COCO CHANEL and IGOR STRAVINSKY 3.0***

I saw this movie with some other movie enthusiast. When it was over we gathered in the lobby in puzzlement. Then we decided we were being too esoteric, too deep about the meaning of the film. Switching gears we decided that although it was untypical and highbrow, it was, nonetheless, still simply a love (?) story involving unfaithfulness and adultery between two brilliant avant-garde artists… Coco Chanel (fashion designer and perfume maker) and Igor Stravinsky( Russian music composer known for his discordant sounds).

Coco Chanel was a very independent woman for her time….this is the 1920s. After her lover called Boy was killed in a car accident, she decided to live alone in her huge mansion outside Paris whose interiors were designed by her in striking, never ending patterns of black and white. Coco is a fan of music and an admirer of everything brave. When she witnesses the almost riot that follows the "scandalous" premiere of Igor Stravinsky's “The Rite of Spring”, she wants to get to know the composer. Stravinsky lives with his wife who is suffering from tuberculosis and children in a small flat, penniless due to the Russian revolution, and Coco invites them all to live in her mansion - allowing Igor the possibility to more space for his musical creativity. Coco and Igor are soon drawn to each other and finally end up having an affair.

Igor is a vulnerable man, a man drawn in two directions –to the wealth and love of Coco and on the other hand to his wife and children. Also for a man and an artist it is difficult for him to accept the fact that Coco can also be an artist with her own will and self esteem….and wealth. In fact , this manifests itself in one scene where they are heatedly arguing and he tries to insult her by saying she is no more than a “shop keeper”.

This brilliantly filmed movie uses beautifully stunning visuals. Every single frame is like a work of art. However, the story is somewhat on the cold side as it lacks the passion that you would expect to be present between two such passionate artists. Coco even though very well presented as an independent woman seems calculating and cold without any emotions. Much the same is true of Igor who it seems is determined to never to smile.

I am still not quite settled on how I ultimately feel about this picture. However, perhaps the film’s messages are that creation is often born from misery, that pain accompanies genius more often than it does not, that lust and passion are not one in the same, and that sex doesn’t always lead to love. That’s some pretty heavy stuff, I know, but the kind of thing we movie critics must espouse at times.
Spoken in French & Russian with English subtitles, and a wee bit of English. Rated 'R' for some strong sexual content & nudity.
Clark