Dominic West (Willy) and Keira Knightley (Colette) in “Colette.”
Glenn Close (Joan) and Jonathan Pryce (as Professor Joseph Castleman) in “The Wife.”
COLETTE & THE WIFE
Film Review by Marlene Ardoin
What are the chances of two films coming out just weeks from each other with the exact same theme? Unfortunately, I have seen this movie many times before, where the husband exploits and takes credit for the natural artistic talent of his wife.
“Colette” and “The Wife” feature wives, who both ghost write for their husbands, who then take credit for their wives writing, because, as explained, no one would buy a book that a woman wrote.
Colette was a real French woman, who eventually managed to break away from her first husband’s parasitic partnership, when she discovers his philandering. Colette was actually nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.
Whereas the wife (Glenn Close) in “The Wife” gets to (spoiler alert) unravel as she participates in the act to the Nobel bitter end, as she also discovers that her husband is philandering his way all the way to the end.
And as the quote goes “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
In comparing these two films, fiction cannot hold a candle to the real story of Colette, which is bolder, wilder and more courageous than any possible made up story as presented in “The Wife.”
Colette had the advantage of being very beautiful, which is prized in a patriarchic system. She also had a mother, who built up her confidence in herself, and she was able to attract influential lovers, and multiple husbands, who helped her stand on her own feet financially.
What is not shown in this film are her two other marriages and the birth of her own daughter, who was born in 1913.
I wanted this film to continue on, too bad, they could not find a way to tell Colette’s whole story. But then, in a patriarchic society, women are not supposed to turn the tables on their men, nor are they allowed to get old.
Colette:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colette
Actor Dominic West:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_West
Actress Keira Knightley:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keira_Knightley
Actress Glenn Close:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Close
Actor Jonathan Pryce:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pryce
Director Wash Westmorland:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wash_Westmoreland
Director Bjorn Runge:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B6rn_Runge
The real Colette and her first husband, Henry Gauthier-Villars, Willy.
10/17/2018 # Colette & The Wife