<strong><span class="subhead">Coco Before Chanel</span></strong></p><p>****</p><p><strong>PG-13 (sexual situations); 105 min.</strong></p><p>Though <em>Amélie</em> established her in America as a whimsical zany, Audrey Tautou’s essence as an actress has always had much more to do with melancholy, a kind of systemic sadness borne of an innate capacity for unvarnished observation. Tautou’s dark eyes always seem to see the truth of things, and in <em>Coco Before Chanel</em>, she finds her ideal role, playing a woman whose direct gaze took in and understood everything — from the desperation of her situation to the ridiculousness of women’s styles at the turn of the 20th century.</p><p>Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel is already a tough cookie when we meet her, working as a singing waitress in a cabaret and living in an orphanage with her sister Adrienne (Marie Gillain). She is not the most lovable of heroines, but one strength of the film is that director Anne Fontaine lets Tautou make Coco as cold and ungiving as she does. </p><p>Coco becomes the occasional lover and house guest of rich playboy Etienne, portrayed by Belgian actor Benoit Poelvoorde as a man enslaved by decadence. It’s a beautiful portrait of weakness and superficiality, combined with a residual decency and painful self-knowledge. </p><p><em>Coco Before Chanel </em>is essentially the portrait of an artist, and the film takes care to show Chanel’s design vision developing. Long before she has started designing women’s apparel, she is shown walking among society women, marveling at the multiple layers of clothing and the constraining corsets that women accepted as their lot in life. The movie suggests that Coco’s position on the outside of society allowed her to see the situation with fresh eyes, and that what she devised — modern, simplified — was an essential part of women’s emancipation.</p><p>Fontaine and Tautou don’t pretend that emancipation is easy. <em>Coco Before Chanel </em>is inevitably a tale of triumph, but there are miles on Coco’s spirit by the time she comes into her destiny. </p><p>In French with English subtitles.</p><p><strong>Exclusive:</strong> Landmark Magnolia, Dallas; Angelika Plano</p><p>— Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle