COCO CHANEL AND IGOR STRAVINSKY

France, 2009, 118 minutes, Colour.
Mads Mikkelsen, Anna Mouglalis, Yelena Morozova.
Directed by Jan Kounen.

According to the novelist and screenwriter, Christopher Greenhalgh, there is evidence of the relationship between the designer and composer as portrayed in this film. Chanel was born the year after Stravinsky, in 1883. They both died in 1971. However, the action of this film begins with the Paris premiere of The Rite of Spring in 1913, a theatrical disaster causing a riot, and focuses on the period 1920-1921, when The Rite of Spring was performed again and a success and Coco Chanel launched No. 5.

This is one of those biopics which highlights the main successes of the leads and concentrates on their relationship. Actually, neither Chanel nor Stravinsky seem to have been strong or really controversial characters for biopics. It is all quite low key despite the importance of their achievements. (And this film anticipates Coco Before Chanel with Audrey Tautou.) An audience wanting sparks flying will be disappointed.

That is not to say the story is without drama. The re-creation of Paris 1913, the performance of The Rite of Spring, the costumes and choreography (researched from the original staging), Nijinsky rushing on stage to keep the dancers in rhythm as the din of protesting audience drowned the music, with Diaghalev turning the lights on and off and the police arriving, is arrestingly shown.

However, most of the film has Chanel inviting Stravinsky, his wife and four children to her villa so that he can compose. They have an affair, he losing control, she always in control. At the same time that he is revising The Rite, she is searching for a perfume that will be distinctive. After many tests, she chooses the sample in the fifth bottle, her No 5.

Mads Mikkelson is an intense performer, especially of villains (the Pusher series, Le Chiffre in Casino Royale) and makes Stravinsky a serious, sometimes tormented Russian. Anna Magloulis is striking and majestic as Coco Chanel (with a stylish black and white wardrobe of costumes to match).

This is a decorative biopic for entertainment and information rather than a study of its characters and their relationship.

1.An entertaining biopic? Interest in the characters, themes? Enjoyment, history, fiction or fact?

2.The production values, Paris 1913, the collage of World War One, 1920-21, Coco Chanel’s villa, the interiors and the gardens? Her shop? The perfume laboratories at Grasse? The Champs Elysees theatre?

3.Stravinsky and the score, The Rite of Spring, selection of his other work? The score by Gabriel Yared?

4.The performance of The Rite of Spring: the research on the score, the costumes, the choreography? The orchestra and the supervision of the dancers? The conductor, the staging? The pagan rituals? Nijinsky and his supervision of the choreography? Diagelev as the producer?

5.The audience in 1913, fashionable, costumes? The response, bewilderment, the catcalls, people leaving? The brawls, those in favour, those against? The performers continuing? Diaghelev turning the lights on and off? The police arriving?

6.The producers analysing what had happened, Diaghelev’s judgment, Nijinsky being upset with Stravinsky criticising the rhythms of the dances, walking out? The insults and tension?

7.The introduction to Stravinsky, his Russian background, the tradition of ballet and Tchaikovsky, his doing something new, his wife as an assistant, her critique of the music, his reputation?

8.Coco Chanel, her relationship with Boy Capel? Going to the theatre, with her friend, socialite, the response to the situation?

9.The overview of World War One, the collage of images?

10.Stravinsky after the Russian Revolution, the émigrés in Paris, his work as a composer, needy?

11.Chanel and her success, the world of costume design, her shop and clients, her perfectionism with the staff, with the clients? Her search for a perfume, her going to the laboratories? The invitation to Stravinsky, his hesitant reply? Acceptance?

12.The mansion, the rooms, the black and white design (as with her fashions)? The meals, the servants? Chanel and her work? Stravinsky and his composing? Katia and her illness, the children enjoying the house, Chanel’s gifts to them?

13.Chanel and her advances on Stravinsky, her initiative, his response, the affair, her being in control, his not? The deceit? The older boy and his sense of what was going on? Katia and her awareness, asking her husband for the truth, the effect?

14.Stravinsky and his passion, desire, love for his wife, the quality of his work, playing with his children?

15.The confrontation, the family leaving? Chanel and the clash with Stravinsky, his calling her a shopkeeper? Her looking at his manuscript, her desire to support him?

16.Chanel and the meeting with Diaghelev, financing the season? The meetings? The meal, Stravinsky and his drinking, his mood, his tantrum and playing the piano?

17.Chanel going to Grasse, the scientists, the various combinations, the background of making perfume, flowers and chemicals? Her smelling the variety of samples, choosing Number 5?

18.The new performance of The Rite of Spring, success?

19.The sequences anticipating the old age of each of them? Their subsequent careers, dying the same year?

20.A film about personalities, achievements? The issues about the impact of the affair on each of them?