The credits say that "Coco Before Chanel" has been "freely adapted" from the historical novel "L'Irrégulière ou Mon Itinéraire Chanel" by Edmonde Charles-Roux," which is a new one to me. "Freely adapted": is that just one step away from "we just made it up as we went"?

No matter how closely it hews to the book, "Coco Before Chanel" is still a sharp and fascinating portrait of the formative years of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, the most influential fashion designer of the last century.

French writer-director Anne Fontaine fashions Chanel's story as an up-from-her-impeccably-designed-bootstraps tale of an impoverished young woman succeeding based on her talent and determination. Abandoned as orphans, Coco (Audrey Tautou) and her sister Adrienne are raised in a bawdy music hall, singing songs for the delight of drunken carousers. One of the carousers, the wealthy Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde), takes a liking to her, and she moves into his country estate as his mistress.

But being a kept woman, trotted out to sing at parties and the like, doesn't suit the severe, cynical Coco very well. She also doesn't fit in very well with the frilly fashions of the 1900s; while the other women at Balsan's parties look "like a cross between a peacock and a dessert," as Coco puts it, she favors sharp black suits and crisp white shirts.

Coco starts designing simple, elegant hats for some of the women at the parties, and although her clients are initially shocked at the idea of wearing a hat that doesn't conceal half their face in flowers and lace, she has some success at it. When one actress (Emmanuelle Devos) wonders how she'll stand out without frippery, Coco mutters, "You have a forehead, a nose, a mouth."

Her work also catches the eye of a British businessman named Capel (Alessandro Nivola), and as he makes plans to go into business with her, he falls in love with her. This sets up a love triangle with Balsan, but Fontaine doesn't make him the villain as we expect. Instead, Poelvoorde beautifully underplays him as a vain but sympathetic figure, a rich man who knows that everything he has in his life, including his friends, are there because he paid for them.

Did this all happen in real life as the movie portrays it? Not sure, but on a metaphorical level, the movie shows what a radical change Chanel's design was bringing to the world. It was a change that went beyond fashion, as Chanel was rejecting the notion of women as impractical ornaments and putting them in clothes that exuded both style and power.

That fierce self-possession radiates from Chanel in Tautou's terrific performance. Ever since her breakthrough role in "Amelie," Tautou has struggled to play more than just the ingratiating pixie girl, and "Coco" represents a stunning new turn in her career.

She plays Chanel as a woman with absolutely no interest in charming anyone around her. Instead she's a self-made woman with a discerning eye who knows exactly how something should look, and won't suffer fools who see otherwise. I don't remember ever seeing a photo of Chanel before, but when we see Tautou late in the film as the middle-aged, iconic Chanel, a cigarette dangling insouciantly from her lips as she makes alterations to a hat, I knew it was an uncanny resemblance.

COCO BEFORE CHANEL

3 stars

Stars: Audrey Tautou, Alessandro Nivola

Rated: PG-13 for some sexuality

How long: 1:50

Opens: Friday

Where: Sundance

For fans of: "Bright Star," "Amelie," black and white

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