Certificate: 12A
Running Time: 108 mins
UK Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
WHO’S IN CHEVALIER?
Kelvin Harrison Jr., Samara Weaving, Lucy Boynton, Marton Csokas, Alex Fitzalan, Minnie Driver, Ronke Adekoluejo, Sian Clifford, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Jim Hugh, Ben Bradshaw, Alec Newman, Martin Matejcik, Sam Barlien, Jessica Boone, Tereza Mátlová, Joseph Prowen
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Stephen Williams (director), Stefani Robinson (writer, producer), Cornelia Burleigh, Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Dianne McGunigle and Zahra Phillips (producers), Kris Bowers (composer), Jess Hall (cinematographer), John Axelrad (editor)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Composer Joseph Bologne (Harrison Jr.) rises to fame in 18th-century France…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON CHEVALIER?
In a strange way, it is highly cathartic that Chevalier, the biopic of little-known 18th-century French composer Joseph Bologne aka Chevalier de Saint-Georges, immediately opens with Kelvin Harrison Jr.’s central figure engaging in (and winning, by a long shot) a battle of violin virtuosity against none other than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, played briefly by Joseph Prowen. Mozart is one of many historical composers whose life and music have been preserved for centuries, yet Bologne was until fairly recently lost to the ages, due to both his racial heritage and, under the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte, his legacy erased from the public consciousness.
With that in mind, seeing Bologne more than hold his own against one of the most known composers of all time is a real treat, and it’s a hell of an opening sequence, one that’s shot handsomely, edited in a way that’s invigorating, and of course the natural on-screen charisma of Harrison Jr., one that boldly continues throughout the rest of the film, is always appealing to watch. After that early highpoint, though, the film settles for slightly more conventional fare, but still remains an intriguing watch for anyone who might not know anything about this buried artist.
We quickly thereafter learn of Bologne’s origins, with him being the mixed-race illegitimate child of a French plantation owner and an African slave, and at an early age is unceremoniously dumped by the former at a prestigious academy, where he was able to develop his gifts for music and fencing. As a young man, he soon wins favour with the court of Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton), who anoints him Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a title that grants him extraordinary privilege for a man of his skin colour at the time, and access to the most advantageous sects of upper-class white society. However, when Bologne soon sets sights on becoming the head of the Paris Opera, as well as the affection of Marie-Josephine de Montalembert (Samara Weaving), who is married to the fiercely antagonistic marquis Marc René (Marton Csokas), he starts to find his race becoming more and more of a barrier, with not even the Queen able to protect him any longer, causing a radical shift in ideology as the French Revolution starts to get underway.
Director Stephen Williams and writer Stefani Robinson both have major credits within the realm of television, with Williams boasting episodes of Lost and Westworld on his IMDb page, while Robinson has won awards for her work on the likes of Atlanta and What We Do in the Shadows, which only benefit Chevalier in that there is a key abundance of stylish flair and diegetic prowess that they transfer over from their previous credits. It is as handsome a film as it is a dramatically engaging one, as Williams gifts a fiery flow to his scenes, many of them shot and edited to look like one continuous take, and Robinson injects a hefty amount of charm into her screenplay which makes you enjoy watching these characters swap the occasional witty line with each other, even when you might be asking yourself, “would they really have said or done something like that in 18th-century France?” But when the execution of it is pretty solid, you’ll just about forgive its minor anachronisms.
Most of everything else is solid as well, including the costumes and sets which are all on point, as are the performances. I’ve already mentioned that Kelvin Harrison Jr. is a charismatic presence, and he shares good chemistry with most of the other actors he works opposite – the one thing I will say about him here, though, is that his accent tends to fluctuate between his regular American dialect and the British one that everyone else seems to be speaking, and it is a little distracting when you first hear it (the same also applies to Samara Weaving, who similarly seems to switch to her native Australian in a couple of scenes). Honestly, though, you do get used to it fairly quickly, and it’s a minor criticism of an otherwise gripping turn by Harrison Jr., who excels in just about every other avenue.
It’s a well-made period piece about an important figure who should certainly be better known by the masses than he was until fairly recently, but Chevalier often play things a bit too safe with its biopic storytelling, and easily settles for familiar territory without overstepping its boundaries as much as it perhaps should. A large crux of the plot follows Bologne’s affair with the married Marie-Josephine, and while it’s well-performed by both actors, it does follow many of the steps that other historical romances like Titanic have taken, which works fine here but is hardly as revolutionary as the actual revolutionists in the movie.
On the subject of Titanic, this film even comes complete with its own Billy Zane equivalent in the form of Marton Csokas’s boo-hiss villain who, towards the end of the film, does something so horrific and irredeemable that it almost makes you look back fondly on Zane’s similarly nasty antagonist, but beyond the context of the movie it does feel a bit like they just worked it in to give the main character someone to go up against during the finale. For all I know about the actual Joseph Bologne, which really isn’t that much, it’s an event that probably did happen to him in real life, but within the framework of this dramatization it tends to be a bit of overkill in the dramatic department.
While its tendency to slip into conventionality ultimately hinders its otherwise noble intentions, Chevalier is a film that I’m ultimately glad was made, because it sheds light on an interesting figure who was by all rights an artistic prodigy that was prevented from achieving full notoriety because he happened to be Black. It would honestly make a very good double-feature with Amma Asante’s Belle, another costume drama that explores race relations in upper-class 18th-century society, though Chevalier might just have a bit more flair and style to its name, even though Asante’s feature perhaps has the tighter narrative. Either way, you’re in for a fascinating history lesson as told through a much-needed Black lens.
SO, TO SUM UP…
Chevalier is a handsomely made and slickly paced historical biopic of the lesser-known French composer Joseph Bologne, played charismatically by Kelvin Harrison Jr., though its stylistic vibes are filtered by a conventional narrative.
Chevalier is now showing in cinemas nationwide
