Chéri

Léa to Chéri:  ‘Do you know why your eyes are shaped like a soul? The fish I mean(sole)’

...And so continues Chéri, one moment appearing to be nothing but a tale of an unlikely couple caught in a life of hedonistic, extravagant living; the next a parable about accepting the life and state in which you find yourself, as St Paul asks us to do in 1 Corinthians 7:20: ‘each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.’

This is the first time that Michelle Pfeiffer and screenwriter Chris Hampton have collaborated on a production since Dangerous Liaisons, 21 years ago. However, the two films have little to do with each other; Chéri is much lighter in tone, and while not quite a romantic comedy, does have some comic moments and quick-witted lines.

Based on the 1920 novel by Colette, Chéri is set in pre-First World War Paris. The film tells the melodramatic love story of Léa De Lonval (Michelle Pfeiffer), a wealthy Courtesan reluctantly moving into retirement, and Chéri (Rupert Friend), the nineteen-year-old son of Madame Peloux (Kathy Bates), Léa’s one time colleague and rival. The couple’s relationship develops when Madame Peloux invites Léa to give some motherly advice to her son, who, at nineteen, is already tired of his excessive pleasures. In their first conversation, Léa unconvincingly brushes Chéri away, and hence begins their love affair of six years, during which they share Léa’s home and wealth.

Eventually Chéri’s mother arranges for Chéri to marry Edmee (Felicity Jones), the daughter of another colleague. Chéri and Léa separate and endeavour to continue with their lives separately, but it is in the scenes that follow their reunion some time later that this film finally reveals its depth of character.  The pair realise that Léa had been treating Chéri as a dependent child, and Chéri, having always felt that he was an orphan, was responding to Léa’s motherly affection, letting her run his life for him and keep him financially with only occasional feeble protests about his need to be independent. Léa realises that she needs to accept her age and state in life and be satisfied with it, and it appears that as Chéri walks away for the last time, so does he. However, when the narrator informs us of the tragic event that follows this meeting, we know that this cannot be the case.

The relationship between the couple leaves the viewer at first amused, then gradually rather uncomfortable, as what initially seems to be a sexually charged brief encounter becomes an affective sexual obsession between mother- and son-like figures. They claim that they are in love but one is left with the question: ‘How can love cause such destruction to their characters?’

Chéri comes across throughout most of the film as a sulky teenager. Léa puts it well when, at one point speaking of Chéri to her maid, Rose (Frances Tomelty), she states: ‘I can’t criticise his character because he doesn’t have one.’  It is easy to feel the same about Rupert Friend, who attempts to portray Chéri’s careless attitude to life, but in the process gives an easily forgettable performance.

Michelle Pfeiffer is clearly the star of the show. The attention to her visual presentation and to her placing in every scene serves to highlight her presence, making her and her character more dominant and attractive than any of the others, particularly against the likes of Kathy Bates. Felicity Jones, a gradually rising star, is the gem in the cast – one to watch over the next year or so. She had the advantage of playing the only ‘normal’ character in the film; younger than all the others, she was probably the most mature and balanced.

Typical of melodrama, the film is incredibly overacted and could be rather irritating, as could the narrator who comes in at the most inconvenient times. However, once the viewer accepts and even appreciates the characteristics of the genre, and gets past the apparent superficiality to reach the depths of the story, Chéri is an odd pleasure to watch...if you are interested enough to hurdle those barriers.

Pia Cronin FMA



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