Colette

The film is about the famous French female writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette who married a Parisian critique fourteen years her senior. Colette spent her early years in rural France with her parents. Although we see little of her parents it is evident she inherits her free spirit from her mother. The rural scenery is authentic and beautiful.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5437928/videoplayer/vi4193565209?ref_=tt_ov_vi

After marrying Henry Gauthier Villars(Dominic West), known as Willy, she is introduced to the bohemian life in Paris. She is young, beautiful and free spirited and fits in perfectly. He lives in a classic Parisian apartment which is reached by a magnificent spiral staircase used to great effect in the filming. But Willy is a philanderer more interested in seducing the women of Paris than in his writing. he has a team of ghost writers. His life style is luxurious but his income does not match his taste. He convinces Colette to write the stories of her childhood but the heroine is called Claudine. He insists on being named as the author treating Colette on the one hand as a ghost writer but more as a slave. The first book becomes an immediate success. A number of others follow each with increasing success. Willy basks in the glory of the success which he takes on to himself without giving Collette a second thought.

The couple become the toast of Paris. The cinematography of swinging Parisian life at the beginning of the twentieth century is captivating. The couples relationship is loose giving both the opportunity for extra marital affairs. He only accepts that she have lesbian affairs. She is bi-sexual and has a number of affairs until she meets the Russian princess who dresses as a man. Their affair is conducted as a menage a quatre as Willy installs his new young lover. There is nothing sordid about their life. It is beautifully shot in the country house Willy bought for Colette. It was very acceptable in the swinging Parisian life of the early twentieth century.

The main characters are beautifully filmed. All the portrait shots in the book are used. Reflections of Colette (Keira Knightly) in her mirror, moody looks and crazy characters in Parisian bars make for a visually beautiful film. The sex scenes are portrayed with great sensitivity. It is the French culture of the time, fast loose and wild.

But as Colette becomes more independent. She travels with a musical show becoming more and more self assured. Finally she insists on her freedom to be the author of her own life and works. Willy and Colette separate.

Both the city scenes, including one of the inside of the Moulin Rouge and the countryside and superb. There is nothing cheesy about any of it. It looks decidedly authentic. The only person who does not fit in is the American bi-sexual woman which whom both Willy and Colette have an affair. This character is plastic but not in a good sense..

Another small criticism is that the film should have been in French with English subtitles. It was weird to see the characters in typical French scenes speaking English… It was jarring when one had a close up of Colette’s ‘cahier’ in which she was writing in French. Small annoying  things in an otherwise great film.