『A Female Artist’s True Love and Self-Discovery Beyond Oppression』
๐ฅ Movie Overview
๐ฌ Title: Colette (2018)
๐ Country: ๐ซ๐ท France & ๐ฌ๐ง UK
๐️ Genre: Biographical Drama / Romance / LGBTQ+
⏳ Runtime: 111 minutes
๐ข Director: Wash Westmoreland
๐️ Screenplay: Wash Westmoreland, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Richard Glatzer
๐บ Platforms: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, etc.
๐ฉ๐ผ Cast: Keira Knightley – Gabrielle Colette
Eleanor Tomlinson – Georgie Raoul-Duval
Denise Gough – Mathilde de Morny “Missy”
๐งฉ Story Deep Dive (Spoilers)
๐ฟ First Partner: Henri Gauthier-Villars, Willy
Colette’s first love brought her to Paris but also inflicted the greatest pain in her life.
Collapse of the Relationship: When Willy commits the ultimate betrayal by selling the copyright of the Claudine series without Colette’s consent for a pittance, Colette finally decides to end her marriage. Willy served as a 'necessary evil' who allowed Colette to discover her life as an independent writer.
Meeting and Marriage: Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, a country girl, meets and marries Willy, a much older and famous Parisian literary entrepreneur, and is captivated by him.
Romance and Betrayal: Initially enchanted by Willy’s glamorous life and intellectual atmosphere, Colette soon discovers his serious infidelities and financial problems. Willy dismisses Colette’s pain, believing male affairs to be natural.
Artistic Exploitation: Willy forces Colette to write autobiographical novels. When the Claudine series becomes a huge success, he publishes it under his own name, taking all the credit and income. He exploits her creative energy, even forcing her to continue writing under confinement.
๐ญ Second Partner: Georgie Raoul-Duval
Through this relationship, Colette experiences sexual liberation but is still not completely free from Willy’s shadow.
Materialization: Colette channels this experience into her novel Claudine en mรฉnage, turning her life into an artistic reconstruction and a writerly outlet.
Bisexual Awareness: Amid Willy’s constant infidelity and exploitation, Colette begins an affair with the charming American woman Georgie Raoul-Duval, exploring her bisexual tendencies.
Triangular Relationship: Surprisingly, Willy also becomes involved with Georgie, resulting in a peculiar 'mรฉnage ร trois' for a period. This gave Colette sexual liberation while showing that Willy still influenced her life.
๐ Third Partner: Mathilde de Morny, Missy
Through this relationship, Colette discovers her true self and challenges societal norms.
Completion of Self: Her relationship with Missy allows Colette to fully embrace her sexual identity and artistic desires without hiding. This courage ultimately enables her to step out of Willy’s shadow and establish herself as the writer ‘Colette’.
Challenge to Gender Norms: Missy, a pioneering figure who wore men’s clothing and defied gender conventions, becomes Colette’s truest and most inspiring partner.
Public Provocation: Colette and Missy perform on the Paris Music Hall stage, presenting a same-sex kiss performance that sparked enormous scandal in contemporary Parisian society.
๐ฆ Emotional Resonance and Significance
๐จ Exploring Identity: Breaking Boundaries of Gender and Sexuality
The film transcends a simple biopic by positively portraying Colette’s sexual fluidity and freedom of gender expression.
Public Provocation: The scene where Colette and Missy kiss on stage serves as a direct challenge to contemporary moral norms that suppressed individual sexual freedom and as a way for Colette to communicate with the public as an artist.
Bisexual Exploration: Colette’s relationship with Georgie allows her to experience sexual liberation and integrate her life openly into her work.
Relationship with Missy and Gender Rebellion: Missy had the greatest impact on Colette, challenging gender norms by wearing men’s clothing. Through this relationship, Colette confidently begins wearing pants and masculine attire instead of feminine dresses, symbolizing her path to her true self, not merely as 'Willy’s wife' conforming to societal gaze.
Director Wash Westmoreland realistically recreates late 19th-century French society and the art world, capturing the inner life of oppressed women and the social atmosphere of the era with delicate mise-en-scรจne.
๐ Cinematic Achievement: A Rediscovery of Keira Knightley
Westmoreland balances classic period drama aesthetics while capturing Colette’s bold spirit with careful directorial balance.
Luxurious Period Setting: The Belle รpoque Paris of the late 19th century offers visual pleasure with high-quality costumes, detailed art design, and the opulent lifestyle of the wealthy. This splendor sharply contrasts Willy’s hypocrisy with Colette’s suffering.
Keira Knightley: Knightley convincingly portrays Colette’s complex inner world, from a shy country girl to a shrewd Parisian socialite, expressing rising anger against exploitation and artistic resilience. Her performance shines in scenes reacting to copyright theft and in free moments with Missy.
๐ A New Standard for Women’s Biopics
《Colette》 exposes the oppression faced by women’s voices and art in patriarchal society while presenting timeless themes of sexual liberation and the defiance of gender norms through the life of one female writer.
The film is a powerful and captivating female emancipation narrative, depicting how Colette turns her life into her own work, rather than merely material for someone else’s story.
๐ฏ Personal Rating
๐ Love Scene Intensity: ♥♥♥
⭐ Rating: ★★★★★
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