This is rather plodding and very incomplete attempt to capture the life of Coco Chanel. If you enjoy seeing her hobnob with the lesser known idle French aristocrats you may like it. I have to agree with other comments here that film makers always seem to avoid a discussion of her collaboration with the Nazis in WWII, something which caused her to leave France for nine years after the war. The closing summary of the film lauds her for her contributions to the fashion world without mentioning her shameful actions in WWII. Even recent "documentaries" about her seem to dodge the subject also. But it is well documented indeed. They should have given us a balanced, warts and all treatment. See the London Times article of April 4, 2009 "Chanel and the Nazis". This excerpt is particularly relevant: "Perhaps Chanel-lovers also have no idea that she tried to wrest control of her perfume manufacturing from a Jewish family, taking advantage of pro-Aryan laws. Or that she was arrested for war crimes - and then mysteriously released. Previously, I'd seen it mentioned that Chanel had survived the war rather comfortably at the Paris Ritz in the arms of a Nazi officer, Hans Gunther von Dincklage, and then gone into exile in Switzerland with him, but a few hours spent in the library revealed that she was far more deeply involved with the Germans than that. There was even a (somewhat ridiculous) Nazi plot, using Chanel as bait, called "Operation Modelhut"." (From Chanel & the Nazis" by Kate Muir, London Times, April 4, 2009.
Review of Coco Before Chanel
