Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
There’s been a recent explosion of period pieces that include Black characters in positions of nobility, like the “Bridgerton” series and the film “Mr. Malcolm’s List.” You can’t blame Black audiences for desiring to watch period pieces set in the much-romanticized Regency era; we were there too, after all. But what’s not often explored in these pieces is the cost one had to pay to achieve and maintain that status in their white supremacist society, particularly when slavery was very much still happening.
With so much “capaganda” (capitalist propaganda) on our screens encouraging us to sympathize with and aspire to be like the most wealthy, it’s no wonder that Black-centered stories of nobility usually ask us to pay no attention to the pile of bodies left in their wake.
But Canadian director Stephen Williams’ “Chevalier” refuses to play that game. Instead, it stakes its thesis on the trap of so-called “Black excellence,” which we’re taught to covet and aspire to.
Starring Kelvin Harrison Jr. at his career best in the title role, “Chevalier” tells the hidden true history of late-18th century Black creole child savant, master violinist, champion fencer and composer Joseph Bologne, named Chevalier de Saint Georges by Queen Marie-Antoinette. While he’s insultingly referred to as “the Black Mozart” by those hoping to emphasize his brilliance by pairing him with his white contemporary, “Chevalier” immediately puts that comparison to rest.
In the opening scene, with stunning music by soon-to-be-legendary composer Kris Bowers, Bologne duels with Mozart on the violin, with Bologne playing Mozart’s own work better than he could’ve…
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