Chevalier: A long overdue biopic of a prodigious talent – that’s also a fabulous romp

Chevalier (M, 108 mins) Directed by Stephen Williams ****

The life of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges is so remarkable, it really does deserve to be better known.

Bologne was born in the French colony of Guadeloupe on Christmas Day, 1745.

He was sent to France as a young boy and immediately proved himself to be a prodigy in several disciplines. He was a gifted swordsman who became a champion fencer. Bologne was also famed as a dancer, marksman, swimmer and athlete. But he became a national sensation – and an idol of Parisian society – for his incredible talents as a musician and as a composer.

Bologne was regarded as one of the finest violinists in France. He played first violin with the famed Le Concert Olympique – pretty much a supergroup of France’s best players – and, from the 1760s, was a prolific and much-admired composer of pieces for ensembles and full orchestras, including at least four symphonies.

Bologne was bestowed the title Chevalier de Saint-George by his friend Marie Antoinette – and that was the title he was best known by. He was a contemporary of Mozart, and, for a while, he enjoyed and endured a similar level of fame.

Knowing all that, you might wonder why Bologne is not better known and perhaps why there has never been a film of his astonishing life before.

Surely it couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that Bologne was a Black man?

Chevalier is a very overdue film. But, happily, this is not some dry history lesson that anyone should watch out of any sense of obligation. Chevalier is actually a bit of a romp, with duels, concerts and all the dash and derring-do we hope for from our historical epics.

With Samara Weaving, Lucy Boynton, Invercargill’s own Martin Csokas and Minnie Driver in support, director Stephen Williams and writer Stefani Robinson (Atlanta) have the people on screen they need to give this film the mainstream, box-office appeal it deserves. William’s and Robinson’s choice to stage Chevalier with contemporary language and accents is jarring at first, but it makes the film easily approachable. After a while, I appreciated the idea.

But the film belongs to Kelvin Harrison Jr. As the Chevalier, Harrison, maybe, finds the role that is going to make him a star. Harrison was extraordinary in Luce and in Waves, but both of those films were sunk by Covid and didn’t get the release they deserved. Since 2020, Harrison has vanished into support roles that he has been unselfishly good in. Harrison’s blink-and-miss-it cameo as B.B. King in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis was a small highlight. If the TAB were taking bets today on actors who will be household names in the next few years, I’d put the bank on Harrison.

Chevalier is a great yarn, well told. The costumes are sumptuous, the action is frenetic, the politics and palace intrigues are well essayed and the characters are fascinating. There are a few liberties taken with history – no, Bologne and Mozart never played a violin duel – but mostly, for its genre, Chevalier stays closer to the facts than is usual. It is a far, far more historically accurate film than Milos Forman’s Mozart biopic Amadeus at least.

With festival screenings filling up the country’s cinemas over the next few weeks, it’s good to see a film like Chevalier getting a look-in, among all this worthy company.

Chevalier begins screening in select cinemas nationwide on August 3.