Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky: new film released
(August 2010)
The new film Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky explores the turbulent relationship between two of the 20th century's most potent creative figures.Two icons of the 20th century are in the spotlight - creatively and emotionally - in the new movie Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky, launched as the Cannes Film Festival's finale in 2009 and now on general release in the USA and UK.
Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky is based on the novel Coco & Igor by Chris Greenhalgh and directed by Jan Kounen. Mads Mikkelsen, whose credits include Le Chiffre in the Bond movie Casino Royale, stars as the composer and Coco Chanel is played by Anna Mouglalis, the actress and model associated with Karl Lagerfeld and the Chanel fashion house. Boosey & Hawkes acted as music supervisor for the new film and the score for the movie includes a wealth of Stravinsky’s music.
> Watch a Trailer of the new film on YouTube
The new biopic explores the relationship between the haute couture icon and the Russian composer. Central to the film is The Rite of Spring: Chanel is mesmerised by the scandalous premiere in 1913, and seven years later is introduced by Diaghilev to Stravinsky, now a penniless émigré living in Paris with his family. She invites them to stay at her new villa in Garches and, as the composer works on retouches of The Rite of Spring for a Paris revival, a mutual attraction gathers force.
The launchpad for the film is the historic first night of The Rite of Spring. The New York Times describes how this "is re-enacted with electrifying force in the movie’s opening set piece. Both the music and the recreated choreography convey the jarring impact of this invasion of disruptive sound and movement on a polite haute-bourgeois culture accustomed to Tchaikovsky’s romantic ballets."
"Coco has an opening-night ticket to see the new Stravinsky work, as choreographed by Nijinsky and performed by the Ballets Russes. Lucky her, lucky us: Because she has a ticket, we have one, too, and if you've ever wished you could go back and see that seminal, world-shaking night, this movie is as close to a time machine as you could ever hope for... The sequence is more than just dramatic - it's moving. You are witnessing an audience's reaction to the coming of the 20th century. You are seeing an angry and hysterical denial of truth."
San Francisco Chronicle
"A persuasive depiction of the tempestuous affair of two 20th-century titans, Jan Kounen’s Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky comes closer than most films to capturing the selfish competitive passion of egomaniacal geniuses locked in erotic combat... You can understand the mutual fascination of these two, each of whom is more than a little monstrous. Their biggest similarity, both acknowledge, is that the sources of their creativity are the vibrations of notes and the feel of fabric, not ideas worked out on paper."
New York Times
"Ultimately, the affair develops into a brittle battle of artistic wills. "I'm as powerful as you," Chanel tells Stravinsky. "You're not an artist, you're a shopkeeper," he replies. It's an inviting question. How do you compare such disparate talents? How do you compare smell with sound?"
The Guardian
> Further information on Work: The Rite of Spring
Photo: Mads Mikkelsen and Anna Mougalis in Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (Regine Abadia/Sony Pictures Classics)
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