Chéri (2009)

Director Stephen Frears may be best known these days for The Queen (2006), which won the Oscar for Helen Mirren, and was nominated for best picture, directing, screenplay, costumes, and music. But his resume is varied. Check out My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987--released in some places as Sammy and Rosie), The Grifters (1990) with John Cusack and Angelica Huston, Hero (1992) with Dustin Hoffman, The Snapper (1993) with Colm Meany, High Fidelity (2000) with John Cusack, Dirty Pretty Things (2002) with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tatou, and Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005) with Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins; they are all first rate.

But the one that comes up in Chéri's publicity is his 1988 costume drama, Dangerous Liaisons, in which Glenn Close was the older woman and Michelle Pfeiffer played the ingénue (and was nominated for an Oscar), though she was 30 that year. That's because in Chéri, Pfeiffer (faves: Sweet Liberty (1986), Witches of Eastwick (1987), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Batman Returns (1992), White Oleander (2002)) played the older woman, Lea, in another costume drama, this one set at the end of the 19th century, during France's Belle Epoque. And, oh, those costumes! Oh, the hats! The gorgeous Pfeiffer's trim frame was swathed in the most luxurious fabrics and styles and topped with les chapeaux les plus élégants - my favorite being the one with the black lace brim when she got to Biarritz. Set design was also outstanding, with art nouveau furniture and architecture.

The screenplay was written by Christopher Hampton (Atonement (2007), and Dangerous Liaisons, for which he won an Oscar), based on two novels, Chéri (1920) and La Fin de Chéri (1926), by Colette, who also wrote the novel Gigi in 1945, on which the 1951 play and 1958 movie were based. This is a tale of a retired courtesan, Lea, and her relationship with Chéri (Rupert Friend, who played the kind young man in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and one of the Nazis in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) who is the son of another ex-courtesan, played with great belly laughs and furrowed brows by Kathy Bates (she will be co-starring later this year with Pfeiffer and Ashton Kutcher in Personal Effects, and was great in About Schmidt (2002), Titanic (1997) as Molly Brown, Dolores Claiborne (1995) as Delores, Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), and the recurring character Bettina on HBO's Six Feet Under, in episodes that she directed). Bates won an Oscar for her role in Misery (1990), which I didn't see. Also seen are Felicity Jones (Cordelia in Brideshead Revisited) as the younger woman Edmée, and, in a cameo as La Copine, Anita Pallenberg (Keith Richards' baby mama, consort of Brian Jones and Mick Jaggar, and Queen impersonator in Mister Lonely (2007), which is about a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) who befriends a Marilyn Monroe impersonator).

Chéri may be gone from the theatres by the time you read this, so be sure you rent the wide screen version and try to get a big monitor on which to see it!