Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, in a scene from "Chevalier." Photo: Searchlight Pictures via AP.
“Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was an extraordinarily accomplished man in Marie Antoinette’s France,” writes Lindsey Bahr in Wednesday’s (4/19) Associated Press. “He was a scholar, a fencer, a virtuoso violinist and a famous and sought-after composer who wrote string quartets, symphonies and operas. His influence was vast, but he was all but erased from history books because Bologne was also Black, born in 1745 in the French colony of Guadeloupe to a wealthy French plantation owner and an enslaved Senegalese teenager. … It’s his story—or a fictionalized version of it… that’s told in the new film ‘Chevalier,’ which opens in theaters this week with Kelvin Harrison Jr. in the title role…. These embellishments are easy to forgive, however. For one, they’re necessary to fill in the vast holes in a history that was purposefully neglected. It’s also entertainment that functions just as well ..without knowing that it is inspired by truth…. ‘Chevalier’ may be more fiction than history, but it’s worthwhile with effective acting, tension (helped by Kris Bowers’ score) and a decadently beautiful production. And it is especially important … to focus the lens on important people of color who did actually exist and who have been forgotten and erased.”
