We chat with ChevalierMovie director Stephen Williams about bringing the life and times of the Chevalier de Saint-Georges to light after far too long in the dark:
Searchlight Pictures’ Chevalier is a beautiful film that shines a light on Joseph Bologne, a virtuosic violinist and composer granted the title Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Born to an enslaved Senegalese woman, Joseph Bologne became a constant figure in the court of Marie Antoinette, although he eventually took up arms against the nobility and fought in French Revolution.
Stephen Williams: I think that, unfortunately, Joseph Bologne's life, the life of the Chevalier, was erased. There's kind of no polite way to say that. Napoleon came into power post-revolution in France and ordered the suppression of Joseph's life, [and] his music. As a result, very, very little has been written about Joseph, very little of Chevalier's music remains.
John Adams, the American president, described him as the most accomplished man in all of Europe, and I knew nothing about him.
Stephen Williams: There's this great quote from the playwright Tom Stoppard. "Facts are facts, and truth is something else entirely, and is a product of the imagination." We didn't set out to make a cradle-to-grave biopic; we set out to make a movie that was an imagining of this historical figure, but one where we used our own connection to the material to get at what we experienced to be the truthful essence of this person's life.
Stephen Williams: There were areas that I wanted to expand on, and areas that I wanted to eliminate. Joseph Bologne was the progeny of a French plantation owner and a 16-year-old enslaved woman on his plantation. So, there's a portion of Joseph's life, probably up until he was about 10 years old, before he was taken to France by his father, that unfolded in plantation Guadeloupe.
Stephen Williams: Bob Marley is obviously part of my cultural tapestry, [and] of my place of origin. I was born in Jamaica, and he is such a huge cultural figure. His impact has expanded beyond the confines of reggae music; He is a musical revolutionary, and he's both a revolutionary in terms of [the] socio-political arena, but also just internally, [in regards to] spiritual evolution, spiritual revolution, growth, and change.
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