Never one to shy away from a portrayal of strong, independent women, director Stephen Frears has followed up The Queen with the French fable Chéri. Reteaming with Dangerous Liaisons scribe Christopher Hampton and star Michelle Pfeiffer, Frears has ventured from Buckingham Palace to Belle-Epoch Paris with celebrated courtesan Léa de Lonval (Pfeiffer) and her petulant young lover Chéri (Rupert Friend).
A burden to his calculating, ex-courtesan mother, Madame Peloux (Kathy Bates), Chéri is all but thrust into Léa’s arms, ostensibly to complete his ‘education’, but really to alleviate the pressure on her purse. The pair indulge in a six year romance, which is brought rather abruptly to a halt when Mme Peloux negotiates an advantageous marriage for her son to Edmée (Felicity Jones), the daughter of another courtesan.
Chéri is quite the curious romance, simply because the protagonists aren’t equipped to realise they’re in love. Thirty years and a lifetime of convention separate the pair, even though they both exist within the sensual bubble of courtesan extravagance. And so Frears as director and (uncredited) jocular narrator brings us this unwitting love story with warmth, pathos and a lot of wry humour.
Pfeiffer and Friend shine in what are powerfully subtle and vulnerable performances. Both are angular beauties, captured in intense detail by Frears, alongside their manifest chemistry. And Bates – with her deep, hearty chortle – rounds out the leads with an exuberant melodrama.
Rich cinematography and exquisite production and costume design make Chéri a cinematic treat. Frears also weaves in the style from famed French writer Colette’s original source material, resulting in a visually and thematically impressionistic film, which is at once a delightful and rather peculiar experience.
Symbolic of the fate of pre-war Paris, Chéri reveals both the transience and the transcendence of love, beauty and the luscious excess of the Belle-Epoch.
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This review also appeared in The Brag
Australian release date 23 July 2009
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And thrown in for good measure, here are a couple of images of the luminous Michelle Pfeiffer in her gorgeous period costume.
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