Coco Before Chanel(Coco avant Chanel)

Variety by

More sentimental than chic, Gallic biopic Coco Before Chanel nonetheless knits a convincing portrait of the designer's journey from her humble beginnings as a provincial seamstress to the halls of Parisian haute couture.

The New Yorker by Anthony Lane

Too much of the film feels like one of Balsan’s house parties: undriven, indulgent, quite at ease.

USA Today by Claudia Puig

Not an expansive biopic but a fascinating snapshot of a pivotal chapter for Chanel, her formative fashionista years.

New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein

Surprisingly intimate and nuanced.

Time Out by Karina Longworth

Anne Fontaine’s biopic transforms the designer’s early life into highbrow guilty-pleasure gold.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

Tautou is a fascinating, unsmiling, petite presence with a severe brow and an androgynous appeal, so much so that I wish Alessandro Nivola (Junebug) were a more robust beau as Arthur ''Boy'' Capel, the love of Chanel's life.

Village Voice by Melissa Anderson

The Coco of Fontaine's project--which she co-wrote with her sister, Camille, freely adapting Edmonde Charles-Roux's book L'Irrégulière: ou, Mon itinéraire Chanel--can be described as courtesan before couturiere.

The A.V. Club by Scott Tobias

There are indications scattered throughout Coco Before Chanel of a major designer quietly and persistently honing her craft, but most of the film could exist without the Chanel name and still smell like the same perfume.