Film Review: Chevalier is a fascinating story, albeit one that lacks subtlety and nuance
Kelvin Harrison Jr. in Chevalier
- Chevalier
- ★★★☆☆
(12A) stars Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Joseph Bologne, born in Guadalupe in 1745 to an enslaved mother and her French owner.
Transported to Paris as a young boy, Joseph grows up an outsider who becomes an accomplished polymath and gentleman.
Something of a warrior-poet who excels with a rapier, Joseph develops into a phenomenal violinist of Lisztian virtuosity, as a result of which he is created the Chevalier de St. Georges by Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton) herself.
Beyond the gilded palaces, however, revolution is stirring in the Parisian streets; and soon Joseph will be obliged to choose between his privileged place in society and his instinctive desire for the egalité he has been denied all his life.
Adapted by Stefani Robinson from the historical events of Bologne’s life, and directed by Stephen Williams, Chevalier is a fascinating story, albeit one that lacks subtlety and nuance.
The crudely drawn opening scene, in which Joseph upstages the preening Mozart (Joseph Prowen) in a kind of duelling violins scenario, sets the tone for the kind of broad strokes that here constitute character development – when we meet Christoph Gluck (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), for example, he is portrayed as a sinister, villainous interloper simply because he is being awarded the position of director at the Paris Opera that Joseph covets.
Meanwhile, the ill-starred romance between Joseph and the married Marie-Josephine (Samara Weaving) lacks chemistry, despite their working together as musician and singer-muse, and Lucy Boynton’s Marie Antoinette is disappointingly shrill and vacuous.
If you’re a fan of sweeping historical epics, and especially those boasting a brilliant score, then Chevalier is for you – just don’t expect the historical detail to be all that detailed. (cinema release)
