In all my readings about Coco Chanel I missed the fact that she had had an affair with the famous Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971). I recently found out that Chris Greenhalgh has written a book Coco & Igor and a film directed by Jan Kounen had been made in 2009, based on the book. The film was chosen as the Closing Film for the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

The book and the film trace the passionate affair between the legendary designer Coco Chanel and the Russian musical genius Igor Stravinsky in Paris in 1920, the year that Chanel No 5 was created. Greenhalgh also wrote the screenplay for the film. The house of Chanel and its current chief designer Karl Lagerfeld lent their support to the production; they granted access to the company’s archives and to Coco Chanel’s apartment at 31, rue Cambon, Paris. Interestingly, the film was released in very close proximity to Anne Fontaine’s Coco avant Chanel with Audrey Toutou playing the main role, a film which I have as yet to see.

In Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky Anna Mouglalis plays Gabrielle Chanel and Mads Mikkelsen Igor Stravinsky.

Karl Lagerfeld had this to say of Anna Mouglalis playing Coco Chanel: “Anna Mouglalis is a totally modern young woman. She is both an actress and a star, this is why she is so precious to Chanel’s image today. Her role in the film on Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky is a character part where she agrees to age on-screen. She followed all the instructions from her director for this ‘character’. It was imposed by the director, but this role has no relation to her image in her private life and her talent for other roles.”

It was thanks to her friend Misia Sert (muse and patroness of artists and wife of the painter José-Maria Sert) that Gabrielle Chanel was introduced into the most avant-garde artistic circle of the era.

In 1920, in Venice, Gabrielle Chanel heard Serge Diaghilev telling Misia and a cluster of other admiring ladies of his desire, if she could find the money to re-produce the ballet Le Sacre du Printemps, with a musical score by Igor Stravinsky, which had sparked off quite a scandal back in the spring of 1913.

People punched each other at the premiere of the Rite of Spring. Maybe it was the heat in the packed Theâtre des Champs Élysées on the warm, spring evening of May 29 1913. Maybe it was the primal, groin-thrusting immodesty of Nijinsky’s choreography. But the raw, rhythmic violence of Stravinsky’s score soon spilled over into the auditorium, inciting the detractors and defenders of this epoch-making music to blows.

Stravinsky’s ballet music was described by one contemporary critic as being like ‘Russian vodka with French perfumes’. The description was more apt than he realised; among the baying, brawling crowd at the first performance of the Rite of Spring was Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel.

Igor Stravinsky who was granted French and then American citizenship, had already worked with Diaghilev on The Firebird in 1910 and Petrushka in 1911.

Back in Paris, without telling Misia, Gabrielle presented Serge Diaghilev with the considerable and providential cheque (300,000 francs) that he needed to see his project through, with the only condition being that he keep secret the name of his generous doner.

Immediately, Gabrielle Chanel outclassed the richest patronesses of the day and her gesture would have remained a secret had it not been revealed by a colleague of Diaghilev, Boris Kochno.

In his autobiography, Chronicles of My Life written in 1935, Igor Stravinsky paid homage to Gabrielle Chanel’s generosity: “As Diaghilev’s company was in a very difficult financial situation at that time it was only possible to re-produce Le Sacre du Printemps thanks to the support of his friends. Here I would particularly like to name Mlle Gabrielle Chanel, who not only generously came to the aid of the company, but also made a personal contribution to the performance by creating the costumes in her world renowned couture workshops.” Thanks to Gabrielle Chanel, Le Sacre du Printemps returned to the Parisian stage on 15 December 1920.

I have to see the film to find out when the affair started and ended for no one seems to agree on this. After all Stravinsky had an ailing wife and four children and had to earn a living. Perhaps the film sorts it all out. But it was not long before Chanel moved on to the Duke of Westminister and Stavinsky to America.

According to the novel the ‘critical moment’ occured ‘not at a romantic climax with violins and thunderstorms, but when Chanel notices that the composer has a button missing on his shirt and kneels to sew it back on. Somehow the act acquires an almost indecent aura of intimacy and eroticism.’

Sounds like I shall have to read the novel and see the film for myself.

MARIE BENOIT