audrey tautou Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The only thing worse than the biopic – as a general rule my least favorite genre – is the biopic of someone to whom nothing interesting actually happens. Coco Before Chanel is astonishing in this respect. The title is perfectly clear: this is a movie about Coco Chanel before she became a fashion icon and built her Parisian empire. What this translates to in reality is a movie about a period in the title character's life during which nothing occurs. I've been sitting here trying to think of a more dramatically inert film than this one. I'm at a loss.

Look, I think it's wonderful that Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel revolutionized fashion, refused to surrender her independence, and eventually made a fortune. It's just that we don't see any of that here, at least not depicted in any compelling way. Coco Before Chanel is interesting, if at all, as a historical point of reference. If you've always wondered where Coco Chanel "came from," and would like to see her "roots" depicted by the numbers, the movie might work for you. But insight? Narrative drive? No.

Coco (Audrey Tautou) – so nicknamed because of a rowdy song she used to sing with her sister when the two were barmaids – worked as a tailor and tried to make it as an actress and singer. When that didn't work, she moved in with an aging millionaire playboy named Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde), who was more than happy to provide for her handsomely in exchange for companionship and the occasional roll in the hay. Careful to avoid romantic commitments, Coco eventually also took up with a handsome Englishman (Alessandro Nivola), who was more solicitous of her creative pursuits (hatmaking, mostly) than Balsan. She dared design herself a dress sans corset. Eventually she moved to Paris, and the rest is history.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Coco Before Chanel, starring the delightful Audrey Tautou (Amelie) as the legendary fashion figure Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel. Directed by Anne Fontaine, the film was partly based on Edmonde Charles-Roux's book, L'Irrégulière: Ou, Mon Itinéraire Chanel, and Fontaine helped adapt it for the big screen. As the title suggests, Coco Before Chanel will follow Coco before she became an icon in the world of fashion -- touching on her time as a youth, her stint as a cabaret dancer and her affairs with the influential men who eventually helped her break into the fashion industry.

Also in the cast are Alessandro Nivola as Arthur "Boy" Capel and Benoît Poelvoorde as one of Chanel's lovers, Balsan. In an earlier post on the first French trailer for Coco Before Chanel, Jessica noted the interesting fact that Nivola -- whose character some say inspired Coco's menswear look -- had to learn French to play the part. Tautou, meanwhile, looks perfect in the role. She oozes the sort of grace, style and seductiveness needed to take on the sort of Coco that's finding herself and discovering her true passion.

Coco Before Chanel arrives in theaters on September 25. We've provided a full synopsis and trailer after the jump, and you can view the entire poster by clicking below.

Looks like it's time for me to brush up on my French. The first trailer for the Coco Chanel biopic, Coco, Avant Chanel (or Coco, Before Chanel) has just hit the web, but the bad news is: the trailer is in French. But even if you don't speak French, you aren't missing too much; between my high school French and the helpful folks at Popwatch, I can tell you that there is talk of destiny, love, and a little pouting, but, c'mon, this is a movie about Chanel; isn't it all about the clothes anyway?

Audrey Tautou stars as the fashion icon (and say what you want, the lady certainly has that Coco 'ennui' down pat in the poster), and the film was loosely based on Edmonde Charles-Roux's book, L'Irrégulière: Ou, Mon Itinéraire Chanel. The book was adapted for the screen by Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons) and Anne Fontaine (who also directs). Joining in on all that fabulousness are Alessandro Nivola as Arthur "Boy" Capel and Benoît Poelvoorde as one of Chanel's lovers, Balsan. Nivola is an American born actor who had to learn French to play the dashing polo player who was said to have inspired Chanel's 'menswear look'.

Watch the trailer after the jump...

To me Coco Chanel is the woman responsible for my grandmother's smell -- the regal Chanel No. 5. To others she's the woman who created the suit unfortunately immortalized by the assassination of John F. Kennedy. And to the younger crowd, she'll soon be that movie character performed by Audrey Tautou in Coco Avant Chanel.

The Amelie actress signed on to the film last year, but then all news stopped and it looked like Coco was going to be stuck in development hell, or at least have to wait a while longer. Now Variety reports that Warner Brothers has signed on to finance the feature and have got a plan all set. Production will start on September 15 in Paris, and should hit screens next year.

The film will still be directed by Anne Fontaine, from the script by Anne, Camille Fontaine, and script consultant Christopher Hampton. Instead of spanning the woman's long and successful life, Tautou will get to delight in Coco's early years. And for you fashion fans out there -- Karl Lagerfeld, the art director of the House of Chanel, is supervising the wardrobe.

On June 5th, production began on Angels and Demons, the sequel (wait, wasn't the book a prequel?) to tepid religious mystery/global mega-hit The Da Vinci Code.

On June 9th, Jessica Barnes brought to our attention a couple of photos from said shoot.

And as of June 16th, the Vatican has formally denied the long-awaited request on behalf of the filmmakers to film crucial scenes within the critical churches of Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria.

According to Variety, the proper permits require cooperation between the Italian government and the Vatican. However, since "the film pursues a type of fantasy that damages common religious sentiment," they were not approved. The production has already relocated to near Naples in an effort to double the needed interior shots, and the film is still scheduled to open on May 15, 2009.

Tom Hanks' hair could not be reached for comment at the time of this post.

Nearly a year after its international premiere at Cannes, My Brother is an Only Child (ThinkFilm) opened at the top of the indie weekend box office returns, according to Box Office Mojo. Playing at just one theater in Manhattan, the film grossed $10,500. My Brother "follows two brothers through years of Italian history, with their personal and political travails echoing down the years," Cinematical's James Rocchi wrote last year. "Even with it's merits as a light-but-sentimental story of family in 1960's Italy, it also reminded me of the soaring, sweeping, astonishing La Meglio Gioventù (The Best of Youth) -- and wound up completely winning me over." The film will roll out to other cities over the next three weeks, per the distributor's web site.

Immigration family tale Under the Same Moon (Fox Searchlight / The Weinstein Co.) continues to perform well, earning $5,771 per screen as it expanded to 390 theaters in its second week. Leonard Klady at Movie City News commented that the film is "playing in a mix of Hispanic, art and mainstream locations but with rare exception is working best in the former venues." Also in its second week, Love Songs (IFC), Christophe Honoré's French-language modern musical, held onto most of its audience, averaging $6,800 at two Manhattan theaters.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Priceless (click on the image for a larger version), starring the delightful (and delicious) Audrey Tautou as a young gold digger who mistakenly woos a bartender (Gad Elmaleh) thinking he's a millionaire. However, when she tries to back out of the scheme, he falls in love -- and these two might just be a match made in heaven. If the poster, premise and star look familiar to you, it's because Priceless is being touted as a "fresh-re-imagining of the cinema classic, Breakfast at Tiffany's." Pierre Salvadori directs off a script from Salvadori and Benoit Graffin. I'm a big fan of Tautou, and this film looks pretty cute (with the exception of the blue in that poster because it reminds me of what my wife wants for Valentine's Day). Priceless is due out in New York and LA on March 28, then wider on April 4.

Have you seen Black Book yet? It's on DVD now, and with Ryan and I raving about it and especially its star, Carice Van Houten, all year, I hope you got the hint. It's really worth seeing. And once you do check it out, you'll understand why we are so smitten by Van Houten. And you'll understand why Hollywood can't get enough of her these days, casting her opposite many of the most prestigious actors, such as Tom Cruise, who she's linked up with in Bryan Singer's Valkyrie, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, both of whom she's appearing with in Ridley Scott's Body of Lies. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the Dutch actress is confirmed to play opposite Jude Law in Repossession Mambo. She will play wifie to Law in the film, which is a sci-fi thriller about a guy who can't afford his most recently installed artificial organ. Directed by Miguel Sapochnik, a former storyboard artist who worked on Trainspotting, the film is said to also star Alice Braga, who actually plays Law's love-interest in the form of an ex-wife he reunites and goes on the lam with.

So then is Van Houten just a minor character who is left behind? That's what it sounds like, and if you look at most of these American roles she's getting they're either labeled simply as wife or love-interest. Considering all that she got to do in Black Book, it seems Hollywood could be missing the boat on why she's worth casting. If Van Houten does end up wasted or underused in these roles, it wouldn't be the first time a young European actress came into flavor and was then miscast. I'm thinking mostly of Audrey Tautou being put in The Da Vinci Code, of course. I have to admit that after falling in love with her in Amelie, I gradually grew out of my crush by watching the rest of her available films, none of which featured her in quite the same way. For Van Houten, I've already gone and looked at one of her earlier films, and was similarly disappointed -- though it could have been the fact the movie, Minoes (aka Undercover Kitty), is only available here in a terribly dubbed version. All I can hope is that I won't ever see her in a worse movie than that, but with Hollywood's track record of late, such hopes are really difficult to hold on to.

To me, Audrey Tautou will always be Amélie. To others, soon, she will be Coco. The French actress, who is actually best known now for playing opposite Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code, has been cast as Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel in a film about the legendary fashion designer's life prior to her becoming famous. And because it only focuses on the first half of Chanel's life, producer Caroline Benjo describes it as not really a biopic. Although it will begin with Chanel's childhood, the plot will mainly follow her as a young woman, during the time she worked as a cabaret singer and became involved with the wealthy horse breeder Étienne Balsan and then the English polo player Arthur "Boy" Capel, both of whom were instrumental in leading her to a career in fashion.

Partly based on the book L'Irrégulière: Ou, Mon Itinéraire Chanel by Edmonde Charles-Roux, the film will be scripted by Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liasons) and Anne Fontaine (Nathalie ...), who will also direct. Apparently the project was conceived with Tautou in mind, and Fontaine had said she'd only be involved if the actress was interested. Tautou does seem to be perfect for the part, at least if you only know of Coco Chanel, the woman, from photographs like the one above (If only I could also find photos of the two lovers, so I could imagine which actors would be best to play them).

Fortunately for everyone else associated with the project, Tautou liked the idea of playing Chanel. Although, if the film didn't work out, audiences and fashion fans would still have two other movies based on the designer to look forward to. One, about Chanel's relationship with Igor Stravinsky, will reportedly be directed by William Friedkin and will star Marina Hands (The Barbarian Invasions); the other is being written by Oscar nominee Danièle Thompson (Cousin, Cousine). All three films follow the 1969 stage production Coco, starring Katherine Hepburn in the title role, as well as the new play from writer William Luce and Broadway director Philip William McKinley (The Boy From Oz), titled Creme de Coco: A Portrait of Coco Chanel. So, I'm wondering, which of the films will end up being "Chanel, No. 5"?

Maggie Q has been one busy gal lately, and it doesn't look like her schedule is letting up anytime soon. Already well known to audiences in Hong Kong, she played small parts in Rush Hour 2 and the forgettable Around the World in 80 Days, and she had her first big breakout role opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III.

Q recently finished filming the ping-pong crime comedy Balls of Fury with Christopher Walken and George Lopez, has just been cast with Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackman in the sexual thriller The Tourist. She will go directly from shooting that over the next few weeks into the terribly named Die Hard sequel, Live Free or Die Hard (this movie is going to tank if they keep that title).

We're all for actresses from foreign films breaking out into larger roles, but Hollywood frequently brings stars over from other countries, and then doesn't seem to know what to do with them. The talented Swiss actress Irene Jacob made her dubious first American film appearance in U.S. Marshals, which was her last "Hollywood" film and Audrey Tautou recently appeared in The Da Vinci Code, although her next two projects will be back home in France.

Maggie might be bitten pretty hard by the Hollywood bug, but she is currently in Pusan promoting Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, a period Chinese film for which she has had to learn how to ride a horse, play a pipe, and speak an ancient language. According to Q, "Just because I'm working in Hollywood these days doesn't mean that I've turned my back on Asia. I will go anywhere in the world where there is good material."

Good for her. With any luck she'll still have a career after Die Hard: Freedom Fries.


More Maggie Q on Cinematical:

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