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.
There's fascinating material here, but instead Kounen and screenwriter Chris Greenhalgh too often settle for giving us a conventional and even dull love triangle: self-absorbed career woman, ailing wife, passive man torn between the two of them.
– Moira MacDonald,
Seattle Times,
8 Jul 2010
rotten:
Two narcissists do not a couple make, and without any actual relationship, there really isn't a movie.
– Richard Nilsen,
Arizona Republic,
23 Jul 2010
rotten:
Too much of the time, the film seems intoxicated by its own sense of importance.
– Tom Long,
Detroit News,
30 Jul 2010
fresh:
Anna Mouglalis makes for an icier Coco than Audrey Tautou, hardened by the death in 1919 of Boy Capel, the love of her life.