Jan Kounen and Anna Mouglalis on Coco and Igor

It’s a big year for Coco Chanel on the silver screen. Two highly anticipated French biopics are set for release across the globe: first comes Coco avant Chanel, directed by Anne Fontaine (In His Hands) and starring Audrey Tautou (Amélie), followed by Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, directed by Jan Kounen (99 Francs) and starring Anna Mouglalis (Merci pour le chocolat). Upon its premiere at the 2009 Cannes film festival, Cinémoi met up with the latter film’s director and star to talk exclusively about this exciting project, which centres around Coco’s, at the height of her ‘Chanel no.5’ success, affair with Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, exiled in France following the Russian revolution. Adapted from his own novel Coco & Igor by Chris Greenlaugh, Kounen and Mouglalis recount their experiences on this lavish production, which received support from Chanel’s current, charismatic, chief designer and media luminary, Karl Legerfeld.