Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2010)
Paris 1913. Coco Chanel is infatuated with the rich and handsome Boy Capel, but she is also compelled by her work. Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is about to be performed. The revolutionary dissonances of Igor's work parallel Coco's radical ideas. She wants to democratize women's fashion; he wants to redefine musical taste. Coco attends the scandalous first performance of The Rite in a chic white dress. The music and ballet are criticized as too modern, too foreign. Coco is moved but Igor is inconsolable.
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Simply Perfect
good back-story, and good acting
A waste of 90 minutes of my life
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
COCO CHANEL AND IGOR STRAVISNKY is lavish, handsomely made, studiously well acted -- and pointless. For nearly two hours the viewer is immersed in the world of early twentieth century France in order to study an affair of little consequence between two great creative talents. It's interesting to see the Paris premiere of the Rites of Spring dramatised and to see how Coco Chanel worked in her shop but neither is enough to carry the film. The affair itself is curiously savage and almost without passion; a bad ending is inevitable. To its credit, the film doesn't fail to point out that the affair has victims in the form of Stravinsky's (long-suffering) wife and children. In some ways the most remarkable aspect of this film is that it was made by the same director as DOBERMANN.
Definitely one of my favourite movies but then I am addicted to the music of contemporary composers Ravel, Debussy, Delius and Stravinsky and the other marvellous Russians Rachmaninov, Borodin, Tchaikovsky together with the Armenian Khachaturian I have to say it is a work of art This wonderfully detailed and superbly photographed movie is an special romance of music and love. We can all study the history of Chanel and the music of Stravinsky but to put it on film here is something extraordinary. The Dutch born director Jan Kounen is to be congratulated on the writing, the cast and crew, the sets of the period. I was mesmerised, never bored as was one reviewer. Mostly the reviews here confirm my thinking that it's a brilliant piece of film making. It's a fact that Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring was a composition ahead of it's time, certainly very different to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, and so for a Paris audience in 1913 not prepared for anything new and daring, we see here virtually the way it happened the pandemonium in the audience and concerthall. It surely was like that! This film Coco and Igor has given me a new insight into the life and music of Stravinsky. And where have I heard that background music before? There is Stravinsky's music but also we have Gabriel Yared's musical talents (The Talented Mr Ripley) adorning the main work. Their love is sensual, she is sophisticated, a strong woman, there are moments of heartbreak, and magical moments. I understoodit... Only the very finest French vintage, interesting, engrossing. I have said it already and I will use the word again, it's a beautiful remarkable film. The orchestra playing Le Sacre du Printemps is absolutely marvellous and I recommend this film to any serious classical music lover... 10 stars... Malcolm in Toronto revised and amended Dec 2014
The actress who played Coco Chanel in this film is much different than the Coco Chanel film. Of course, all actresses including Anna Mag here offer something to the complex legend and fashion pioneering icon Coco Chanel. By 1913, she's successful and independent. By 1920, she's alone and lonely after the loss of Boyd Capel which I wished that they explained better in the film. He died in a car accident on his way back to her. They had a torrid love affair. Anyway, Coco is enchanted by Igor Stravinsky, a Russian musical genius, who is living in a hotel with his wife and family after the Russian revolution. She sees a kindred spirit in him as an artist herself. Her Coco is lot less affectionate than one might imagine. She's as much a mystery as Igor is to us. Both are artistic geniuses with hers in fashion and his in music. She offers her country home to help Igor and his family back on his feet. At first, she had noble intentions of helping another artist but the two get swept up in the affair. Maybe Igor feels obligated towards Coco. This film may have been more realistic. Igor is played Mik Mikaalsen. Both actor and actress who play the title roles are unfamiliar to me. I enjoyed watching the making of it to understand it. It's a dark film at times maybe too realistic as well.
The riot at the premiere of "The Rite of Spring" was much more raucous than this film depicts. The accompanying "Making of" featurette on the DVD shows much more violent action than made it into the final film.All of Stravinsky's music throughout the movie is played slowly and sentimentally, which is not what this composer was all about.We can only conclude that the director is more interested in baroque visuals than telling his story. In fact, it's impossible to believe that a blank stick like Mads Mikkelsen wrote such violent music. The lens is much kinder to Anna Mouglalis, who effortlessly steals all their scenes together, except for the bloodless sex scenes, in which neither are interesting.But I can't believe we'd be talking about either of these personalities today if they'd been as boring and cataleptic in real life as they are in this film. If you want to see character in action, watch Alain Resnais's "Last Year at Marienbad" which compared to this is one long firecracker display.