Direction: Stephen Williams
Country: UK
Acted and directed with poised energy, Chevalier is a biopic that chronicles the rise to fame and fall into oblivion of Guadeloupe-born mulatto Joseph Bologne (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), a brilliant violinist, conductor, composer, and swordsman who once embarrassed Mozart on stage, defeated all his fencing opponents, and fell in love with an unhappily married marquise (Samara Weaving) with a singing talent.
More often than not, this watchable drama film is expository of the racial discrimination lived in 18th-century France ruled by Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton) and marked by an arrogant aristocracy. The film exposes Bologne’s gifts, which made him chevalier of Saint-George, but also his constant struggles and personal ambition to conduct the Paris Opera, the highest musical position in France.
Steeped in rich colored costumes and passionate emotions, the film - directed by Stephen Williams from a screenplay by Stefani Robinson - achieves a delicate osmosis between commercial film and auteur cinema. It’s a mature exploration of a big theme, hampered only by its simplified, conventional storytelling. Although this account deserves to be told - the past keeps looking at the present, in tatters - you can see where it goes from miles away. Yet, the actors never curtsies to caricature, and the film is worth seeing just for knowledge of its character and his moment in history. Pianist Kris Bowers, who also scored Green Book (2018) and King Richard (2021), penned the music.
