During France’s belle époque before World War I, elegant cars, mansions, and servants defined the lives of les grandes horizontals, the courtesans of kings and millionaires. One of the most successful, Lea de Lonval, is approaching a certain age when an older associate, Charlotte Peloux, asks Lea to take on her 19 year old son, whom Lea has called Chéri since he was a child. They become lovers and, to their surprise, the relationship lasts six years. When it ends abruptly with a marriage his mother arranges to the daughter of another courtesan, Lea finds herself miserable. Has she fallen in love? If so, do she -- and Chéri - have any choices?
Guy Bellinger
In Paris, in the early 20th century, young Fred Peloux, nicknamed Chéri, the handsome son of Charlotte Peloux, a former demimondaine, lives in the small circle of his mother’s friends, all high class prostitutes past their best. He has an affair with Léonie Vallon, publicly known as Léa de Lonval, a waning beauty, who loves him both as a mistress and a mother. But, after six years spent together, the age difference takes its toll on their union. To please his mother, Chéri accepts to marry young Edmée, the only of Marie-Laure, a rich courtesan’s daughter, without actually caring for her. After a while, the young man tries to return to Léa.
A sumptuous dramatic comedy set in late 19th Century France, during the Belle Epoque, a period of social and cultural excess in European upper classes which ended only as the First World War erupted. (It is NOT set in 1920s as the IMDb synopsis says. After the war the social environment was quite, quite different.) Costumes, set pieces, cinematography all embrace the delicious and beautiful in this story of courtesans of a certain age whose lives, now more concerned with grown children and investments in oil rather than in men, live in great luxury and wealth. When (still ravishing) Pfeiffer becomes reacquainted with her erstwhile friend’s 19 year son, (also incredibly ravishing), the two begin an often haunting, life long journey steeped in love, lust, jealousy and desire. They are soul mates and their story bites deep into the tragic and the hilarious.
Direction, script and acting, by all major players and even the minor ones, are all first rate. Tastefully sexy and sensual, sad and lovely and funny all at once, a film to capture awards and hearts worldwide.
It is turn of the century in Belle Epoque Paris and a scandalous romp is underfoot. The tale begins as the ravishing Lea contemplates retirement from her renowned stature as Paris’s most envied seductress to the rich and famous. Her plans are cut short when she is approached by a former courtesan and arch rival, the barb-throwing gossip Charlotte Peloux, who encourages Lea to teach her disaffected 19 year-old son a thing or two about women. The resulting escapades involve power struggles over sex, money, age and society -and unexpectedly, love itself -- as a boy who refuses to grow up collides with a woman who realizes she cannot stay young forever.
refined and melancholic
7/10 | simona gianotti | 11 Sep 2009
”Cheri” is the nickname given by Lea (Michelle Pfeiffer) to the young, much younger Fred, whom she brings to discover the truth about lovemaking, and unintentionally but inevitably, about loving.
The actor playing Fred is handsome, attractive, but who really hits the sign (as usually, I would say) is Michelle Pfeiffer, who proved to be very courageous in playing a role where she constantly repeats to herself how old she is. Indeed, her beauty, elegance and refinement are always there to remind her and us how difficult it is to come to terms with ageing, mainly when beauty has been the very essence of your life.
The plot is almost absent, being the story more based on emotions, moods, sensations, rather than facts, and the movie in the end manages to capture the viewer, thanks to its capability to render the emotional side through glances and through effective and intense framing of both characters and situations: the last one is incisive, almost paralyzing.
Ironic and funny moments are not absent, mainly when Cathy Bates, playing the odd, high spirited mother, enters the scene, but the overall tone is a melancholic one, above all for the female public, we cannot but sympathize with Lea’s inner strength, and at the same time feel moved by her deep suffer-ing. From an aesthetic point of view, the movie is to be visually appreciated for its pleasant settings, its refined costumes and in general for a deep care for precious details.
Perhaps almost as interesting - or even more so – than this movie’s story, is the story of Colette herself. The novelist lived from 1873 to 1954, married three times, had many lovers of both genders including her stepson, played the music halls, wrote an opera with Ravel, ran a hospital during WW1 and helped her Jewish friends survive during WW2. She wrote some fifty novels including Gigi, (made into a play and an award winning musical), and is often referred to as one of France’s greatest writers.
And I can’t review this movie without saying how quite wonderful it is, for once, to see an older woman entangled with a sexy younger man, and how rarely we get to see that on screen. Time and time again, we see quite ridiculous age gaps between male stars and much, much younger women. Here, Pfeiffer and Friend make the opposite work perfectly. I appreciate that costume drama has a fairly limited audience, and this movie is certainly not perfect, personally - I loved it!!
A beautiful slice of La Belle Epoque One of the delights of this film is the lushness and perfection of the sets and costumes of the Belle Époque (c. 1890-1914). The sets and costumes are so gorgeous they threaten to overwhelm the actors threaten, but don’t succeed.
Michelle Pfeiffer is sensual and beautiful as the aging courtesan Lea—a woman approaching a ”certain age,” as the narrator (Stephen Frears) informs us. Lea has known the love and admiration of the wealthiest men in Europe, many of them titled. She has been wise to keep her heart out of her affairs.
Then Fred, (”Cheri”) the son of another courtesan (Kathy Bates) enters Lea’s life, and she finds herself caring for the aimless but charming young man more than she should.
Kathy Bates is wonderful as Madame Peloux, a former competitor of Lea’s—a woman who, if you squint hard (and catch the ”portrait” of a younger Peloux) you can imagine having a gamine charm years before. Bates’ acting moves effortlessly from laughing delightedly at smutty gossip to quickly assuming the pouting self-righteous expression of a disapproving mama as she discusses her son. From former courtesan to bourgeois matron in the blink of an eye. Bates carries this quick switch act off several times in the movie, and it’s a pleasure to watch her skill at these rapid changes.
The sets and costumes of Mme. Peloux, heavy 2nd Empire furnishings, stiff wired dressed with bustles, are beautifully contrasted with Lea’s lighter look—slender, graceful, light. The clothes each character wears, and the styles of their respective homes, gives some subtext to the story.
Mme. Peloux, a bit older than Lea, had her taste formed in an era of overdone stuffy pretentiousness, while Lea, a bit younger, has embraced the airy beauty of Art Nouveau. The stultifying life of aging and former courtesans is well-depicted - —unwelcome in respectable society they have
to fall back on each other’s company. Former competitors, they still can’t help sniping at one another. Lea, as one of the youngest of the group, moves like a sylph among the faded charms of her cohort.
One amazing scene: Among a bower of faded courtesans, one of them, a busty brassy red-head, cuddles and squeals like a teenager as she introduces her lover, a young man who’s the son of one this woman’s ”official lovers.” As she overwhelms the rather weedy young man with her caresses, the viewer can see Lea’s discomfort—seeing the loud red-head and her boy lover seems like seeing a grotesque mockery of herself and Cheri.
Cheri, the title character, is played by Rupert Friend (Prince Albert in ”The Young Victoria,” and Mr. Wickham in the 2005 version of ”Pride and Prejudice”). He’s a young man who has only two responsi-bilities: marry, and manage the large amount of money his mother settles on him at his marriage. He’s a young man without purpose, but finds love with Lea. What starts as a light-hearted affair turns into a relationship both Cheri and Lea need more than they realized.
Lea and Cheri’s affair ends— as does the wonderful era depicted in this gorgeous movie. The war ends Lea and Cheri’s world. The 20th century starts with bleakness and hardness after the golden afternoon of La Belle Époque.
We are indebted to Collette and Stephen Frears for showing us the loveliness, and even the artful decadence, of that time, and we are indebted to the talented cast for giving life to the ”demi-monde” (”half-world”) of that era.

2009

R

786936793222

Movie

2.35:1

93

Canada

480i

1

1

Snap Case

~$1.80

2024-06-25

2018-02-07 21:48:51