Coco Chanel And Igor Stravinsky starring Mads Mikkelsen

Say what you will about director Jan Kounen but his career has certainly never charted a boring or predictable course. Since making his feature debut with the ultra-violent Dobermann the Frenchman has gone on to create a psychedelic western (Blueberry), shoot documentaries on shamanism and the life of a modern Indian (as in from India) saint, and direct a hyper-stylized adaptation of stinging anti-consumerist cult novel 99 Francs. And how do you follow that up? With a biopic on the relationship between fashion icon Coco Chanel and composer Igor Stravinsky, of course.

Paris 1913, Coco Chanel is devoted to her work and madly in love with the handsome and very wealthy Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel.

At the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Igor Stravinsky premieres his “Rite of Spring”. Coco attends the premiere and is mesmerised. But the revolutionary work is too modern, too radical: the enraged audience boos and jeers. A near-riot ensues. Stravinsky is inconsolable.

Seven years later. Now rich, respected and successful, Coco is devastated by Boy Capel’s death. She meets Stravinsky again - a penniless refugee living in exile in Paris after the Russian Revolution. The attraction between them is immediate and electric.

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