COCO BEFORE CHANEL (REVIEW)

BUY IT AT AMAZON:
STUDIO: Screen Media
MSRP: $14.99
RATED: PG
RUNNING TIME:135 min
SPECIAL FEATURES: Featurette: “The Making of Coco Channel”

 

The Pitch:

Fashion designer Coco Chanel falls in and out of love for
fifty years or so. Winds up alone.

The Humans

 Barbora Bobulova, Shirley
MacLaine, Malcom McDowell, Brigitte Boucher


The Nutshell

After a troubled childhood, Gabrielle Chanel moves from obscurity to
become one of the fashion icons of the 20^th century. Cue tumultuous
affairs, sappy score and nice clothes.

The Lowdown

Shirley MacLaine was nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal
of the older Coco Chanel in this made for television flick that is about as
exciting to watch as a film about a fashion designer can get.

 

The jist of the tale is fairly simple: Chanel (Bobulova) lifts
herself from being a typical saloon singer during early 20^th century
Paris and marries into an elite family. Not content with her existence, she
rebels against her set role in life and opens a boutique. She becomes and
international sensation but follows her heart into and out of romance.

 

What do you really expect? It’s a Lifetime movie. MacLaine
plays a French woman with nary an accent and scores an Emmy nomination.
Meanwhile, McDowell plays the poor sap that has to sit and hear her story.
Bobulova just has to read her lines.

 

This isn’t an awful movie. It’s just bland, lifeless.

 

Oh well, you can always catch Audrey Tautot in Coco Before
Chanel, or check out the new film Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky, which
focuses on her relationship with the famed Russian composer.

 

The Package
It’s a made for telelvison movie by Lifetime,
so don’t expect vibrant colors or excessive detail. The transfer does
the job.
No edge enhancement to my eyes. It’s all fairly competent. The stereo
track
also does the trick. There’s a five minute making of featurette which
seems to
be about as long as it took for this film to even be produced.