‘Before Chanel’: 2008’s ‘La Vie En Rose’?

This, the week after Mother’s Day, is a good time get nostalgic about our mothers. Mine is a true European classic, one who never leaves the house without lipstick, heels and, of course, Chanel No. 5.

After Katharine Hepburn’s portrayal 1969 musical Coco and Shirley McLaine in an upcoming Lifetime TV miniseries, Ms. Chanel’s elder years have been dutifully chronicled. A film, entitled “Before Chanel” will change all that.

Choosing to focus on Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel’s youthful, formative years before her major European and American successes, helmer Anne Fontaine (“Nouvelle chance”) has taken on the challenging task of directing Audrey Tatou (“Amelie”) as a young, pre-fame Chanel.

There’s not much to go on beyond the obvious – Fontaine’s “Before Chanel” is a film, obviously, about the young life of French icon, the maverick and inventor of French chic, before she did all that.

Like in “La Vie En Rose”, 2008’s Oscar-winning biopic about that other French icon, Edith Piaf, Chanel grew up in poverty and eventually made small bucks working as a cabaret singer. After sewing a couple of costumes for a cabaret star, she met famous horseman Etienne Balsan, developed her vision and gained the funding to open her first shop in Biarritz in 1916.

Movie posters don’t say much, and “Chanel” is no different. If unfamiliar with Chanel designs, the poster’s audience may overlook Tatou’s updated Chanel suit. The original 1923 design was a knee-length skirt paired with a boxy jacket, made of woven wool with black trim and gold buttons. While Chanel was hugely inspired by menswear, this original design remained demure and womanly and was often paired with chunky pearl necklaces. The Chanel suit Tatou wears on the poster stays true to Chanel’s love of menswear and channels an as yet unrefined girl-woman.

She gave us costume jewelry, the little black dress and the classic Chanel suit. In “Before Chanel”, we are introduced to a woman unaware of her future power and influence over modern fashion, couture, celebrities and, more personally, our mothers.