UPT GAZETTE TERM 2 2010 Stephen Kirton July 2010 Coco Avant Chanel “The word Chanel immediately invokes a sense of understated beauty and opulence”. ‘Coco Avant Chanel’, with features such as its sim- mering, nostalgic score by Alexandre Desplat, expertly evokes this sense of grandeur and elegance. Directed by the guiding hands of Anne Fontaine, ‘Coco Avant Chanel’ beautifully portrays Gabrielle Chanel’s rise to fame. By adeptly bringing to life this fashion icon, Audrey Tautou’s insightful performance makes this biopic an enthralling tale of the highs and lows of Coco’s extraordinary life. With splendid costumes true to those Chanel would have designed and worn, and down-to-earth camera work, this period drama stands out from the rest. Growing up with her sister in an orphanage, waiting for her father every Sunday, Chanel had a hard start to life. A cabaret performer for drunk soldiers, Coco had already begun to step out of the confines of her time by defying the trend to wear corsets. She developed a fascination for wearing men’s clothing, with straw hats instead feathers and, as she so rightly put it, the “meringues” that other women were wearing on their heads. Coco began to make her own way, bringing others along for the ride, eventually becoming the symbol of success, freedom and style we know her as today. The music used in the movie is incredibly heartfelt and true to Chanel’s emotions. At the start of the film, when Gabrielle Chanel is in a cart with her sister being brought to the orphanage, the music expresses without words her resigna- tion at being taken into the confines of the building. The soft notes of the piano reflect Chanel’s honest, kind personality, blending with the mellow harmony of the cello and inducing a sense of longing for the familiar past. When the pizzicato violin and the triangle begin, they bring a sense of curiosity and wonder to the orchestration. At the moment when Chanel first sees the place where she is to live, a sad, subtle piano melody emerges, bringing depth to the audience’s understanding of Chanel’s emotions. The music grows with Chanel, becoming cheeky and adventurous along with her. When Coco decides to leave her work as a seamstress later in the film the score is sad, but curious, merging into the wonderful tinkling of a vibraphone. When the score finally breaks into a re-occurrence of the opening melody it is somehow richer, showing how Coco has developed from her childhood into a woman of prestige and status. All of these combine to make the soundtrack of the film both evocative and captivating. Audrey Tautou brings an air of mystery and elegance to her role. She contrasts enormously with Benoit Poelvoorde’s Etienne Balsan, who is cocky and self-absorbed, while fusing seamlessly with the charming Englishman, Arthur (Boy) Capel, played by Alessandro Nivola. When Coco first meets Etienne, Tautou’s cold indifference and Poelvoorde’s confident, witty style makes for a scene with interesting contrasts. “When I’m bored I feel ancient” Tautou says, with little colour to her tone and a stoney look in her eyes. Etienne replies with “how old do you feel now?” The strong look on her face and clipped way she says “a thousand years old” show Coco’s distaste for Balsan. When she is with Boy, however, Tautou’s eyes light up and the pleased expression on her face takes years off her. When Boy pays an unexpected visit to Chanel in her studio, she rushes upstairs after him, Tautou’s eager UPT GAZETTE TERM 2 2010 1 body language and gleeful expression successfully showing the carefree demeanour Chanel adopts when with Boy. Throughout the film Coco’s outfits distinguish her from the crowd. When she goes to the beach, every single woman is wearing a puffy white dress with a massive hat, every piece of jewelry they own slung around their necks. Coco, however, is wearing a simple grey dress with a straw hat. Not only do Chanel’s clothes differ- entiate her from the rest but they also reflect Chanel’s creative personality. Later she creates a new look for herself by sewing the cuffs and collar of Etienne’s shirt onto a dress she used to perform in, making a simple yet sophisticated outfit for formal occasions. The costumes become progressively more extravagant throughout the movie, mirroring Coco’s taste as it becomes more grand and she begins to design her own clothes. In the closing scene of the film, the costumes are incredibly beautiful, radiating opulence and signifying the blossom- ing stage at which Coco is at in her life. The camera work used in the film gives it a very realistic mood, almost one of being there. This is often achieved by tracking, the camera performing the movements one’s eyes would normally make when casually watching something. When the film opens, a shaky camera technique is used to emphasise the movement of the cart as it rattles along the country lanes. A point of view shot, showing what Gabrielle would have seen when looking between the bars of the cart, gives a sense of her being imprisoned. In a contrast to this confinement, the final scene of the movie uses a steadicam which zooms towards Chanel through a runway created by her models. Climbing the curving staircase, it gives the illusion of walking up to her yourself - a most magical feeling. The camera comes to a halt in a medium close up of Tautou, the picture turning black and white, becoming a mirror image of a picture of Coco Chanel herself and cleverly recalling her famous reflected ‘c’ logo. Coco Chanel continued to work until the day of her death, on the 10th January 1971. It was a Sunday, the day of rest, the day she never liked. ‘Coco Avant Chanel’ pays tribute to the triumphs and blows of Chanel’s life. It is frank, but very glamorous, a beautiful depiction of an extraordinary woman. The film captures and reflects this beauty in its shimmering soundtrack, insightful acting, glamorous costume and well crafted cinematography. “I invented my life by taking for granted that everything I did not like would have an op- posite which I would like”, Coco Chanel said, and this film shows the transformation she undertook to live out this motto. Rachel Thomas TWO GIRLS CLEANING THEIR ROOMS Harikoa Bronsdaughter-George I One bed, one desk. Bestrewn with book, magazines and eloquent memorabilia, Portraying the history of the room of a girl of thirteen. Move a foot, turn over a new leaf, awaken movement in a pile of dust, Polish the anxieties of a developing mind that have been left around, Growing mould in the carpets, sewing shadows in the sheets, tangled up in webby corners, waiting. Waiting for something sweet to spray away the past. Put up new curtains to attract the sunshine, And don’t make the room cold when they shut. Uncrumpled sheets with air enough to sleep in, without making it preferable to bitter wake- fulness, Wandering an eye around a musty roof. A new shelf for the books to enable free walking, Give space to centimetres that were formerly imaginary numbers, Add a touch of colour to the air, To envelop the walls in tenderness, To make the room in general jubilant, comfortable and carefree, As good a place to live in, As the room around the corner Belonging to her eighteen-year-old sister. 2 UPT GAZETTE TERM 2 2010 II Hugging the star shaped cushion that lasted from her fifth birthday, The woman lies on her bed and thinks, As she surveys treasures collected in her youth, Hidden intimately among the school work of combined years, Though the past is pretty, it’s place is in the past. Out with the old books of knowledge learnt by heart. The song books and plays go together, the paint share a box with the pastels, and the time has come for things to go back. Shells to the ocean, sticks to their trees, the clothes to more loving wearers. Now devoid of unwanted trinkets, the jewels of a life-time are cleared away in the mockery of chests that is a cupboard. The view of the door takes in that cupboard, table, drawer, bed and star pillow, of a thousand different places, a thousand different times. The room is now ready, to be filled with the trickle of new trinkets. Accumulated presents of the life, achievements and moments, of a girl beginning university. THE PRECIPICE “Mercy is for the weak, the feeble-minded. You do not show mercy to the heretic, so that they might influence your mind towards the darkness they worship. And neither would you need to show mercy to the innocent, for those that stand in your way are nothing but the seeds of blasphemy for the enemies that you combat.” -- Brother Derick, Hereticus Exemplare. Two men were at the precipice of a cliff, high above in the snowy caps of mountains few traveled, or bothered to think of. Only one wielded a blade, clad in hardy steel armor that, in another environment, may have shone like a beacon to the sun. His tabard, its outline a dark crimson red contrasting against the pure white of the rest, was well enough a replacement with it’s symbol of flame. Here, now, this was terror. The other man bled, knelt below the armored knight while clothed only in dark robes, ripped and torn and painted red with the blood of its wearer.