“Who the f___ is that?” Mozart (Joseph Prowen)
You say you are intrigued by dynamic 18th-century France; you say you love classical music; and you say you like a melodramatic plot that pits wife, husband, and her lover against each other? Then rush to your local theater to catch Chevalier, a docudrama about the first known Black classical composer, Joseph Bologne ( played well by Kelvin Harrison Jr) who would eventually be called The Black Mozart. When Joseph challenges Mozart to a violin duel (see quote above), the film never reaches that sublime spirit again (it probably never happened anyway), except when he dominates with his rapier.
Director Stephen Williams and writer Stefanie Robinson have crafted a robust tale, based on fact, about a young, Black, and beautiful musician, born on the island of Guadeloupe to a white plantation- owner and an enslaved Senegalese woman. Eventually rich dad sends him to private school in Paris to tend to his musical genius. Needless to say, a Black man at the court of Marie Antoinette is an outsider who is promoted to Chevalier de Saint Georges by her and protected by her and his musical and swordsman genius.
If the writer had filled her story with The Chevalier’s accomplishments, she could have avoided the overly-long segments about his illicit love affair with married Marie-Josephine (Samara Weaving). She also could have played up the Chevalier’s eventual acclaim as a military leader of the revolution. However, that prowess with sword and women is partially instrumental in bringing his downfall.
Yet, being the wrong color is the true culprit. Audiences that look for a modern connection need look no further, for the egalite portion of the French motto didn’t work then, and still struggles. Black excellence is celebrated today, as it should have been hundreds of years ago.
Chevalier is a delightful historical romance with some truth and warmth. Not bad for our times when inequality between the elite and minorities is still a presence.
Chevalier
Director: Stephen Williams (Watchmen)
Screenplay: Stefani Robinson (What We Do in the Shadows)
Cast: Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Elvis), Samara Weaving (Ready or Not)
Run Time: 1h 47m
Rating: PG-13
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and hosts Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take out of WCBE 90.5 FM. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com
