TIFF film Chevalier A dizzying achievement, a complex of its multifaceted ambitions and its real-life subject, the astounding work of the 18th-century French composer Joseph Bologne (who played the fully electric Kelvin Harrison, Jr.). As a result, they are often on the brink of collapse. What isn’t is largely due to writer Stephanie Robinson’s keen awareness of where to hold back and allow silence to reign in silence, and director Stephen Williams’s opulent surroundings and personal touches. It captures all the drama to an equally astonishing degree.
Harrison himself Ruth and waveWhen he finds that even his country refuses to fully accept him despite his immense skill, he learns that his skills, his bragging, and ultimately his most painful vulnerability. Play Joseph with a taste that makes it possible.
An orchestra joins the audience in an exhilarating classical duel as Joseph literally takes the stage to challenge Mozart himself, not only defeating him but blowing him away.
It won’t be the last time he proves himself. Joseph is a born performer. He is charismatic, self-confident, and perfectly tuned to appeal to the French royal family, seeing Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton) as a close acquaintance and champion. Flashbacks reveal that he is the illegitimate son of an enslaved woman and a French nobleman, the latter leaving him with a particularly complex legacy to work on.
Insurmountable odds?
His father, George Bologne (Jim High), defended Joseph despite racist objections, ensuring that his skills were honed to perfection, and that he could see himself as another. He also encouraged him to believe that he would be loved only for his talents, and he also encouraged him to be loved by his mother, Nanon (Lonke Adekoruejo), who did not see her son until after George’s death. He forced Joseph away.
Her return is the catalyst for Joseph’s painful realization that his blackness remains an insurmountable barrier in one way or another, both politically and personally.
Her relationship with married opera singer Marie-Josephine serves as a sort of guidebook to the many ways that even wealthy white noblewomen are trapped under a system that sees them as chattel to breed as family heirlooms. The fear of breaking him is personal because he plays. Most eligible men. While such generosity towards her character is indeed remarkable, it is somewhat undercut by the fact that the non-mother black female counterparts of men under the microscope have received less attention. It has been.
Still, I can’t take my eyes off Joseph. Just as Napoleon reinstated slavery, his countless achievements were deliberately erased from history. It’s definitely a shock, but Chevalier Joseph’s art has been definitively judged to be the most impressive, and has been very successful in this regard, with a variety of classical and operatic works with all the magic of a breathtaking musical feat. performance.
Musical biographies couldn’t be more epic, and beneath it all lies a lingering question for us. The answer may lie in how willing we are to embrace those who have traditionally been marginalized in history.
Rating: 9/10 spec
Chevalier Arriving in theaters on April 21st.
Get the latest information on all movies currently in theaters.
This article was written and distributed by Wealth of Geeks.
Andrea Thompson is a writer, editor and film critic, movie girl film festival.
She is a member of Chicago Indie Critics and runs her own site. your own reeland writing for RogerEbert.com, Spool, Mary Sue, Inverse, Chicago Reader. She has no intention of getting into movies, comics, or general geeks.