailed Critic & Audience Reviews

C CinemaSerf Verified TMDB Critic
2024-04-10

Audrey Tautou is actually quite impressive here as the legendary French designer, but the rest of this rather blandly photographed melodrama is really more about her love life than her career. She's born Gabrielle and having left the orphanage in which she was abandoned with sister Adrienne (Marie Gillain), takes a job as a seamstress and supplements that with some cabaret work. Clearly she has skill - at both, but it's her charms at the latter that interest the wealthy Baron Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde). His name and association opens many doors for this aspiring woman but she tends to look up...