I just saw the film Colette, about the prolific French woman writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. She was born in the French countryside in 1873, but moved to Paris after her marriage to the worldly-wise Henry Gauthier Villars, better known by his nom de plume of “Willy.” Colette became one of the ghost-writers who produced the works that bolstered Willy’s ego and paid for his extravagances.
I won’t go into details, but Colette is non-traditional in every way that you can imagine and eventually wrests her freedom from everything and everyone that tried to limit her. The main roles are played by Keira Knightley and Dominic West and they both should be looking at award nominations for this one. The director, Wash Westmoreland, included lots of true little details about Colette, such as her passion for collecting paper weights. It’s in fairly limited release, but I’d recommend it if you get a chance to see it.
When I read the first few pages of one of Colette’s novels in French (perhaps it was “Cheri”), I thought that I must surely be misunderstanding the prose because the characters were acting in a very sexual manner that seemed incongruous for a novel written in the early years of the 20th century. Colette was creative and bold. Glad to know that the film about this amazing French writer is worthwhile and well researched.