> Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
2 stars (out of 5)
Director: Jan Kounen
Cast: Anna Mouglalis, Mads Mikkelsen, Yelena Morozova, Natacha Lindinger, Grigori Manukov, Radivoje Bukvic
Rating: (M)
Coco & Igor is based on Chris Greenhalgh's 2002 novel of the same name. At the film's core is an alleged affair between French fashion icon Coco Chanel and Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.
After becoming fascinated with Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen) through his controversial ballet The Rite of Spring in 1913, Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) invites him and his family to use her villa when they are forced to flee Russia.
To cut a long and laboured set-up short, Stravinsky takes to clandestine sexual liaisons while abandoning his wife to consumption.
Chanel creates her now legendary fragrance while showing total contempt for Stravinsky's marriage and his wife Catherine (Yelena Morozova).
On screen, it's tedious. Warning bells should have sounded with Mads Mikkelsen cast as a Russian in a non-Danish film. Normally quite brilliant, he just looks confused.
Anna Mouglalis looks great swaggering about in her Chanel wardrobe. If only she had a script to match her couture.
The artifice of film-making constantly impedes the flow.
Coco & Igor is like an over-earnest film-school project, brimming with every camera movement imaginable and nothing much in the way of story.
Coco & Igor does nothing to enhance the standing of either character. As a piece of historical revisionism, it fails because there is simply nothing about either identity worth learning about in this medium.
Best thing: The elaborately constructed opening salvo where Stravinsky bares The Rite of Spring to a furious French audience.
Worst thing: The hammy sex scenes; they are just too contrived to keep a straight face.
See it with: A packet of No-Doz.
- Mark Orton
