Stephen Frears’ first feature since the amazing success of The Queen reunites the team that produced his earlier Dangerous Liaisons – Frears as Director, writer Christopher Hampton, here adapting two novels by Colette, and lead actor Michelle Pfeiffer – in another period comedy of manners with dark undertones.
The setting again is France, but this time during the hedonistic, opium haze days of the Belle Epoque, where Chéri, a privileged, dissolute young man, begins a passionate affair with Lea de Lonval, one of the most celebrated courtesans of the day.
The lovers are separated, and Chéri subsequently marries, but finds himself drawn back into his pursuit of Lea. Frears frames the drama around the social conventions of the age, the etiquette and art nouveau design, all of which are stripped away only after the two lovers come to realise their different destinies.
