Coco Chanel

tho I will not deny the qualities as the rag to riches movie, it is not really true to make it a real bio pic CoCo never really had such hard times to get ahead- tho the collectors was a nice touch..she had lovers and used her sexuality from the start, so the "hard beginnings" were not that hard. omitted is the part when in the war times she was a mistress of a nazi officer and accused of collaboration. damaging her reputation in native France, recovered and ignored in the States othrewise quite a pleasant movie..p-ity it ignored real facts..not a fairy tale but a woman who succeeded all the means she had available and survived...a bit of truth would make this movie generally stronger and would not hurt Co cO's rise to success as a strong woman, a survivor at all costs, in the end a rich but lonely woman

I was enjoying the first half of the movie, but it started to drag by hour 2 with still some time on the clock...but it was a made-for-TV movie, so...

The younger Chanel was great, but Shirley MacClaine was a horrible choice for the older Coco. She may be a great actress but cannot pull off being a Frenchwoman! I cringed whenever she opened her mouth.

Finally, after the movie I did some research about the real Coco and the movie totally glossed over her antisemitism, homophobia, and pro-Nazism. It is hard for me to think of her as icon after learning that. Of course, the irony is that Chanel is now headed by two Jewish men whom she previously derided.

Yeah, I agree with the other review. Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel was a Nazi spy and an opportunist.

Lifetime's 2008 film "Coco Chanel" brings back the miniseries of the 1980s, many of which were based on novels by Judith Krantz or her ilk and starred people like Jane Seymour or Stefanie Powers. When the networks ran out of money and their viewerships dropped, they stopped making them.

Lifetime can't do the work of three networks, but it can occasionally bring us something like the entertaining "Coco Chanel" and a star like Shirley MacLaine in the lead as the older, reminiscing Chanel and Barbora Bobulova as the young Chanel.

The fascinating queen of haute couture has been the subject of a Broadway show, a movie starring Audrey Tatou, and several other films, two of which are about her relationship with Igor Stravinsky.

The film does a good job of showing Chanel's poor background, love life, and rise to fame, including her beginnings as a hat maker, the introduction of Chanel No. 5, the Chanel suit, and the little black dress, but eliminates much of probably the most fascinating period of her life, World War II.

During that time. She was arrested for war crimes but never tried due to the intervention of the Royal Family. I suppose that's a movie in itself.

Coco Chanel changed the way women dressed and also introduced a new philosophy of fashion - women should dress for themselves and not their men, and true fashion comes from the streets, or it isn't fashion. She also emphasized the use of accessories.

Chanel was a powerful woman from a humble background in a class-conscious society and depended upon alliances with the wealthy to get her where she needed to go.

In showing this, the movie does a very good job and could not have picked anyone better to play the icon than Shirley MacLaine, who does a fantastic job. One complaint I have is that, as much as I liked Barbora Bobulova, there wasn't enough of the older Chanel. MacLaine's performance really dominates the movie, even when she's not in a scene!

I also liked her suggestion of an accent rather than a full-out French accent. The French accents weren't really necessary because the characters weren't really speaking English with a French accent, they were speaking French. In that case, no accent is necessary. MacLaine gave Chanel more of a cosmopolitan accent.

All in all, a strong portrait of a fascinating woman.

If you want to travel to another era and get a full introduction to the world of fashion, here's a great way to do it.

Even if it is a melodrama, it's so well made, with such obsession with detail, refinement, (as Chanel's works, by the way) that you can't but fall for Coco's challenges. And yet it doesn't shy away from her daily struggles. As a business student, I couldn't help noticing how often she was verging on bankruptcy, and how she came out of it with a mixture of audacity, being at the right places and yes, bedding rich gentlemen "above her station" as a Victorian would put it.

Music is fine, as is of course, wardrobe and photography. Being from Argentina, I found a happy curiosity that there are a couple of tangos and Argentina is mentioned twice, as a "land of hope". The first company mentioned on the titles that produced this film is called "Pampa", I suppose it must have something to do with it.

Barbora Bobulova is stunning as young Cocó. Probably more likable besides more beautiful than Audrieu Tatou, with which obviously one is drawn to compare it all the time. Both are fine, probably "Cocó avant Chanel" emphasizes the sad and grim aspects more, whereas this version, being longer, can indulge into more romance and yet show us, for instance, what happened to her beloved sister, something absent from the feature film. Also in this version we see the origin of the famous perfume N 5 and her famous "little black dress". Étienne Balsan and Boy Capel are totally different in both films. So much they almost look like if one of the two films got it all wrong. Étienne in particular is always amiable and respectful to Cocó here, whereas on "avant Chanel" Poelvoorde makes a perfect "good for nothing spoilt boy who never grew up". Boy is also given much more screen time and importance here. Emilienne d'Alencon is barely shown here, and the game of differences could go on and on. I suppose purists and people who really know the real story will love one story and hate the other. But for us newbies both are surprisingly enjoyable. I understand Mc Laine got all the prizes but in my opinion Boulova should have got them.

My "favourite little moment" is how the beautiful countess who lost everything becomes her shrewd "royal secretary", even suggesting her it'd be advantageous for Cocó for "everybody loves nobility. Specially in a republic". I suppose it's a worthy lesson on how money matters are fleeting indeed. I could only wonder, if this is a TV series, what would they have made were they given the ample resources of a feature film...