[HEADLINE] Audrey Tautou is Coco Chanel

To me, French actress Audrey Tautou will always be Amelié. But soon, to others, she will be known as Coco Chanel. Audrey, who was last seen beside actor Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code, has been cast as Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, the famous couturier who took the fashion world by storm.

When Audrey was first approached to play the icon, she had her doubts. But she agreed upon the role and did what she did when she became Amelié – she trusted her instincts and got lost in her character – although she did say it was difficult to portray such a memorable style icon.“There was an obligation to run an interpretation that people might already know about Coco Chanel and we have to honour that image and personality,” she said in an interview.

She continued: “There are so many myths about her. That was the most difficult thing with this character. About this period of her life there was so little known - there are no witnesses to that time. She was so secretive about who she was and I had to start depending on my own opinion creating something from the materials that I had.”

“I had to use my imagination a lot.”

“I had to trust that.’’

Coco’s love for fashion began when she designed hats, to which she learnt to extend herself, remaking and bridging together masculine and feminine style for pragmatic and aesthetic reasons. She became an indirect crusader for feminism, when she chose to wear pants in what was then very much a man’s world. She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind.

Partly based on Edmonde Charles-Roux’s book, L’Irrégulière: Ou, Mon Itinéraire Chanel, the film is adapted for the big screen by Anne Fontaine, an actress-turned-director. Loosely entitled Coco Avant Chanel, the storyline will not revolve too much of Coco’s life story because it would be impossible to show all that fabulousness in one film. Instead, director Anne intents to dish a little dirt about Coco’s youth, which will include her time as a cabaret singer and her steamy love affairs with some of the influential men who helped her break into the fashion world.

Mademoiselle Chanel may be long gone but the couturiére will be fondly remembered and brilliantly portrayed (without a doubt) by the beautiful Audrey in the upcoming biopic.

While we await the film with bated breath, you may want to take a peek at Audrey’s latest foray – she stars as the new face of the biggest-selling perfume of all time, Chanel No. 5.

Written 27/9/2009