I love fashion. So, on hearing that a Coco Chanel film was on its way, my imagination ran wild: two hours of looking at classic Chanel pieces whilst following her story.

The reality was altogether different. But that's the very reason 'Coco Avant Chanel' is so good.

I obviously don't know French at all because I would have picked up from the title that it's about Coco before Chanel, following Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel from a young age, when she was left at an orphanage with her older sister by their father.

Filmed partly in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, the result is an authentic idea of the style icon's reality as a young woman. We follow her to the clubs where she and her sister perform to make a living. We discover the lack of regard for male authority that often gets her into trouble. We watch as she meets, and eventually moves in with, Balsan — the rich, older man who will change the course of her life.

She fascinates him, yet he's not willing to be seen with her in public, preferring to use her as a source of entertainment in the bedroom.

Life with him is not pleasant, but Chanel stays on because she has no option — and, ironically, meets the love of her life, Arthur Capel, through this uncomfortable arrangement.

Finally, we see her smiling and enjoying life instead of being defensive or indifferent. And in love she finds the key to financial freedom when Capel funds her clothing business — although his generosity underlines the repeated influence of men in her story.

Even though she remained steadfastly independent, Coco's life was hugely altered by the men in it: from her father who deserted her at the orphanage, to Balsan who took her in when she decided that she wanted to be in Paris and ultimately Capel, whose money allowed her to start building an empire.

Therein lay a woman who seemed tough but actually had a fragile and sensitive part to her soul — one that she was trying to protect at all costs. Nowhere is this more apparent than when she discovers that the love of her life is marrying to someone else for money.

"I always knew that I would never be anyone's wife, it's just that sometimes I forget," she says.

Hers is certainly a complex character but one very convincingly embodied by Audrey Tautou, who has the necessary androgynous body as well as the moody energy and independent spirit that defined who Coco was.

She definitely realised she was from the wrong side of the tracks which may have contributed to her distaste for the over the top look rich women favoured — and explains why Chanel clothes are glamorous yet always understated.

Throughout the film, women's fashion is showcased while Coco looks drab in comparison. But in her outfits one can spot the style that would later become synonymous with a world famous designer name. The classic black and white Chanel is inspired by the outfits worn by the nuns at her orphanage; the incorporation of men's type clothing is true to how she dressed before coming across her fortune.

And, with its quiet charm, 'Coco Avant Chanel' is equally true to the woman herself.