Coco Before Chanel

Like a Chanel suit, the set of extras included on this disc is simple, but with a certain refinement. The commentary track with Anne Fontaine, producer Philippe Carcassonne and editor Luc Barnier is above average, without being knockout. The three of them happily talk about production design, the cast and - perhaps most interestingly - changing things within the film to please their distributor.

It is a fairly serious affair, but there are some nice quirky details, such as the fact that they only had one coachman, playing several roles, but altering his appearance ("we had more horses than coachmen"). It's clear Fontaine is a stickler for detail and for scripting and it also becomes evident that she has a serious soft-spot for Benoît Poelvoorde, who plays Étienne Balsan. Barely a scene with him goes by without her extolling his inventiveness and ability to add to the script. Once you see him in action in the other featurettes on the disc, it's likely you'll become something of a fan, too, since he is charming and perceptive in equal measure.

It is the featurettes where the most interest on the disc lies. Coco Before Chanel: La Recontre (the pick up), is an engaging 19-minute discussion of the film, featuring clips from the film and talking heads with the cast and crew. They talk about their perceptions of Chanel and its interesting to here Fontaine's take on the subject of making a biopic - "You have to know what rules to break, while being truthful".

The Making Of Coco Before Chanel, meanwhile, is more of the same but in more detail and split into bite-size segments: The Project's Origins, Coco's Look, An Extraordinary Destiny, Étienne Balsan, Boy Capel, Historical Reconstruction Anne Fontaine.

All of these are well worth a watch, not only for the further pieces of cast and crew interviews, but for some lovely illustrations of how sets and costumes were constructed, a good overview of the time period and plenty of onset footage showing Fontaine's seriously hands-on "uncompromising" style at work.

Sound, picture and subtitles are all good and present throughout, and it's great to see an audio descriptive track included.