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Chanel Solitaire

1981, Movie, R, 120 mins

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The life and times of Coco Chanel had already been the basis for a failed musical, then along came CHANEL SOLITAIRE, which also flopped. Marie-France Pisier plays Chanel, a hard-driving, talented, bisexual fashion designer who uses her talent and seductiveness to build a couture empire. The picture moves at a snaillike pace through successive fashion shows (all very delightful to the eye and historically accurate) and bedroom scenes, with Coco dividing her attentions between the sexes. Despite his knowledge of Coco's occasional lesbian affairs, Boy Capel (Timothy Dalton) dumps his wife to marry the designer, but things don't work out and he disappears before the final reel. Rutger Hauer is impressive as another suitor, who is eventually seduced by a character played by the scene-stealing Karen Black--an actresses who seem always to triumph over the material, no matter how ludicrous. The film's musical score is much too melodramatic for what happens on-screen, and the result is almost laughable. leave a comment
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