Keira Knightly (33) is no stranger to playing the heroine of period dramas, taking on the lead roles in many critically acclaimed films. These include the roles of the character Celia Tallis in the adapted 2007 film version of Ian McEwan’s First World War based novel ‘Atonement’; an English aristocrat Georgina Cavendish in the 2008 drama ‘The Duchess’; ‘A Dangerous Method’ (2011); and ‘Anna Karenina’ (2012). With such a background, it seemed only suitable that Knightly should be cast to play the lead figure in the 2018 biographical film ‘Colette’, a film based on the life of French novelist Gabrielle Colette, a writer nominated for the Novel Prize in Literature during the late 1940s. Knightly managed to pull off this complexly passive yet strong willed female character who finally gets the life she deserves.
Labelled “a woman of letters” the film tells the story of Colette’s life, laying out her journey chronologically from being an unknown young woman in love with a a well-known ‘wealthy’ writer of the time, Henry Gauthier- Villars: pen name, ‘Willy’ (played by Dominic West (‘The Affair’ 2014- present), to the woman who eventually becomes an author in her own right.
This journey to find her writers identity we discover, however, was relatively long and hard earned, as Colette struggles to break free from her societal bounds of being the clichéd housewife who attends to her husband’s success and the domestic chores of the household. What we come to find is the dark truth behind the image of Willy’s fame from the highly successful ‘Claudine’ novels, a truth that will received mixed reactions from the films audience.
Their relationship gradually becomes tainted by the unexpected success of these works, fame and the need to maintain a certain writer’s reputation proving difficult to manage and live up to. It is not until the end that female viewers, in particular, feel content with the story’s ending, as Colette claims her identity and steps out into the world on her own, realising her potential and need for her own independence. This leaves us feeling (finally) a sense of liberation, as viewers, as well.
I found it to be a challenging film to witness, purely because of its honesty regarding female repressions and the lives they felt obliged to live under male restrictions. If you have seen the also recent 2018 film ‘The Wife’ starring Golden Globe winner for the role Glenn Close, you will find that there is much to compare.
With starring supporting roles from 26 year old Eleanor Tomlinson (Demelza Poldark in the historical period drama ‘Poldark’ 2015- present) and Aiysha Hart (DC Sam Railston in the BBC police procedural drama ‘Line of Duty’ (2012- present) ‘Colette’ is an important film of our time to witness, its exploration of the expectations and restrictions gender roles bring, as well as female sexual identity being at the foreground of the plotline. It is a whirlwind of a journey bringing mixed emotions but with a satisfying finish.
image: Refinery29