Chevalier

Books By Patti Liszkay
​Available on Amazon

​
​https://www.amzn.com/1685131832

​CHEVALIER

       A couple of Saturday evenings ago I and half a dozen other movie-goers had one of the Columbus Easton Town Center AMC theaters to ourselves for the five dollar special. Sadly, the movie we saw was "Chevalier."
          I say "sadly," because "Chevalier" is such an enthralling, enlightening, wonderful film that it deserved a far better platform than a five dollar showing in a mostly empty theater. But I expect this was the case because apparently not many people have heard of the movie. Which maybe figures, since apparently neither have many people heard of the subject of the film, one of the great 18th Century classical composers, Joseph Bologne, also known as Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who was as famous as Mozart during his time. And who happened to be Black.

   But while Mozart, Hayden, Gluck, Beethoven, C.P.E. Bach and other musical greats of that era are still well known to this day, Joseph Bologne is not. "Chevalier" tells the amazing story of this prodigious musician of color whose life and music were erased from history.
​      As related in the movie,  Joseph Bologne was born a slave on a plantation in the Caribbean, the child of an 18-year-old enslaved girl and the French plantation owner who considered her his sexual property, 

​...as slave owners generally considered their slaves to be.
      However, as a child Joseph showed a prodigious musical ability.

...and his French father, perhaps in an attempt to assuage his conscience and do right by the child, or perhaps to discreetly make this biracial child of his disappear, took Joseph to Paris - slavery being legal in the French colonies but outlawed in France - and enrolled him in an elite boarding school. Here Joseph was initially tormented, 

...but nonetheless grew into not only a brilliant musician, 

...but a champion swordsman,

​...and after beating the reigning champion, was granted by Queen Marie-Antoinette the title of Chevalier de Saint-George.  
        But although Saint-George was an acclaimed composer and conductor,

...though he was a nobleman who travelled in the highest aristocratic circles and was an intimate friend of Marie-Antoinette,

...among others,

...and although by law as soon as any person set foot in France they were free, still, there were certain basic rights accorded the white population that were denied a person of color such as Joseph Bologne, whatever his social status or station in life. Nor were rivals, competitors or envious individuals above using his race against him to bring themselves up by keeping him down.
      Meanwhile seeds of unrest among the French population were blooming into a revolution, 

​...to which  Joseph Bologne would awaken,

...anad adopt the struggle of the people as his own.

  "Chevalier" was a visual treat of beautiful period scenes and costumes, and told a compelling story set to the sublime music of Chevalier de Saint-George.

      And yet what struck me most about "Chevalier" was the fact that until I saw this movie Joseph Bologne didn't exist for me. In fact, I could hardly - can still hardly - wrap my head around the fact that a man who was such a great composer and figure of historical importance barely exists for anyone. It's almost as if there's a hole in history that nobody knew was there.
         Still, I suppose it's better to have known great fame and have one's heroism celebrated during one's lifetime and then be forgotten after one's death - as happened with Joseph Bologne - than to have lived unknown and unacknowledged, only to have one's great accomplishments discovered and honored after one is no longer around to enjoy the recognition of one's life's work. 
        But after the death of Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-George in 1799 it obviously did not suit  the purposes of the time, when black slavery was still in its ascendance in the British and French colonies and the young United States, to immortalize the genius and accomplishments of a man of color.
         Funny how time works, though.
       BTW, though "Chevalier" has likely left the big theater screen in most locations, it can now be found streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves music, history, and/or a really good movie.