Exhibition
Chéri: Film Screening and Talkback SOLD OUT!
Thursday, August 31, 2023
2023 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the iconic French author, Colette (1873-1954). Groundbreaking, feminist, sometimes scandalous, Colette’s confessional novellas captured vividly the inner lives of women of all ages in Belle Époque Paris. This summer, as part of our exhibition, Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau to Modernism, we are hosting our first film and lecture series inspired by Colette’s work.
Film Synopsis:
The setting for Chéri (2009) is Hector Guimard’s lushly designed Hotel Mezzara. It is the story of a famous, aging courtesan, Lea de Lonval (Michelle Pfeiffer), who is asked to school her friend’s son, 19-year-old Chéri (Rupert Friend), in the ways of love. What begins as an education turns into a tragic love affair as Lea and Cheri struggle—and fail—to live up to conventional expectations. The trailer is available here.
The film will be introduced by University of Chicago Professor Leora Auslander, who will set the context for the film with a primer on the visuals, narrative, as well as issues of gender and sexuality in turn of the century Paris. If there’s time after, she will lead a brief Q&A about the film.
This screening is designed for adults ages 18 and over. It is rated R and includes sexual content and brief drug use. The film is 1h26minutes.
This event will be held at the Nickerson Mansion Ballroom, on the Third Floor. Please be aware that the Driehaus Museum elevator will be closed at this time, due to ongoing renovation work at the Murphy Auditorium.
About the Speaker:
Leora Auslander is Arthur and Joann Rasmussen Professor in Western Civilization in the College and Professor in the departments of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity and History at the University of Chicago. The primary national focus of her research is modern France, but she investigates research problems best treated transnationally. She teaches nineteenth- and twentieth-century European social and cultural history with a focus on France and Germany; material culture, everyday life, and the built environment; Jewish history; gender history and theory; race in the Atlantic world; colonial and postcolonial Europe.
Photograph courtesy of Miramax Films.