Chevalier

After so many years, a film finally tells us the story of a man that history has previously told us so little about. The illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, Joseph Bologne (Kelvin Harrison Jr) rises to unexpected heights in French society thanks to his talents as a violinist-composer and fencer. However, being successful does not simply grant him the status of a man of France in the eyes of the aristocracy and Joseph must compete with his rivals in an unfair war, while keeping a love affair secret and maintaining relations with a failing Queen Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton).

Best known for his devastating performance in Trey Edward Shultz’s 2019 drama Waves, Harrison Jr excels as the musical maestro, harnessing the charm, talent, wit and presence that Chevalier reportedly possessed. Boynton and Samara Weaving also shine in their respective supporting roles and on the whole it truly is a movie that boasts a number of excellent performances. But it is the music and score running throughout the film that is without question the top highlight, with Kris Bowers, the composer of previous movies such as Green Book and King Richard really capturing the essence of the period and Chevalier’s own style.

The movie sets the scene efficiently in the first act, taking care and time to lay out the social and racial setting we find ourselves in, in late 18^th-century France. The costumes are exquisite and help build a feeling of authenticity around what we are beholding. With a reported budget of $46m, the movie is also visually impressive in its world-building, albeit containing a number of corny day-to-night transitions that will make you wince.

Where the writing is concerned, there is also a large amount of poetic license used throughout the plot, starting from the opening scene when a stoic Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is challenged and upstaged by Chevalier. Some of the dialogue is also too on-the-nose, simplified and modernised, making it not particularly fitting of the time period. Audiences are more than accustomed to watching TV series and films with accurate language, with examples such as Bridgerton and Sense and Sensibility, so it is curious as to why that wasn’t followed strictly here.

It is an enjoyable biopic and undoubtedly a success for director Stephen Williams and co, but the movie does leave you yearning for more because of so many avenues unexplored. The feature chooses to focus primarily on Bologne’s writing talents and this is understandable, but his own biographical story branches far further than simply his composing ability, including an entire chapter fighting in the French Revolution and becoming a prisoner during the Reign of Terror.

With a run time of just under two hours, it could be argued that Chevalier’s full story could have been told in greater detail should there one day be a mini-series that allows the given time. Milos Forman’s multi-award-winning 1984 biopic Amadeus, ranked in the list as one of the greatest movies of all time, carried a hefty duration of 161 minutes and covered the far shorter life of Mozart. Chevalier provides a glimpse of the great man’s life, but only a fraction of his achievements.

Guy Lambert

Chevalier is released nationwide on 9^th June 2023.

Watch the trailer for Chevalier here: