Colette tells the story of the lauded French author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, played by Kiera Knightley. With a highly respectable 87 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, the Wash Westmoreland helmed biopic was received exceptionally well by critics. The Colette DVD release is imminently approaching, and Express.co.uk spoke to the director about what drew him to Colette’s story.
“Colette lived enough for five films,” Westmoreland said about the titular character.
“You could make a series on her that would run for many seasons. She lived very fully.”
The film follows Colette’s marriage to writer Henry Gauthier-Villars (played by Dominic West) – also known as Willy – who brings her from rural France to Paris where she was soon swept up in society.
With such a huge story to tell, Westmoreland says he chose to narrow the focus to Colette’s first marriage, saying: “It’s is a superhero origin story.”
He added: “She was seen as a sort of country bumpkin but she knew how to work that angle. She picked up on the rules of the salon society.”
Despite being a well-respected author, Willy was actually not writing the books which came out under his name. Rather, he was employing ghost writers – and soon his own wife was among the contingent helping to further his career.
He convinced Colette to write for him, under his pen name, and the first novel Claudine was an unmitigated success.
The heart of the story is in its “natural suspense” Westmoreland said, adding: “There’s an injustice here. When is it going to be put right? How is it going to be put right?
“How is she going to get out from under his giant suffocating toxic masculinity? That was the story we wanted to tell.”
There are similar stories being told, most pertinently The Wife, which was released in America in the same month as Colette.
The wife tells the story of Joan (Glenn Close) whose husband Joe (Jonathan Pryce) takes credit for her writing and wins a Nobel Prize for it.
Westmoreland says he was particularly drawn to the story of Colette because it highlights a troubling issue that takes place throughout history.
“I think you could tell this story a thousand different ways because throughout history women’s work has been co-opted by men.
“Big Eyes is another parallel. I think more stories will be told because a lot of the time women’s place in history has been hidden.
“Very talented women who are not encouraged by society to claim the work that they have done.”
Without detracting from Close’s “brilliant, nuanced and complex performance”, Westmoreland admitted: “I prefer the ending to Colette; she claims the writing as her own.
“She claims her own work. That’s a very empowering message.”
Colette is available on digital download from May 6, 2019 and Blu-ray and DVD from May 13, 2019.
