Musical Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky a Fashionable Conundrum
In 1913 a young Coco Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) is present at the Theatre Des Champs-Elysées to bear witness to the debut of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s (Mads Mikkelsen) “The Rite of Spring.” She is fascinated by it, consumed by the jarring mixture of sounds and mesmerized by the almost chaotically repulsive ballet. But a great majority is nowhere near as impressed, the work too radical for the time or for the audience a cavalcade of boos nearly leading to a riot inside the theatre.
Mads Mikkelsen and Anna Mouglalis in Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky © Sony Pictures Classics
Seven years later Chanel is a household name, Coco a rich, independent woman who demands perfection and is wealthy enough to get it. But she is also in a state of mourning, her longtime lover recently deceased. It is here she once again runs across a now near-penniless Stravinsky, living in France with his family in exile sometime after the Russian Revolution.
Thus begins a relationship between creative titans as Coco invites Igor to move into her rustic villa in Garches with his consumptive wife Katarina (Elena Morozova) and their children in order for him to be able to finish his groundbreaking work. But things move forward from their in wildly unpredictable ways, an affair blossoming to life between the two as if it were one of the composer’s symphonies or the designer’s impeccable gowns.
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is not an easy movie to watch. At times, it is even a more difficult one to enjoy. The story of two iconoclasts clearly ahead of their time, this glimpse into their passionate, sometimes volatile friendship is every bit as wild and as unpredictable as the two artists themselves. Director Jan Kounen (Dobermann) almost dares the audience to go on this ride with him, keeping viewers continually at a distance and constantly on edge even as Chanel and Stravinsky intertwine into one another’s embrace.
In other words, there is very little in the way of heat here. But I’m not really sure there is meant to be. Screenwriter Chris Greenhalgh’s (working alongside Kounen and Carlo De Boutiny adapting his own novel for the screen) focus appears from my point of view to be to emulate the temperament and style of the protagonists. These two aren’t about passion in regards to the sexual escapades. If anything, they use it to such great extent in their working lives their trysts come across more as tools to alleviate the pressures those creative desires exert upon them. Their time together is more about lust than it is about desire, and while I have no way of knowing the validity of that statement from a historical context from a cinematic one I have few doubts in regards to its error.
It goes almost without saying that this way of tackling the relationship makes both figures borderline unlikable. They are so driven by their passions in regards to work as human beings they come perilously close to being despicable. There were many moments I started to loathe the both of them, and as Katarina slowly suffered under the growing knowledge of the affair I began to feel far so sorry for her that even the knowledge both Chanel and Stravinsky were creating masterpieces did little to diminish my disgust.
Yet here was a movie I could not take my eyes off of. Much like Luca Guadagnino’s bewildering tragedy I am Love Kounen’s latest had me as captivated as I’ve been at any other point this year. His brushstrokes border on the sublime, the film fueled by a pulsating energy – much of it garnered from the combination of Gabriel Yared’s (The English Patient) cacophonous score and excerpts from Stravinsky’s compositions – that’s as kinetic as it is innervating. Even had I wanted to try there is no way I would have been able to turn away from the screen, the finished product filled with so many glorious sights and sounds I almost feel privileged to have been able to witness them.
Both Mouglalis and especially the great Mikkelsen are excellent here as the titular icons, but it is Morozova who ultimately stole the show as far as I was concerned. Her performance blossoms as the film goes on, the sicker and more despairing the character becomes the more introspective and blistered the actress’ performance becomes. This is a subtle, complex portrait of a woman on the verge of having her world torn asunder by a figure she cannot even hope to compete against, watching her try so touching just the very sight of her caressing her broken husband’s cheek was enough to break my heart.
Unsurprisingly, considering the subject matter the film looks terrific. From the sets to the costumes everything is absolute perfection reeking of authenticity, and even if all the clothes aren’t quite Chanel if you were to ask me which ones were and which ones weren’t I wouldn’t even be able to begin to tell you. There is a simplistic beauty belying the turgid and almost uncontrollable nature of the narrative itself, everything working in beautiful symmetry helping the filmmakers to craft a world easy to believe in.
I am still not quite settled on how I ultimately feel about this motion picture, however. While Kounen’s opus fascinates the clothes on its back don’t always fit in an entirely pleasing fashion. But the film understands that creation is often born from misery, that pain accompanies genius more often than it does not. He gets that lust and passion are not one in the same and that sex doesn’t always lead to love. Much like the 20th Century titans it celebrates Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky refuses to bow to convention and it doesn’t play it safe making it one operatic aria I’d listen to again without hesitation.
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
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