Chevalier (12A)

As the illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, Joseph Bologne is vigorously encouraged by his father to achieve excellence in all aspects of his schooling. Fencing master La Boessiere fires Joseph's competitive spirit and the young man's skills with a blade impress Marie Antoinette. She anoints Joseph as Chevalier de Saint-Georges and encourages him to compete against celebrated composer Christoph Gluck for the coveted position of head of the Paris Opera.

LondonNet Film Review

Chevalier (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

A musical prodigy faces racial discrimination across the class divide in director Stephen Williams’ handsome period drama, based on the untold true story of composer Joseph Bologne, whose artistic achievements were almost erased from history during the upheaval of the French Revolution in the late 18th century. Kelvin Harrison Jr adopts a cocksure swagger in the title role, beginning with an eye-catching opening sequence in which Bologne brazenly shares the stage with Mozart (Joseph Prowen) and humiliates the Austrian composer by performing one of his works with more verve and passion than its dumbfounded creator. A fiery expletive from Mozart provides the perfect punctuation to this thrilling battle of the violin bows…

Screenwriter Stefani Robinson’s conventional and largely chronological approach to storytelling is both comforting and disappointing, composing a bittersweet symphony of triumph against adversity with ravishing solos from production designer Karen Murphy, costume designer Oliver Garcia and their respective teams. Bosoms tastefully heave (sexual dalliances are inferred but never explicitly depicted on screen to secure a 12A certification) while violence is used sparingly to illustrate a groundswell of public discontent that will lead to Marie Antoinette losing her head. The French queen is played with steely resolve by Lucy Boynton, labouring under the illusion that the people “cannot topple what has been ordained by God”. Williams’ artful picture repeatedly reminds us that powerbrokers and the privileged underestimate the resolve of hard-working people.

As the illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, Joseph Bologne (Harrison Jr) is vigorously encouraged by his father (Jim High) to achieve excellence in all aspects of his schooling at the prestigious Academie La Boessiere. “I fear this will not be a kind place to such a boy,” warns La Boessiere (Ben Bradshaw), a fencing master who fires Joseph’s competitive spirit with a foil. Those skills with a blade impress Marie Antoinette and she anoints Joseph as Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

Joseph wins the queen’s fickle favour and she encourages him to compete against celebrated composer Christoph Gluck (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) for the coveted position of head of the Paris Opera. The candidates will be judged on a new opera and Joseph enlists Madame De Genlis (Sian Clifford) to oversee his ambitious staging. He woos ingenue Marie-Josephine de Montalembert (Samara Weaving) for the title role, in direct opposition from her husband (Marton Csokas), who reminds Joseph that “in any other country, a man of your colour would not be wearing such fine clothes”.

Chevalier conducts dangerous liaisons between Harrison Jr and Weaving as the heady scent of revolution wafts through the streets of Paris. Csokas’s jealous spouse is a cookie cutter villain but he serves a clear narrative purpose as Williams’ picture builds to a rousing performance of Bologne’s emphatic Violin Concerto No 9.

– Sarah Lee