Colette Review

Colette is a biopic about the French author and actress Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and how she rose from her husband’s shadow.

Keira Knightley stars as the titular character, a peasant girl who falls in love and marries a Parisian author, Henry Gauthier-Villars (Dominic West), who goes by the name Willy. Willy soon makes his wife one of his ghostwriters, starting with letters before penning an autobiographical novel which becomes a publishing phenomenon. But the relationship between the two was turbulent to say to the least.

Colette was a film with three main themes. The first was the abusive relationship between Colette and Willy. Colette is shown to be an intelligent and independent woman even from her early days. Despite Colette’s virginal first appearance she is shown to have a rebellious side, having a secret rendezvous with Willy. But once they marry their relationship turns toxic, starting with small things like Willy wanting Colette to wear a certain dress. This escalates to Willy having affairs, spending all the money, and even locking Colette at times. He has the ability to weasel his way back in through sweet talk, manipulation or because he holds all the cards like the character copyright. Even when Colette knows Willy is bad for her she can’t break away.

The next theme was about gender and gender roles. Colette is shown to be an intelligent young woman with talent and her books become popular with women. She embraces her sexuality – despite her initial girly appearance she secretly meets with her husband-to-be for sex and she wants intimacy with him. Colette is drawn to other women who see her talent. Missy (Denise Gough) was one of Colette’s closest confidantes and she was marked by dressing in men’s clothes and even refers to herself as ‘he.’ In Britain Colette was released at the same time as two other films about strong women, The Favourite and Mary Queen of Scots, which seems particularly fitting.

The final area the film looks at is the publishing and entertainment industries. Willy is portrayed as a hack, someone who dismisses other people’s work as pretentious or unworthy. But he doesn’t write anything himself, he just hires other writers to write in his name and ‘brand.’ He is constantly demanding content which is referred to as the factory, refuses to pay some of the writers and even locks Colette up to force her to write. Willy’s empire acts like certain websites and Youtube channels that push out constant clickbait content.

Willy is a good editor and knows what sells. He turns Colette’s Claudine into a franchise. Multiple novels are published, play’s commissioned, merchandise is sold and women even dress up as the main character. The Claudine series was portrayed as the proto YA novel that appeared to women between childhood and adulthood. This gave Colette an extra modern edge because it shows that things haven’t changed that much.

Colette was directed by Still Alice co-director Wash Westmoreland and he makes a good-looking film. This story could easily have been a TV film but he was able to make it a cinematic experience. Westmoreland shot the film on location in Budapest and Oxfordshire (standing in for Paris and the French countryside) which allowed for some lovely cinematography. Westmoreland and his cinematographer Giles Nuttgens used handheld cameras which I am particularly partial to.

As expected from a film like this the costumes and set-designing are of a high standard. An interesting detail is showing how technology and fashions changed. The film starts out with people using horse-drawn carriages and gaslighting to cars, electricity, and telephones becoming more prevalent.

Colette is blessed with a talented cast. Knightley specialises in historical dramas and there is a lot of power in her performance as the title character, gaining more confidence as the film progresses and stands up to her husband. West was perfectly slimy and repulsive as a man who uses his wife, markets himself on sensationalism, and is attracted to much younger women. He was a sleaze. Denise Gough had the most interesting role in the supporting cast – having to play someone who was both a confident women who defied convention and being vulnerable because of the prejudice against her.

Colette will appeal to fans of thoughtful, prestigious films due to the themes, acting and period detail and offers plenty of contemporary commentaries.