The life of legendary designer on big screen
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AP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 16, 2008 00:00
PARIS - Director Jan Kounen is shooting scenes for 'Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky,' one of several new movies about the life of the legendary fashion designer, who died in 1971. French actress Anna Mouglalis, the face of Chanel's Allure fragrance, has been cast in the lead role.
A young Coco Chanel, dressed in a sober black dress and snug-fitting cloche hat, strides briskly past a dinosaur skeleton and greets a man in a dark suit, who stiffly clutches a bouquet of flowers.
The scene takes place at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, which has been turned into a film set for the day. Director Jan Kounen is shooting scenes for "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky," one of several new movies about the life of the legendary fashion designer, who died in 1971.
French actress Anna Mouglalis, the face of Chanel's Allure fragrance for the last six years, has been cast in the lead role. Snatching a cigarette between scenes, the 30-year-old confided that the role fits her like one of Chanel's timeless braided jackets.
"She is someone who did not want to be liked by everyone. She did not burden herself with that. She did not feel the need to be nice, necessarily," Mouglalis said excitedly in her trademark husky drawl.
"Nowadays, people smile all the time and you have to be liked by everyone," she sighed. "I have a lot of trouble with that. I am not much of a diplomat."
Despite her self-professed bluntness, Mouglalis is charming to the crew and visitors alike on this cold and rainy morning. Slipping out of a shapeless brown fleece jacket, she patiently repeats her head-turning entrance so that it can be filmed from every angle.
Kounen, whose previous films include the advertising industry satire "99 francs," is racing to complete the movie before a competing project starring Audrey Tautou hits the screens next year. No release date has been set for either movie.
First out of the starting blocks was the made-for-television "Coco Chanel," starring Shirley MacLaine, which aired on the Lifetime channel in the United States in September to mixed reviews. The role earned MacLaine a Golden Globe nomination for best actress in a miniseries or a motion picture made for television.
The Chanel movie mania is testament to enduring public fascination with the designer, who spent her teenage years in a Catholic orphanage before revolutionizing fashion. Chanel favored clean lines and borrowed from men's wardrobes, thereby offering women an unprecedented sense of freedom.
Kounen said his film focused mostly on a six-week period in the life of Chanel and Russian composer Stravinsky, with whom she is believed to have had an affair. Key scenes will focus on Stravinsky's revolutionary ballet "Le Sacre du Printemps," which caused a riot when it opened in Paris in 1913.
"People will be surprised if they are expecting to see a biopic, because it will not be that," Kounen said. The movie is being filmed in both French and English, and will be released separately in both languages.
Stravinsky is played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, best known as the villain Le Chiffre in the James Bond movie "Casino Royale."
Karl Lagerfeld, who took over design duties at Chanel 25 years ago, has created two outfits for the shoot. These include an evening gown for scenes at the historic Theatre des Champs-Elysees, where Stravinsky's ballet originally opened.
The German designer even appears to have snatched some inspiration from the project. This month, he showed a Russian-inspired pre-fall collection titled "Paris-Moscow" that opened with his first foray into directing, a short silent film.
"There are so many films being made about Chanel that I thought it would be good for Chanel to make one also," Lagerfeld said. "I thought it was amusing because I love silent movies. I do not like it when there is talking."
The scene takes place at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, which has been turned into a film set for the day. Director Jan Kounen is shooting scenes for "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky," one of several new movies about the life of the legendary fashion designer, who died in 1971.
French actress Anna Mouglalis, the face of Chanel's Allure fragrance for the last six years, has been cast in the lead role. Snatching a cigarette between scenes, the 30-year-old confided that the role fits her like one of Chanel's timeless braided jackets.
"She is someone who did not want to be liked by everyone. She did not burden herself with that. She did not feel the need to be nice, necessarily," Mouglalis said excitedly in her trademark husky drawl.
"Nowadays, people smile all the time and you have to be liked by everyone," she sighed. "I have a lot of trouble with that. I am not much of a diplomat."
Despite her self-professed bluntness, Mouglalis is charming to the crew and visitors alike on this cold and rainy morning. Slipping out of a shapeless brown fleece jacket, she patiently repeats her head-turning entrance so that it can be filmed from every angle.
Kounen, whose previous films include the advertising industry satire "99 francs," is racing to complete the movie before a competing project starring Audrey Tautou hits the screens next year. No release date has been set for either movie.
First out of the starting blocks was the made-for-television "Coco Chanel," starring Shirley MacLaine, which aired on the Lifetime channel in the United States in September to mixed reviews. The role earned MacLaine a Golden Globe nomination for best actress in a miniseries or a motion picture made for television.
The Chanel movie mania is testament to enduring public fascination with the designer, who spent her teenage years in a Catholic orphanage before revolutionizing fashion. Chanel favored clean lines and borrowed from men's wardrobes, thereby offering women an unprecedented sense of freedom.
Kounen said his film focused mostly on a six-week period in the life of Chanel and Russian composer Stravinsky, with whom she is believed to have had an affair. Key scenes will focus on Stravinsky's revolutionary ballet "Le Sacre du Printemps," which caused a riot when it opened in Paris in 1913.
"People will be surprised if they are expecting to see a biopic, because it will not be that," Kounen said. The movie is being filmed in both French and English, and will be released separately in both languages.
Stravinsky is played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, best known as the villain Le Chiffre in the James Bond movie "Casino Royale."
Karl Lagerfeld, who took over design duties at Chanel 25 years ago, has created two outfits for the shoot. These include an evening gown for scenes at the historic Theatre des Champs-Elysees, where Stravinsky's ballet originally opened.
The German designer even appears to have snatched some inspiration from the project. This month, he showed a Russian-inspired pre-fall collection titled "Paris-Moscow" that opened with his first foray into directing, a short silent film.
"There are so many films being made about Chanel that I thought it would be good for Chanel to make one also," Lagerfeld said. "I thought it was amusing because I love silent movies. I do not like it when there is talking."