Coco Chanel 1969 Interview - Part 2/2

[2011alliecat]

Would be nice if this was translated in English.

[Nimron12]

Mon but dans la vie : essayer d'arriver à sa cheville...<3

[Jeannine63]

Que de propos lucides !!!

[jlmagoya]

Croyez vous pas que la télévision embête un peu aussi..?

[mounira2026]

Quelle élégance ,que de propos justes et vrais!!

Mademoiselle Chanel si vous étiez encore parmi nous , que penseriez vous de la mode en 2011 et de la société actuelle?

[JulianOJay]

@mounira2026 Se serait un désastre pour elle, je pense ...

[NeroUffingham]

Entendre des gens aussi éclairés, ça fait du bien.

[soyelectropapafrita]

she is really a fashion icon that will live on in our memories and generations to come.

[GoldenAgeSunshine]

Elle est dure avec elle-même et avec autrui. Ce qui explique son succès. Quel classe, quelle élégance naturelle: inégalé, inégalable. Elle devrait être un exemple pour la jeune génération.

[JulienJude]

Encore plus vraiet a notre epoque en 2011! Quelle genie cette femme

[La3emeNote]

She's so right about the nonsense of spending so much energy and money going to the moon .

[ceciliach100]

subtitle in english !!!!! not understand

[shoottwentyfourseven]

2:36: La télévision rend les gens bêtes. OUI TOUT À FAIT.

Encore pire en 2010.

[BIJMOZ]

she seems extremely maladjusted and helpless in a society that is undergoing incredible changes. i feel sorry for her. she became the archie bunker of fashion.

[Speendrift]

This is an amateur translation. I have tried, as much as possible, to convey Chanel’s style of speech, which is very down-to-earth and colloquial in parts.

[girl168cool]

@Speendrift thanks, we love you!

[Speendrift]

She speaks with great intensity, in a very atypical way and with a directness that can only be described as masculine, inasmuch French women are concerned.

I am not particularly interested in fashion but came across this interview after having seen the film by Anne Fontaine and I was struck by the profound intelligence of her discourse.

Any comments in view of improvement are welcome.

[Speendrift]

- I have a very, very beautiful customer base. It is the only thing of which I am really proud; I think that there isn’t one other fashion house in France that has a customer base like mine. From all over the world, you understand? All that is best in the world. I don’t blush to say it; it takes much nerve to say it with such assurance, but it is the truth. You can come and check, I believe that all those who dress kind of well in this world, dress here.

[Speendrift]

There are few houses, you see, where women come from America to have their dresses made. They don’t want a fuss, they want to rest, they’ve just come from a cure, they are not interested in going out at night, no: they’ve come to Paris to have a dress made. They know how to dress, extremely well, indeed. They all know what they want, we say to them it will be so many days to the fitting and they say: “Very well, I am going back to America, I’ll be back on such day for the fitting.”

[Speendrift]

The day they said they were coming back, they arrive – sometimes we’ve forgotten that they were coming – but they all arrive, all. The ladies come to fit their dresses because they want to be fitted twice, then they take the dress and leave, it is all over with no fuss. Americans are good customers, for us, very good customers.

[cut] [black and white images of a fashion show are shown]

[Speendrift]

- What do you think of this cult of youth? We are under the impression that we’ve only just discovered, nowadays, that there was a time in life when one was young.

- They are people who are 18 years old who think that. We need their opinion, because they are not the only people who talk about that.

[Speendrift]

And then, you know, this is actually very important in this little world of fashion, this very small milieu of money in Paris. That is all they can talk about. There are only two topics of conversation: money, women, the topic, money, blah blah.... Nothing serious. Nothing but futility all day long, no matter what you do. It is foolishness, deep down, all this is very foolish.

[Speendrift]

Don’t you think that it is the television that makes people stupid? I don’t think that you’ll agree with me, but still, it makes people stupid, even me, it makes me stupid. I turn on the thing, even if it is not very good. I can’t do without it. If I am alone, it runs all day without a pause.

- Sometimes, it can take you to the moon?

¬- Ah, but I did not go there, by the way. It was a night when I was very sleepy and I was delighted not to be awakened.

[Speendrift]

I heard so much about it the next day, in fact that is all I heard about – all day long. Are you interested to know what goes on up there? But you will never know it! A lot of ink will flow, it will be very good for some people, the papers have sold very well for a couple of days but what do we care about all of this? We know very well that we won’t be going to the moon! And why would we go to the moon? Why do we want to be more than human beings?

[Speendrift]

Nobody has ever been there. Why should it be the French that go there, or the Russians, or this or that? If there is something in which I am not interested it is precisely that. All of this is to amuse the public. That way, you don’t see all the rottenness that lies behind it. It is nothing but money and corruption, nothing else but that! And also that we live in a time when scientists address the ignorant masses.

[Speendrift]

So we listen to it all like we listen to religious education, without believing a word of it. We don’t believe in all of this! Do you believe in it? You believe that we’ll be building little shacks up there and that there will be a flight service three times a week? Oh no! So all of this is becoming really absurd, you understand? It is against religion, it is against everything - and when there will be no religion at all anymore, then you won’t be able to tame people.

[Speendrift]

There will come the time of the assassins as a great poet once said. It is approaching. What are we to base our lives on? There is no moral anymore. There is no shame. There is nothing! All that is left is money, which we have to talk about, and filling one’s face with food, good or bad. That’s all we have left to think about and then we dream of going to the moon. To do what?

[cut] [black and white images of a fashion show are shown]

[Speendrift]

- But you know, I am only joking around a bit. I am only joking around, like this, because I don’t want to talk about myself. I am not important enough.

[cut]

[Speendrift]

I would be delighted to have a few more kilos. I just can’t put on weight. There is nothing I can do. I eat, I don’t eat. It does not matter. My weight has never changed. I am not made to get fat. I am rather made to lose weight. I’ll give you an example right now. See my dress, in this collection for which I have given my all. See, this is what I lost [she shows the waistline of her skirt, which is over an inch too large]

[Speendrift]

- One more question. This suit you are wearing, this Chanel, what else do you have in your wardrobe?

- Two suits, both 3 years old.

[Speendrift]

- What is the other like?

- A beige one, like that [she shows the suit jacket, which has been laid over the sofa armrest]. The same one, in beige.

- Yes?

[Speendrift]

- And the one that I wore yesterday, with the little patterns. That makes three, that’s good. Because I also have a new one, all white. I’ll wear it for the collection.

[Video ends with Coco Chanel leaning on the banister of the staircase at her headquarters, dressed in the white suit she just mentioned and looking down with great intensity – in all likelihood overseeing a fashion show]

[virgiolinna]

she already knew what television does

[lilo621]

mais ce qu'elle est désagréable est agrie !

[Lectofun]

J'aurais tant voulu vivre à cette époque distinguée où la pudeur et l'élégance étaient des manières de vivre toutes naturelles. Maintenant, tout est vulgaire, et c'est limite les gens font un effort quand ils essaient d'être polis.

[eliee4]

J'aurais adoré l'avoir comme grand-mère, elle est très brillante.

[mvies77]

How easy to toss out ridicule for a woman in her 80's who carved out of a man's world a visionary revolution transforming millions at a time when the options open to a woman without money was basically two choices beyond marriage, prostitution or menial labor. Who do you think you are?

[seb389]

"Des savants qui s'adressent a des ignorants...Et on ecoute ca comme du catechisme." tres vrai.

[rustyspo0ns]

Il n'y a pas que la religion qui apporte une quelconque morale. Tout ça, c'est de la récupération, elle se trompe bien pour le coup. Mais l'interview reste intéressante. Et ses vêtements sont toujours magnifiques.

[velazquez2009]

@rustyspo0ns pourquoi est ce que tu pense qu'elle se trompe?

[mixapp]

c'était une voyante cette femme, ce n'est pas pensable de tenir de tels propos à cette époque sans prédiction.

[sinsin92]

J'adore quand elle parle de Apollo !

Fabuleux !

merci pour la vidéo

[mexicanfr]

Une femme brillante, profonde et humble, qui finalement ne fait que prédire ce que nous vivons en ce moment. Tous ces exces qui nous menent aux problemes que nous rencontrons aujourd hui.

[Ambersparkle]

WOW

[jun7per]

What an absolute mess.

She looks like some drunken old mad woman.

Such a crude rude manner about her and her boring school marm clothes.

[misterkiller89]

....Especially at old age, all she has left are her ideas and legacy (which is prestigious and relentless)....How can you ridicule a woman who has made a such a influence on the fashion industry?

[rvggarcon]

and what might you wear?

[ndiou72]

énorme....

qu'est-ce qu'on va aller f... sur la lune... lol

[velazquez2009]

moi aussi j'ai du rire!

Mais c'est profond ce qu'elle dit.

Style est prestige, de la connaissance, prudeur, donc c'est la civilisation cultivé, pas l'or ou le spectacle sans pender ou

conscience! Roi argent regne et beaucoup plus dans notre temps. liberté n'est pas porter une jupe courte, mais de savoir. Elle deteste le ridicule parce que ca donne desintegration ca me semble.

merci pour ce video!

[velazquez2009]

brilliante femme! personnalité profonde et active. Emouvant à voir que mademoiselle est si forte malgré son  haute age.

[MadeB]

un service d'avion trois fois par semaine !