A comprehensive review of Coco Chanel on film

The name “Chanel” has been synonymous with sophisticated glamour since well before Karl Lagerfeld took the helm at the legendary French fashion house. Its namesake Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel had been credited with redefining the standard for modern women’s fashion with loose waistlines, ankle baring skirts, and iconic tweed suits favoured by powerhouse icons such as Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana. But just as much as the world is fascinated by the iconic silhouettes of the French designer, we are interested in her life.

Chanel’s rags-to-riches story is steeped in glamour, mystery, rumours of bisexuality, tumultuous love affairs, and alleged wartime espionage. It’s no surprise, then, that the illustrious life of perhaps the most famous woman in fashion history has inspired a myriad of directors and film adaptations. In honor of her birthday, we’ve shortlisted some:

Kiera Knightley

A genius in the atelier, Karl Lagerfeld is truly a renaissance man, proving himself to be a formidable force in photography and film, having shot many of his own campaigns. To preserve the legacy of the fabled Mme Chanel, Lagerfeld has released several short films through the House documenting the various stages of her life and career, often casting his muses as the designer herself or in supporting roles. 

In his 2013 short film “Once Upon A Time,” Lagerfeld cast longtime face of the house, Keira Knightley as a young and aspirational young Chanel as she interacts with Parisian socialites to gauge their sartorial desires. After meeting a socialite played by Chanel muse and model Stella Tenant who is wearing her husband’s jacket, Knightley’s characters remarks: “Tweed jackets are very chic on a woman.” Set against the actual first Chanel boutique she opened with the backing of her lover Boy Capel, the setting and costuming is certainly authentic, but the awkward dialogue is apparently due to Lagerfeld giving the cast their dialogue minutes before shooting as well as encouraging improvisation. This film was to commemorate 100 years of the maison. 

Kristen Stewart

In a slightly more meta take on the biopic Once And Forever (2015), Lagerfeld casts Chanel ambassador Kristen Stewart as an actress playing the role of a young Coco Chanel. Stewart bares her teeth for the role, fully embodying the temperamental and dramatic Hollywood starlet who squabbles with the director as well as her costars and meanders around set with a lit cigarette in hand. It’s a refreshing performance from Stewart who often takes on more timid characters. Alongside Stewart plays another longtime friend of Lagerfeld’s, Geraldine Chaplin, who depicts an older Chanel and who has previously played the leading role as the famous designer in Lagerfeld’s 2013 “The Return” in which he also cast his actual seamstresses as some of Chanel’s very first employees. 

Audrey Tautou

2009’s “Coco Before Chanel,” directed by Anne Fontaine traces the DNA of the fabled designer from her humble beginnings in a French orphanage, to a botched attempt at show business, and to her successful break into Parisian high society. Played by Audrey Tautou, we are shown Chanel’s keen eye for the failings of women’s fashion and her uncanny ability to enchant wealthy sponsors, friends and lovers into supporting her ambitions. Conveniently, the film follows her life up until the start of the Second World War, successfully avoiding what could have been the elephant in the room; addressing her alleged affair with a German officer, often overlooked in the retrospective of her legacy.

Anna Mouglais

Public fascination with the life of Gabrielle Chanel must have been at a high in 2009, which also brought us Jan Kounen’s speculatory “Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky,” adapted from a 2002 novel of the same name. Picking up a short time after “Coco Before Chanel,” the sensual film follows the alleged affair between the fashion maven portrayed by Anna Mouglalis (another Lagerfeld muse) and the revolutionary Russian composer played by Mads Mikkelsen, set to a stirring score of Stravinsky’s music. Following their meeting at the uproarious Parisian premiere of the composer’s “Rite of Spring,” Chanel invites the composer and his family, made destitute following the Russian Revolution, to stay in her grandiose villa, at which point they spark up their torrid affair. Made with the support of Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld, who lent their extensive knowledge as well as access to the maison’s archives, the viewer sees the mutual inspiration the two giants of modernism drew from one another, as well as the toll it takes on Stravinsky’s family. Despite the salacious depiction of the pair, the affair was never confirmed. 

Shirley MacLaine

While Slovakian actress, Barbora Bobulova plays a young Chanel in the 2008 Lifetime made-for-TV-movie, Shirley MacLaine take on the title role (and loses the French accent), portraying the 1950’s comeback of the brand in response to Dior’s New Look. The film focuses on the business-side of Chanel, although we do get some scenes of her Deauville romance with Arthur Capel. MacLaine illustrates the icon’s famous less-is-more philosophy ripping sleeves off dresses and and freeing women from the confines of corsets.