The French Film Festival, a month long festival opens on Thursday, March 1 with Coco Avant Chanel (Coco before Chanel).  Anne Fontaine’s thoughtful exploration of the pre-fame life of the world’s greatest fashion designer focuses on Coco Chanel during the Belle Epoque. The film opens in 1893 with a powerfully grim scene of 10-year-old Coco and her sister unceremoniously dumped at an orphanage and ends around World War I, a few years before the Chanel empire is launched.

Free admission for students, $3 general public

All films subtitled in English.

Support for the Tournées Festival is provided by

The French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs / The Centre National de la Cinématographie