Inspired by the incredible true story of composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner who rises to improbable heights in French society as a celebrated violinist-composer and fencer, complete with an ill-fated love affair and a falling out with Marie Antoinette and her court. Kelvin Harrison Jr. gives a tour de force performance as the composer, while Ronke Adekoluejo as his mother, Lucy Boynton as Marie Antoinette, Sian Clifford as a wealthy patron, and Samara Weaving and Minnie Driver as dueling opera singers give pitch-perfect work as the various women who disrupt his life for better or for worse. Music also plays a major role in this film and the score is composed by AFF alum Kris Bowers, who also composed the scores for Academy Award-winning movies Green Book and King Richard and the hit television series Bridgerton. This powerful film exposes parallel issues of racism, sexism, and classism that existed in pre-revolutionary France that still persist in the United States today.
