ScreenWize

A moody lament on the predatory nature of genius, this is one to sit back and let the volatile music, gorgeous production design and distinctly art-house feel of the film wash over you. Based on a novel (and screenplay) by British writer Chris Greenhalgh – and rumours that there was indeed an affair between Chanel and Stravinsky – Dutch-born French director Jan Kounen creates an lush, intimate and restrained world where everything is slowly circling: Coco and Igor around each other, Stravinsky’s wife around them, illness around her, and the two lavish backdrops of Russian ballet and French fashion around everything and everyone. Less a love affair than a seductive game of power, Kounen occasionally creates the sublime as he brings together music, cinematography and some wonderfully composed performances – but the film frequently lapses into a morbid self-consciousness, particularly as it is slips towards its strange and unsatisfying final act.

The camera too circles and glides as a deep throated and confidently rapacious Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) comes across an elegant and undemonstrative Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen) at the now infamous opening night of his ballet The Rite of Spring in Paris in 1913. Seven years later, when he returns having fled the revolution in Russia, he and his family need somewhere to live, and she is successful, wealthy and single. Already with an endgame in mind, she invites him to her stunningly decorated villa outside Paris and he accepts, bringing his sick wife Catherine (Elena Morozova) and their many children. It is in this sumptuous mansion where most of the circling takes place – Stravinsky and Chanel vying for control over each other and their respective artistic worlds. We leave only to see Stravinsky’s music played at the concert hall, or to see Chanel apply her authoritative personality on her employees and perfume designer.

The three principals, Mikklesen, Mouglalis and Morozova turn in outstanding performances and Greenhalgh’s writing of Catherine Stravinsky as the honourable and dignified victim brings a much needed human touch to the story, with the wolf-like Chanel and an impenetrable Stravinsky barely exchanging a smile or a kiss, despite their affair.

As you’d expect, the costume and production designs for the film are lavishly eyepopping, but its probably Stravinsky’s anguished and glorious music that provides the film with its main character.

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Filed Under: Reviews by Simon