“If you don’t like the movie, I will be very said,” said French actress Audrey Tautou in her sweetly broken English, while introducing the L.A. screening of Coco Avant Chanel at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood last night.

The contemplative (and okay, sad) film, which opens in limited distribution in L.A. on Sept. 25, is yet another biopic of maverick couturier Coco Chanel (remember Shirley McLean playing the icon last year?).

But this new offering lends the most revealing look yet of how Chanel’s irreverent anti-corseting, garcon sensibilities were born. “I think it’s an unconventional way of telling a story about a famous person,” said Tautou. “We dove deeply into a short period of her life.”

Throughout the film, we see her MacGyver-ing men’s clothes into pragmatic, sporty outfits for herself and, eventually, applying her own stripped-down aesthetics to her first collection (where the story ends in the film.)

While the film’s a bit of a rehash of a familiar story, its simple, linear storytelling — and in-depth study of the icon’s style — make it worth the $10. As does Tautou’s performance as the chain-smoking, tough-talking Chanel. “She’s so definitively Amelie,” noted my friend, “but she totally transforms.” (Side note: Actor Allesandro Nivola as Boy Capel, the love of Chanel’s life, is so supremely foxy, it’s almost distracting.)

The screening was followed by a tame little soiree at the Chanel store on Robertson Blvd., which lured a gaggle of chain-bag toting fashion girls, designer Lloyd Klein, artist Kimberly Brooks and…Steven “Coju” Cojocaru.