Review: Coco avant Chanel

Coco avant Chanel
Dir. Anne Fontaine
Year: 2009
Aus Rating: PG
Running Time: 105mins

A lot of the time a biopic is a biopic is a biopic. By mere virtue of existing, one must assume that they know where it is going. They don't make movies about famous people whose lives were not interesting, and in the world of filmmakers, "interesting" usually equals things such as "lived in poverty", "addicted to [insert substance of choice]" and "fights through adversity and tragedy." Anne Fontaine's splendidly made Coco avant Chanel (quite simply meaning "Coco before Chanel") follows the blueprint to a tee, and proves to be the root of the film's problems.

Stop if you've heard this one before; A young girl is made an orphan in the French countryside and goes to live with nuns. She grows up and begins to sing in sleazy bars for money before deciding to shack up with a wealthy count who she feels keeps her trapped like a cage, not letting her creativity spread. She falls in love with another man, a love that is destined to end in tragedy before Coco rises from the ashes from her pain and conquers the world. Yes, it sounds an awful lot like La Vie en Rose, the biopic of Edith Piaf from two years back. Coco avant Chanel is better than that one, that's for sure.


The newer film, however, suffers from similar problems - thankfully hacked up editing is not one of them - including an ungrateful lead character who comes off as incredibly unappealing and one that left me asking why all these men found her so gosh darn irresistible. If somebody would like to explain this to me then I'll listen. The film's formulaic plot developments prove disappointing to. There is nothing in Coco that you cannot telegraph from the opening scenes in the orphanage. And that's even without knowing anything about Chanel other than that she designed clothes.

It is, however, the clothes that set this movie apart. Not just the gorgeous duds that all the characters get to parade around in from start to finish - Catherine Leterrier sure did have her work cut out for her and she succeeds with flying colours - but also the scenes involving Coco designing and creating these beautiful garments. I suspected there was much more passion behind these scenes than there were behind others. The way the camera lingers over Coco's hand and she traces patterns and tears away at fabrics and runs her fingers across expensive lace. It is a shame that there was not more of it. The final scene, a fashion show down a mirrored staircase, is divine and it would have been a more interesting spot to pick up the story of her life at.


As Coco Chanel Audrey Tautou gives a performance that is neither good nor bad, just merely adequate, although she impresses towards film's end when she is actually called upon to show some emotions in her face. There are worse things that spending 100 or so minutes looking at Alessandro Nivola, but here he doesn't register. Best in film honours go to Emmanuelle Devos as an actress and Benoît Poelvoorde as Coco's wealthy count. Both should have been given more. All the technicals are ace, too. From Leterrier's aforementioned costumes, Christophe Beaucarne's gorgeous cinematography and Alexandre Desplat's original music score.

Unfortunately Fontaine has not done enough with Coco's story to make it worth telling on anything more than a visual level. And even then, little is put in to explore the artistic process that goes into it all. The movie has horses and castles and pretty clothes and it's very easy on the eye and I was surprised when the film ended because it certainly didn't feel like it had been over 100 minutes long - a problem many films have is being too long and the audience knowing it - but there's little here that will come to define Coco Chanel to viewers. C+

I Screencapped the Closing Credits of Death Proof So You Don't Have To

I know I have gone on and on about my affection for Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof over the last year and a half (or so) since I saw it (as a stand alone, not as part of Grindhouse - we weren't so lucky down here). Having recently just rewatched it I still have it pumping through my veins.

One of the many many things I love about the movie are the credit sequences. The opening is great with it's "Coming Attractions" and the mixed up title card and so forth, but I'm wondering if many people have taken a look at the end credits. Set to the rollicking tune of "Chick Habit" by April March, interspersed throughout the more traditional end credits are images of, what I assume are, b roll footage of b movie actresses as well as an assortment of other cinematic thingamajigs and even a couple of Death Proof bloopers (or sorts). There are 44 in total and you can click on 'em to enlarge. They're fascinating in a strange hypnotic sort of way.

Yes, I am clinically insane (especially when it comes to Tarantino).














































{fin}

Review: Lucky Country

Lucky Country
Dir. Kriv Stenders
Year: 2009
Aus Rating: M
Running Time: 96mins

The western is a genre that I have been particularly neglectful of. I am wary of them for some reason. In my limited experience with the field there have been ones I have loved and some I have loathed, and my reluctance to the genre surprises me since I have a fondness for Americana that usually flows through them and I love a well-done gun fight. Kriv Stenders' (Boxing Day) new film, Lucky Country, is a local and more intimate version of the western, but I think it fits the bill.

It is 1902 and federation is still recent in the minds and Nat (Aden Young) is living on his bush property with children Sarah and Tom (Hanna Mangan-Lawrence and newcomer Toby Wallace respectively), their mother recently deceased and seemingly nothing to keep them going apart from a pathetic vegetable garden and a neighbour who sells rabbits, but who is leaving to try his luck in the goldfields. Unlike a lot of westerns Stenders doesn't spend long and labourious slabs of time focusing on mundane activities such as walking around the edge of the property or digging for potatoes. It moves relatively quickly - as quickly as a film of this kind can go, I imagine - and with an ever-growing sense of tension.


Rightly so since onto their property come three men; Henry (Pip Miller), Carver (Neil Pigot) and the young, but incredibly ill, Jimmy (Eamon Farren). In repayment for their hospitality and care the men help around the house. They build firewood storage, fix things and provide food. Once Jimmy gets well, however, things take a turn for the worst and from there? Well, I'll leave that to you to discover since one of the best things about Lucky Country was that I was not aware of where it was going and how it would get there. Oh sure, it's probably easy to predict where it will go in a vague sort of way, but there are surprises along the way and I particularly enjoyed the way Stenders got there. The final scenes are particularly surprising and feature a captivating cameo by Helmut Bakaitis (although, to be honest, that voice would probably be captivating anywhere).

I must include director of photography Jules O'Loughlin in this discussion since his work here is pivotal. The way scenes are routinely filmed through gaps in walls, through the roughage of trees and with a slow-burning intensity that really gives the mood of the film at a knifes edge at times. Compare it to the obviously pretty and deliberately showy, but completely void and empty work from Last Ride (click for my review) where the cinematography serves nothing than to actually be pretty. Here it has purpose and serves the film well.


Performances, unfortunately, are a mixed bag and are the major letdown. Aden Young, it must be said, is truly woeful here. Throughout the film I kept getting the idea that he was acting in a very Shakespearean manner. As if he was on stage and acting to the cheap seats. Take a look at Richard Pyros in last year's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark and you will see a similar performance, but one in a movie that called for it. Lucky Country is a quiet and solemn movie and an actor screaming and bellowing at the top of his lungs was not what was called for. The young actors fare better with Toby Wallace impressive, but the real highlight for this viewer was Hanna Mangan-Lawrence. She gives a wonderful performance as the teenager with a curiosity about life and sex, but who knows her place in the harsh bushland that surrounds her. Covered in understated costumes, she really stands out amongst the more seasons actors in the cast.

The western is a genre that, surprisingly, Australia hasn't entirely adopted. We have occasional stabs at the genre, usually with a unique parochial twist in titles like The Proposition, Mad Dog Morgan and, if you want to call them such, any version of the Ned Kelly story. Our landscape fits the mold perfectly and in Lucky Country it is utilised perfectly. While the film will certainly not be for anyone - it is a western of sorts and it doesn't revel in masculinity or violence - it is an impressive and impeccably well-done film, yet another in an increasingly strong one for Australian film. B+