Luke Orrin This review is from the perspective of a guy who watched this movie with a girl. As far as chick flicks go, this one isn't bad. As far as Lifetime movies go, I think it's excellent. Of course it takes the low road with the whole "men are a bunch of useless, testicle scratching morons that will leave you the first chance they get" thing, but hey. Lifetime, right? I think the movie does a good job of chronicling the professional and personal life of a pretty amazing person- A business woman in France (sometimes occupied France) getting established and making her mark in a pretty interesting industry. I'm sure it's not dead-on accurate, but it's pretty entertaining. I thought Shirley McClaine was a bit out-of-place and the acting in general doesn't make for what I'd call a great drama, but it's watchable.

sandover This mini-series or whatever is atrocious. The writing is less than formulaic, for petit-bourgeois viewers. The bite of Coco Chanel, that austere, sublime woman with the cruel mouth, is nowhere, nowhere to be found. McLaine singes her. I wonder why she was chosen: someone who believes in reincarnation is an absurd choice to portray a woman who obviously thought this is it and that's all; McLaine's performance severely lacks the X-ray piercing gaze of Coco Chanel that showed everybody the astuteness of one incarnation.Especially when on screen with McDowell, the results are ludicrous: poor McDowell seems painfully aware of the badness of the script and gives a lecherous, despaired emphasis on the badness of his lines, yet he knows and unfortunately shows he cannot escape vulgarity. So, let's grab the money and run! The fact that she was a paid mistress, becomes a series of - oh! - so romantic affairs, suffering by inane lines ("You are the love of my life!" exemplifies how the writers wanted to avoid by all costs any kind of complexity); her touchy relationship with the Nazi regime in occupied WWII France - oooh!!!! that's touchy for our audience! So in the end you get a piece of sh*t, that is obviously destined to excite people that cannot afford a Chanel but will muse upon acquiring one, because it seems myths are exemplified this way in Lifetime States. The film does not even stand as this dim-witted defensive (since it cannot actually buy one) phrase I once witnessed on a bag: My other bag is Chanel. Chanel should sue for defamation, though it seems we live in times when you cannot sue the petit-bourgeois state of mind - when in fact this was what Chanel achieved in style! It made me even wonder if the clothes were real, which is bad. But even if they were copies, it was sure a blissful sight for sore eyes! Truly sublime, and the only thing of real and high worth in this crapola.

gradyharp COCO CHANEL is a well-made film whose few flaws unfortunately detract from the enjoyment of what seems to be a rather firm biography of one of the great inventive minds of the 20th century. Though all publicity (and nominations for awards) focused on Shirley MacLaine who appears only periodically and for very brief amounts of time, the starts of the cast are a number of European actors, some strong, others, only medium strong. And while the real contribution Coco Chanel made to the world was her instatement of the equality of women, changing the manner in which they dressed (read fashionable) from corseted and plumaged mannequins to comfortably mobile and real personas, the writers of this version her life (Carla Giulia Casalini and James Carrington) elected to stress the women whose ability to adjust to being repeatedly deserted/used by men and turn this movie into a romance decorated by fashion. And even that idea, valid though it may be, is fairly well buried by a musical score that is so loud as to cover the dialogue - and the dialogue is in some nearly indecipherable language, a mixture of accents and lack of projection on the part of the actors who play more to the sets and costumes than to the audience. Christian Duguay directs, electing to begin his story with the unhappy childhood of Gabrielle/Coco and Adrienne Chanel, orphans laced in a Catholic sweatshop to make clothes. These episodes of childhood to old age are well transitioned by a black and white, old movie film transfer that does add to the feeling of history. The girls grow into young women, Coco (Barbora Bobulova) goes to live with Etienne Balsan (Sagamore Stévenin), falls in love, faces the fact that her time with Etienne will be transitory, moves on to Paris where she struggles to make a living making hats until Boy Capel (Olivier Sitruk) becomes her benefactor and lover. But Boy leaves for the Front as a soldier for the French army, leaving Coco in Deauville to set up shop with the aid of her sister Adrienne (Valentina Lodovin). The back and forth aspects of the story show Coco in the 1950s (as Shirley MacLaine) making her comeback with the aid of her faithful manager Marc Bouchier (Malcolm MacDowell) and the film ends in a standing ovation for the woman who not only survived but who changed the world of fashion and feminism forever. There are many other characters in the film who play important parts but they all look alike and have such heavy accents that keeping track of them is almost impossible. No subtitles are supplied: subtitles would enhance this film immeasurably! Fabrizio Lucci does wonders with the cinematic adaptation of the times frames of the piece, but composer Andrea Guerra (in a slushy replay of Tchaikovsky symphony themes) buries the lines of the actors and nearly destroys what is in essence a very good film. Grady Harp

spenycjo Apparently Coco Chanel was an unbridled egotist who gave no credit where credit was due and whose sympathy was reserved for herself.Since this was a production of Lifetime, a network not known for its steely-eyed looks at real life, I must assume that was not the impression viewers were meant to carry away with them. Presumably, had there been more sympathetic moments to be portrayed, they would have been included.On the other hand, this production passed over some rather interesting material, such as her cohabitation with a Nazi while Paris was occupied during WWII. I guess there was no way to give *that* the Lifetime treatment.There are other interesting myth-busters in the NY Times review (link under the external reviews)...but I had watched and disliked this movie before I read it. I found the woman who played the young Chanel rather bland, and not even Shirley MacLaine's performance was any fun. Watching Chanel bully her employees and ignore their loyalty isn't my idea of entertainment.