Plot Summary

COCO CHANEL begins with the fashion icon (deftly played by Shirley MacLaine) in her twilight years, steeped in wealth and fame, still issuing game-changing designs and collections. From here the biopic looks backwards to the womans upbringing ... Full Descriptionin an orphanage, and traces her path to ubiquity as it winds through poverty, wars, doomed romances, and rather glamorous betrayals. [D-Man2010]"Coco Chanel" is the rags-to-riches tale charting the rise of one of the most influential fashion icons of the 20th century. From her humble childhood in a French orphanage, through her early days as a young dressmaker's assistant, to her passionate and tragic love with a dashing Englishman, and ultimately to her success as a pioneering icon, "Coco Chanel" is the story of a glamorous woman who was hard to love and harder to ignore. This epic true story stars Shirley MacLaine, Malcolm McDowell and Barbora Bobulova. [D-Man2010]The American television movie Coco Chanel debuted on 13 September 2008 on Lifetime Television, starring Shirley MacLaine as a 70-year-old Chanel. The movie could be viewed as rewriting history for the Chanel company as it portrayed Coco's mistress life as love stories, left out her Nazi collaboration and her use of royal connections to avoid trial. The movie also left out possible comparisons between her and Mata Hari, (the famous spy of World War I who was also a dancer and courtesan to the rich). However, any such comparison to Mata Hari may be viewed favorably today as she was said by the Gestapo to be working for the British[Jim15936]