When our daughter got sick with bronchitis on Saturday we have pretty much spend our days indoors. Yesterday evening I watched two true story based movies, both these are very compelling stories of two very different, yet artistic and impressive women.
Ensimmäinen katsomistani elokuvista oli jo pitkään odottamani Coco Before Chanel (2009), joka oli vihdoin ilmestynyt läheiseen Blockbuster-vuokraamoon. Elokuvan pääosassa nähdään aina yhtä viehättävä ja kiehtova Audrey Tautou.
The first movie I saw was Coco Before Channel (2009), the one I have waited for long and now it finally was at our local Blockbuster. In a leading role in this film you can see this young lady, the always as fascinating and wonderful Audrey Tautou.
Coco Chanel started her career as a hat maker, but then found her way into the world of fashion. She always had her own vision of how women should dress, really fighting against corsets or too theatrical dresses that the women of her time used to wear. She always dressed up in black, using the color white, gray or navy blue as accent colors.
Elokuvassa tuodaan esille myös Cocon ja englantilaisen businessmiehen, Arthur "Boy" Capelin (Alessandro Nivola) värikäs ja intohimoinen suhde, joka päättyy lopulta traagisesti. Coco Chanel ei koskaan mennyt avioon Boyn eikä kenenkään muunkaan miehen kanssa, vaan omistautui Boyn menetettyään täysin uralleen.
In this movie also the romantic and colorful relationship between Coco and english businessman Arthur Boy Capel (Alessandro Nivola) is being brought to attention, which unfortunately ended tragically. Coco never married Boy or no other man, but was devoted to her business after losing Boy.
Gabrielle Coco Chanel, a girl from an orphanage, was able to lift herself up to the top of the fashion world with her courage and brave visions. She made herself an unforgettable fashion world icon. She was and still is a name everyone knows and her work still inspires us women and is all in all a woman in whoms name many of the fashion designers still swear.
I also watched this movie Séraphine (2008) last night. This is a true story about a middle aged housekeeper Séraphine (Yolande Moreau) who lives in the early 1900s France as a housekeeper. She is suddenly discovered by his employee, kwown german art critic Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), who realizes that his housekeeper is actually a very talented artist.
Séraphine was used to work in the kitchen, cleaning hallways and floors and serving the upper level families. But who would have thought that this dowdy lady was able to see a lot of beauty around her and was artisticly very talented, painting strong and vibrant paintings in her free time.
Séraphine always painted during the evening and night hours, in the fragile candle light. She also had a habit to sing to herself while painting. She first started with small paintings, but when she was discovered she started making much bigger and bolder paintings. Unfortunately Seraphine got mentally unstable and thought her inspiration came from the bigger forces. She ended up spending her last years in mental asylum.
Séraphine may be gone, but her powerful art work will always be with us. Personally I cannot but admire the vivid colors and strong brush strokes in her work.