“Coco Before Chanel” is the story of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, who began her life as headstrong orphan, and through an extraordinary journey became the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman and became a timeless symbol of success, freedom and style. The film portrays the formative years of Chanel’s life, the years of Chanel spent discovering and inventing herself.
A little girl who is sent with her sister to an orphanage in the heart of France, who waits in vain every Sunday for her father to come for her.
A cabaret performer with a weak voice who sings to an audience of drunken soldiers.
A humble seamstress, who stitches hems at the back of a provincial tailor’s shop. A young, skinny courtesan, to whom protector Etienne Balsan offers a safe haven.
A woman in love who knows she will never be anyone?s wife, refusing marriage even to Boy Capel, the man who returned her love.
A rebel who finds the conventions of her time oppressive, and instead dresses in her lovers’ clothes.
This is the story of Gabrielle Chanel, who begins her life as a headstrong orphan, and through an extraordinary journey becomes the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman and became a timeless symbol of success, freedom and style. Coco before she became Chanel.
Read the Full Production Notes
Coco Before Chanel
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Alessandro Nivola, Marie Gillain, Benoît Poelvoorde, Emmanuelle Devos, Roch Leibovici
Directed by: Anne Fontaine
Screenplay by: Anne Fontaine, Edmonde Charles-Roux
Release Date: September 25, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and smoking.
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $5,714,396 (16.3%)
Foreign: $29,318,844 (83.7%)
Total: $35,033,240 (Worldwide)