Coco Avant Chanel (M)

Coco Chanel was a pioneering French fashion designer who created daring (for her times) ways for women to dress, dropping corsets to give women more freedom to move, and incorporating simplicity and ideas gained from menswear to give a tailored, modern look to women's clothing.

Reflecting its title (translated as Coco Before Chanel), the film chronicles Gabrielle Chanel's rise from rags to riches – from her abandonment by her widower father in an orphanage in 1893 at age 10 to singing in a bar and music hall, where she got her Coco nickname, working as a seamstress, and initially creating uncluttered hats before forging her own freedom through relationships with two wealthy men, falling in love with one of them.

As a biopic, this costume period piece is mildly interesting, as much for the depiction of women's lives at the time as for Coco's early life. What keeps it engaging is Audrey Tautou's performance as the self-reliant, headstrong and inventive Coco; indeed, one would like to see her in a sequel, Coco Apres Chanel.

• Reviewed by David Manning; DVDs for review supplied by United Video, Nelson.

- © Fairfax NZ News