Superhero origin movies are the rage these days (“Batman Begins,” “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” etc.), so why not one for super French fashion designer Coco Chanel?
Audrey Tautou, who charmed international audiences in “Amelie,” brings an emotionally weighted whimsy to Chanel as Anne Fontaine’s biopic whisks the future artist through her early days in a Catholic orphanage (futilely waiting for her father to return) and her modest beginnings as a seamstress and cabaret singer with her sister (Marie Gillain).
Chanel develops her eye for style after becoming a kept woman at the posh estate of the rich and scandalous Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde). There, she experiments not only with the simpler, more practical designs of men’s clothing, but with a handsome British businessman (Alessandro Nivola) who comes to visit. Rated: PG-13 (sexual situations and smoking). 110 minutes. (Read more…)
Now playing at the Century Centre, the CineArts 6 in Evanston and the Renaissance Place in Highland Park.