Becoming Colette, or Colette, as it is known outside of the US is a 1992 biopic film detailing the life of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, or simply Colette as she liked to be known…
Colette was a French Author, Intellectual, Mime, Journalist and Actress. She’s best known today for her 1944 novella, Gigi.
Becoming Colette is filmed as a series of flashbacks, Colette (Mathilda May) tells her story after spotting her ex-huband in the audience of a theatre performance, we see her meet Henri Gauthier-Villars, known as Willy (Klaus Maria Brandauer) who should later marry to help out her Father.
Willy would see an untapped resource in Colette and encourage her to write, for which he would then take credit. He would introduce her to a different world than what she was used to, but Colette would embrace it wholeheartedly. One evening Willy would take Colette to the Moulin Rogue where she would meet his Mistress, Polaire (VIrginia Madsen). Polaire would take Colette under her wing somewhat, in more ways than one.
And that’s pretty much all I dare write on this one. My copy of the film is in German and so I wasn’t able to rewatch it. I have it on VHS as well but no VHS player these days so I was pot out of luck.
The story of Colette was also retold more recently in 2018, with Keira Knigtley as Colette and Aiysha Hart as Polaire. I’ll confess to getting the stories muddled in my head somewhat and as with all biopics, what can be seen on screen isn’t necessarily a reflection of real life.
Becoming Colette is worth a watch if you can find it. And I’ll say that as someone who doesn’t normally period films (as you might have noticed). The new version is also worth a watch if you can’t.
Colette was certainly an interesting woman.
Availability:
This one’s tough. I picked up a DVD out of Germany that turned out to be a Laser Paradise disc and was German language only, no English track, and not an official studio release.
As far as I can tell, there’s never been a proper DVD with the original audio. VHS copies do turn up in the US, but they’re NTSC, so you’d need the right player.
I’ve got a UK VHS myself, but that’s the only one I’ve ever seen in the wild, so it does exist but it’s going to pure luck and chance if you do find a copy.
Gallery:
Trailer:
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