Just give Keira Knightley the Oscar.
At the very least, she’ll be getting a nomination for her spectacular work in Colette, a biopic that feels effortlessly modern and chic despite being set in the late 19th to early 20th century. Colette, the famed French writer, certainly had a life worth telling. From her country girl origins to her Parisian escapades, Knightley is the perfect embodiment of a ravishing intellect and talent held somewhat at bay by a controlling artist husband. Her co-stars are wonderful as well, with turns as a wily husband, secret lovers, and a long-suffering mother who gives the occasional sage word of advice. You can guess her opinion on the husband.
Equal parts salacious, romantic, and fierce, Knightley demonstrates once more why she excels in her career.
The centerpiece, however, of this magnificent film, is writing. It is an ode to women writers and the freedom we seek at the cost of comfort and stability. Colette was not only a talented writer, but a bisexual woman in a time when that was quite enough for scandalizing all of Paris. Thanks to her writing under her husband’s name, these and more illicit stories found voracious readers throughout France and eventually across the world. For Colette, however, both the film and the real woman, the stories were not enough.
Ultimately, she needed independence, not merely the “long leash” her husband kept her on.
a must-see for any woman who needs encouragement to pursue her passions- of the soul and of the flesh
Rarely does a leading lady get not one but several love interests without it being viewed as some agonizing decision. Even rarer is there a wife with no desire to mother in a way not only not debated, but absolutely ignored. “Our child. These books were ours!” exclaims Colette at a charged moment.
This movie does all this and more, bringing the larger-than-life author to a new audience largely due to the fact that this is an American film conducted almost entirely in English save for a few French words here and there.
Without spoiling much, this movie is a must-see for any woman who needs encouragement to pursue her passions- of the soul and of the flesh. What’s more, this woman once existed. It is a wonderful slice of history- or herstory, rather.
Anyone will love this richly written and acted movie, but especially those who write.
The film hits theaters this Friday.
