Joseph Bologne receives a gorgeous biopic that also serves as a devastating reminder of a greatness nearly entirely expunged from history.
The scientist Stephen Jay Gould once wrote, “I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” Stephen Williams’ biopic of Joseph Bologne, the son of an enslaved black woman and a white plantation owner, presents his talent akin to Mozart, who so impressed Marie Antoinette she knighted him Chevalier de Saint Georges.
His story is tragic on two levels; first, with regard to the gilded cage that Bologne was trapped in and the deliberate steps to undermine his talents and erase his legacy; but secondly, in considering that all the music and art that we will never get to see or hear as brilliant minds toil and expire due to the systemic injustice of this hell-hole we call planet Earth.
Having said that, Chevalier is also pretty fun. The costuming is gorgeous. The camera work possesses a dynamic musicality fitting of its subject. Supporting turns from Lucy Boynton as a sparky Antoinette and Minnie Driver and Sian Clifford as an opera diva and patron of Bologne’s art are all a hoot. Kelvin Harrison Jr, best known for playing the sweet dum dum Christian in 2021’s Cyrano, excels at the other side of the coin, bringing a true sense of ferocious genius to his performance and whips up delicious chemistry with Samara Weaving’s Marie Josephine, an aristocrat married to a powerful Marquis.
It starts with a ‘violin off’ between Mozart and Bologne, inspired by the rock’n’roll legend that Eric Clapton once allowed an audience member to join him on stage. Little did he realise that person was Jimi Hendrix, and he blew Clapton’s considerable guitar skills of the water. And Mozart, like Clapton, supposedly did that too, and here reacts with a shocked, “Who the fuck is that?!”
But while Hendrix would go on to achieve legendary status for his genius, Chevalier has us watch Bologne’s ambitions thwarted at every turn as he is never entirely accepted by French society, and unable to marry. Much of his music has since been lost, and three years after Bologne’s death, Napoleon reinstated slavery, so his work was effectively banned.
The French Revolution is a complex event, people rising up to take on the great wealth divides that existed at the time, and everyone from Sofia Coppola to Abel Gance to the upcoming Ridley Scott Napoleon film can pore through the ashes to find a striking angle to put on screen. Yet Chevalier’s perspective feels refreshingly distinct when it comes to what was lost and gained.
Williams, who is best known for his work in television, including Watchmen and Lost, and writer Stefani Robinson who similarly found success in TV with What We Do in the Shadows and Atlanta, do occasionally defer to some staid biopic conventions. Still, they bring a truly cinematic sense of scale that befits a legacy and a life so grand, and music so wonderous. Chevalier is ultimately a devastating reminder of a greatness that was nearly entirely expunged from history, and how equal talents lived and died without even being given a chance to put a little more beauty into the world.
Little White Lies is committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them.
Published 8 Jun 2023
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