From the opening scene, I was horrified. It had always been a dream of mine to witness a Joseph Bologne movie. Given the scope of his life and near super-human qualities, at no point did I imagine, that it would not be EPIC. A champion HORSEMAN, FENCER AND VIRTUOSO whose nemesis wore a full gown for their battle; the fact that he INDEED lived with his mother AND father (traveling back and forth) in Paris from the age of 9 and their dynamics in supporting their son through the constants fires brewing at every turn in Joseph's top tier educational career which it seemed important for the auteur behind this movie to ERASE. Shameful.
We are to believe Bologne did it all on his own and that he had little affection for his parents who left him to fend for himself in the cold halls of the academie.
...and the opening scene. As someone with some knowledge of times, my head nearly exploded. Mozart being adored onstage later joined by a dusky upstart which the audience seemingly had zero faith in as Mozart challenge was on. THIS...MADE...ZERO.... SENSE. From his mid-teens, Joseph Bologne WAS A CELEBRITY simply from his athleticism, attractiveness and famed public battles which he almost always won. He later was a musical celebrity haven't innovated the quartet and mastered the harpsichord, but back to the opening scene, it would have been MOZART who was seen as the outsider.
Sigh, so many terrible choices made in this movie from the underwhelming casting (Bologne was a strapping specimen of a man. A Superman, figure, if you will and it would have been important to note that. He had a proper relationship with his parents. There is absolutely no record of distance between Bologne and his parents especially his mother who, in the movie, is a figure of derision for Bologne and distant from her son. A truly malicious choice from the auteur.
Bologne also would have been considered a "Lothario" but we only experience this by word of mouth in the movie. There is little to no evidence he was ever hung up on that one particular woman.
He was more than a violinist. They rushed through his schools years and there was no exploration of his life in Guadaloupe. IMAGINE opening up with a beautiful juxtaposition of the lush Caribbean world with the cold, angular environment would have served the audience and Bologne's identity and life well. HOW IMPORTANT THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN IN NOTING THAT BOLOGNE WAS IN FACT "BORN ENSLAVED".
Lastly, and most horrendously, Bologne's triumphant French Revolution story with his 1000 (I believe) Black soldiers whose victories became legendary. A French Revolution which had Bologne and the famed Thomas-Alexandre Dumas. WHAT A LOST OPPORTUNITY!
A star was added for the valiant effort of the lead actor who was given a job that was not suited for him but this film... should never have been made. Not like this.
This film was reduced to a symbolic journey of "Blackness in Solitude" through white spaces and relationships, truth be damned. The "parable" ending with his embracing what he seemed to deny during important parts of this movie, his "Black identity". A journey which would have been better explored with a fictional character than a man whose life was so grand (there is so much more I could have added especially with his competitive battles amongst men like Mozart) that it warranted a NETFLIX series over an under 2 hour movie experience.
Joseph deserved better and the audience deserved the truth.
We are to believe Bologne did it all on his own and that he had little affection for his parents who left him to fend for himself in the cold halls of the academie.
...and the opening scene. As someone with some knowledge of times, my head nearly exploded. Mozart being adored onstage later joined by a dusky upstart which the audience seemingly had zero faith in as Mozart challenge was on. THIS...MADE...ZERO.... SENSE. From his mid-teens, Joseph Bologne WAS A CELEBRITY simply from his athleticism, attractiveness and famed public battles which he almost always won. He later was a musical celebrity haven't innovated the quartet and mastered the harpsichord, but back to the opening scene, it would have been MOZART who was seen as the outsider.
Sigh, so many terrible choices made in this movie from the underwhelming casting (Bologne was a strapping specimen of a man. A Superman, figure, if you will and it would have been important to note that. He had a proper relationship with his parents. There is absolutely no record of distance between Bologne and his parents especially his mother who, in the movie, is a figure of derision for Bologne and distant from her son. A truly malicious choice from the auteur.
Bologne also would have been considered a "Lothario" but we only experience this by word of mouth in the movie. There is little to no evidence he was ever hung up on that one particular woman.
He was more than a violinist. They rushed through his schools years and there was no exploration of his life in Guadaloupe. IMAGINE opening up with a beautiful juxtaposition of the lush Caribbean world with the cold, angular environment would have served the audience and Bologne's identity and life well. HOW IMPORTANT THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN IN NOTING THAT BOLOGNE WAS IN FACT "BORN ENSLAVED".
Lastly, and most horrendously, Bologne's triumphant French Revolution story with his 1000 (I believe) Black soldiers whose victories became legendary. A French Revolution which had Bologne and the famed Thomas-Alexandre Dumas. WHAT A LOST OPPORTUNITY!
A star was added for the valiant effort of the lead actor who was given a job that was not suited for him but this film... should never have been made. Not like this.
This film was reduced to a symbolic journey of "Blackness in Solitude" through white spaces and relationships, truth be damned. The "parable" ending with his embracing what he seemed to deny during important parts of this movie, his "Black identity". A journey which would have been better explored with a fictional character than a man whose life was so grand (there is so much more I could have added especially with his competitive battles amongst men like Mozart) that it warranted a NETFLIX series over an under 2 hour movie experience.
Joseph deserved better and the audience deserved the truth.
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