Chevalier
Stephen
Williams (director), Stefani Robinson (writer), Jess Hall (cinematography),
John Axelrad (editor)
Kelvin Harrison Jr, Samara Weaving, Lucy Boynton, Ronke Adekolujoe, Marton
Csokas, Alex Fitzalan, Minnie Driver (cast)
Content
warning: Racism, racist language, domestic violence
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| Image credit: Courtesy of TIFF |
The story of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was unfamiliar to me, so when I heard there was a film about the life of one of the first Black classical musicians at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, I decided to check it out.
The film
starts off with a glorious scene where Chevalier (Kelvin Harrison Jr)
challenges Mozart to a violin duel on stage. The music, the pace, and the editing
are gripping to watch. This is a man who likes to flaunt his excellence and we
can see why.
But the
subsequent film doesn’t quite live up to the brilliance of that opener. What
follows is a by-the-numbers rags to riches to rags story, but told through the
lens of pre-Revolution French racism. The story of Chevalier should be
told—Black excellence is so often forgotten and erased by history, and I’m so
glad we have writers and filmmakers who have the power to bring these stories
to life now. But the execution has to do the subject justice. Chevalier does
not.
The story
starts with Chevalier already a nobleman in the courts and in the good books of
none other than Marie-Antoinette (Lucy Boynton). But when he requests the
opportunity to head the Paris Opera, the underlying racial tensions in the country
rear its head.
I wish the
film had concentrated more on how Chevalier created and developed his art; most
of the real maestro's music is lost and the film composers used what they could
find as riffs. We’ve seen several films about how geniuses create their art and
it would have been exciting to see Chevalier at work.
The
political machinations that form the background of the film should have been a
larger part of the story especially since Chevalier himself had a significant
role in it. The political impact only really comes in near the end of the film,
and while it left the theatre I was in applauding for several minutes,
threading it through the film would have felt more organic.
The
trouble with the film is that Chevalier could easily be any character in any
story. There’s so much impetus put on the romantic subplot with Marie-Josephine
(Samara Weaving), that it doesn’t feel unique to this singular individual.
We’ve seen this in period films before.
The film
features several tragic characters because it focuses on people with the least
power in their echelons of society. Be it a foreign queen living under constant
suspicion, a young woman who must live according to the whims of her powerful
husband, or a Black man in a white society that will never accept him or his
talents. There was an opportunity for these three characters and their dynamics
to play a central role in the film but instead, we’re saddled with a love story
that feels contrived. The romantic subplot also brings out the worst in
Marie-Josephine and Chevalier—they can be downright toxic to each other because
of their ignorance. While it’s understandable that neither knows the nitty gritties
of the discrimination they face as a woman or a Black man, there are times when
I was dumbstruck at how cruel Chevalier was to Marie-Josephine. He couldn’t
possibly have been that dumb! Those moments occur mostly in the third act,
which is when the film abandons all pretense of being a character study and
devolves into contrivances ala an opera. Maybe being meta was the point? It
didn’t work though.
What’s
worse is, Kelvin Harrison Jr has so much charisma but he was way too restrained
in his performance. Samara Weaving seems miscast to me—her performance felt
disconnected from the era. She and Minnie Driver both play opera singers and
neither plays the part convincingly, whereas Harrison Jr looks like he really
is a genius violinist. Harrison Jr’s father is a classic music teacher and he
practised for hours for months in advance and during filming. His efforts pay
off.
There is a
beautiful moment in Chevalier between two characters who talk about
racial discrimination.
“Why do they have choice when we don’t?...
“The greatest evil is convincing us that we have no choice. We
always have a choice. The choice to fight.”
This
conversation should have been earlier in the film and sparked the political
leanings of the character. However, it comes too late, so the most interesting,
riveting, and poignant part of the film ends up being rushed.
Director
Stephen Williams mentioned in the Q&A after the film that an attempt was
made to erase Chevalier from history (you can thank Napolean for that!) so he
and the rest of the film’s creators wanted to honour the real man. They do
honour him by bringing his name into the light. But the execution of the film
and script did not capture the gravity of how significant telling Chevalier’s
story is.
Historical fiction is a difficult genre to get right, and it can fall into cliches and tropes, which is what happened with the writing in Chevalier. But the opulent production design, the enchanting music, and Kelvin Harrison Jr’s performance should intrigue you enough to read up what you can about the real man behind the title.
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