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Chéri

  • 2009
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 40m
IMDb RATING
6.1/10
12K
YOUR RATING
Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend in Chéri (2009)
A romantic drama set in 1920s Paris, where the son of a courtesan retreats into a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with the older woman who educated him in the ways of love.
Play trailer1:22
3 Videos
53 Photos
Period DramaComedyDramaRomance

The son of a courtesan retreats into a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with the older woman who educated him in the ways of love.The son of a courtesan retreats into a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with the older woman who educated him in the ways of love.The son of a courtesan retreats into a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with the older woman who educated him in the ways of love.

  • Director
    • Stephen Frears
  • Writers
    • Christopher Hampton
    • Colette
  • Stars
    • Michelle Pfeiffer
    • Rupert Friend
    • Kathy Bates
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.1/10
    12K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Stephen Frears
    • Writers
      • Christopher Hampton
      • Colette
    • Stars
      • Michelle Pfeiffer
      • Rupert Friend
      • Kathy Bates
    • 47User reviews
    • 141Critic reviews
    • 63Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 3 wins & 2 nominations total

    Videos3

    Chéri
    Trailer 1:22
    Chéri
    Chéri
    Trailer 1:12
    Chéri
    Chéri
    Trailer 1:12
    Chéri
    Cheri
    Featurette 1:40
    Cheri

    Photos53

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    Top cast24

    Edit
    Michelle Pfeiffer
    Michelle Pfeiffer
    • Lea
    Rupert Friend
    Rupert Friend
    • Chéri
    Kathy Bates
    Kathy Bates
    • Madame Peloux
    Frances Tomelty
    Frances Tomelty
    • Rose
    Tom Burke
    Tom Burke
    • Vicomte Desmond
    Hubert Tellegen
    • Ernest
    Joe Sheridan
    Joe Sheridan
    • Marcel
    Toby Kebbell
    Toby Kebbell
    • Patron
    Felicity Jones
    Felicity Jones
    • Edmée
    Iben Hjejle
    Iben Hjejle
    • Marie Laure
    Alain Churin
    • Priest
    Bette Bourne
    Bette Bourne
    • Baronne
    Nichola McAuliffe
    Nichola McAuliffe
    • Madame Aldonza
    Andras Hamori
    • Silver Haired Industrialist
    Gaye Brown
    Gaye Brown
    • Lili
    Rollo Weeks
    Rollo Weeks
    • Guido
    Jack Walker
    • Monsieur Roland
    Natasha Cashman
    • Madame Roland
    • Director
      • Stephen Frears
    • Writers
      • Christopher Hampton
      • Colette
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews47

    6.111.9K
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    Featured reviews

    7pedrothefish

    An atmospheric love story in pre first world war France

    My feelings about this film swung between two competing schools of thought as I watched it.

    One - do I feel any attachment and engagement in this story of Belle Epoque Paris where an extremely wealthy courtesan falls in love with the son of an extremely wealthy courtesan, a young man with apparently few redeeming features to his character ?

    and

    Two - This is a very well made and acted film - Michelle Pfeiffer is excellent, drawing me into the feelings of her character as the film progressed and Rupert Friend makes much of a role that I'm sure other young actors would have found too complex

    In the end I settled closer to thought number two - this is a film with much to say about love and who we fall in love with.

    I was fortunate to attend a screening of this film at which both the writer - Christopher Hampton & director Stephen Frears were present and enjoyed listening to them talk about the film, it's development and their hopes for it. Two very engaging characters who proved to be happy to answer all kinds of questions that we the Nottingham audience could throw at them
    6carlostallman

    Pfeiffer's Friend

    You can't really tell as far as Stephen Frears is concerned. After the sensational "The Queen" another film that is only slightly more tolerable than the dreadful "Mrs Henderson Presents" Here Rupert Friend in the title role is a delightful throwback to Oscar Wilde territory. You understand Pfeiffer loosing her head for him but not why he looses his for her. She's certainly beautiful but lifeless. She looks more distant than ever, struggling to find the tone of her performance and I'm afraid she never does. Not a glimpse of the Pfeiffer from "The Age Of Innocence" or even "The Fabulous Baker Boys" No sense of period or of intention. Kathy Bates is an annoying over the top caricature but Ruper Friend is the oasis that makes the aridity of this nonsense truly bearable. I had seen him before, most remarkably, in another story with another older woman, Joan Plowright in "Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont" He is an actor with, clearly, a few aces up his sleeve and I bet he will dazzle us with other surprises in the future. Here he's badly served by his director, co-stars costume designer, make up and hair and in spite of that he emerges as the only reason to see this film.
    6davidtraversa-1

    Lost in Translation.

    Aging, Michelle Pfeiffer has become what Oscar Wilde called "That abomination of nature: A Handsome Woman". Her very trimmed figure looks spectacular sheathed in very glamorous Belle Epoque dresses and looking at her with contemporary eyes, that's fine.

    What the director forgot in recreating so beautifully, so painfully all the paraphernalia necessary to reproduce that magnificent time in history was... the ideal of feminine beauty at the time.

    We glaringly see it in the same old pictures (authentic) shown at the start of the movie, pictures of the great beauties then, like Lillie Langtry, Lia de Putti, la Bella Otero, etc. and it's obvious that those beauties where more on the side of Marilyn Monroe than Michelle Pfeiffer, who looks like a window display mannequin with no curves in the right places and no minimal waistline (Hourglass figure painfully obtained thanks to an oppressing corset, but there it was).

    To give us total recall of that time our protagonist should have been somebody a bit fatter than Ms. Pfeiffer, since we readily forget all the changes the feminine figure has suffered just in the last 100 years; what was considered fashionable or desirable then was quite different from now, and a thin woman was totally undesirable.

    The film is nice, in a very superficial way, since its main flaw is irreparable, because speaking English in this superbly French story, we get a jarring note, and it's this: All the "decadent" morality, social behavior, points of view about richly kept elegant cocottes by the upper class French men is something totally unknown to puritan Victorian English society. This utterly French "Menage a Trois" is totally lost in this English version of Paris life at the turn of the century.

    The house where she lives, the street, the interior locations, the dresses, all that is perfectly fine (more than fine, exquisite), but THE ESENCE of Colette masterpiece is not there. Due to the strong visual appeal in interiors, color schemes, Art Nuveau architecture and Belle Epoque fashions, this is mainly eye candy for dress designers and interior decorators.
    7yris2002

    refined and melancholic

    "Cheri" is the nickname given by Lea (Michelle Pfeiffer) to the young, much younger Fred, whom she brings to discover the truth about lovemaking, and unintentionally but inevitably, about loving. The actor playing Fred is handsome, attractive, but who really hits the sign (as usually, I would say) is Michelle Pfeiffer, who proved to be very courageous in playing a role where she constantly repeats to herself how old she is. Indeed, her beauty, elegance and refinement are always there to remind her and us how difficult it is to come to terms with ageing, mainly when beauty has been the very essence of your life.

    The plot is almost absent, being the story more based on emotions, moods, sensations, rather than facts, and the movie in the end manages to capture the viewer, thanks to its capability to render the emotional side through glances and through effective and intense framing of both characters and situations: the last one is incisive, almost paralyzing.

    Ironic and funny moments are not absent, mainly when Cathy Bates, playing the odd, high spirited mother, enters the scene, but the overall tone is a melancholic one, above all for the female public, we cannot but sympathize with Lea's inner strength, and at the same time feel moved by her deep suffering. From an aesthetic point of view, the movie is to be visually appreciated for its pleasant settings, its refined costumes and in general for a deep care for precious details.
    5bwanabrad-1

    Do not cherish Cheri

    A film that fails to ignite much interest. Not for the first time in recent memory Pfeiffer plays the older woman in love with a younger man, in this case one much younger. Scorsese and Pfeiffer covered some of this same territory in The Age of Innocence, and to much better effect. She is a courtesan, he the son of another famous courtesan. He has led an indolent life, spoiled throughout his entire existence. As a result he has grown to manhood completely divorced from any feelings for anyone. Instead he allows himself to be forced into a hastily arranged marriage by his ambitious mother, to a young woman he neither loves nor cares for. He is indifferent to his wife and drifts back and forth between the two women.

    The script is pretty nondescript in places. Pfeiffer has a few decent lines and still radiates enough screen presence to carry some scenes, and Bates matches her well. Most of the problems with this film are based on the male character Cheri (Friend). He is left with too little too late for us to care about his fate. lnstead he allows himself to have his opinions formed for him by his mother and and Lea who also does much of what passes for thinking on his behalf as well. He is married off to a woman he doesn't love, and then proceeds to drift between her and his lover without ever showing any real sense of commitment to either.

    Due to the limitations of the script and his character, he comes across as only half formed, and too many scenes end with him staring blankly into the camera, looking quite vacuous, and a penny for his thoughts would be an understatement of inflation. lt is not easy to know which audience this movie is aimed at. It is not quite glamorous enough to be mainstream nor is it memorable enough to be art-house. As a result it meanders along without ever really being anything more than an exercise in self indulgence. That is a pity as l was expecting a fair bit more from those involved.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      When the project was in development during the 1990s, Jessica Lange planned to star as Léa de Lonval.
    • Goofs
      In the closing credits, 'thanks' are given to France's national railway, the Societe National Chemin de Fer, known as the "SNCF". However the credits have the letters out of sequence, calling it the "SCNF".
    • Quotes

      Lea de Lonval: I'm probably making a fool of myself... but then again, why not? Life is short!

    • Alternate versions
      There are five different versions. Runtimes are: "1h 40m(100 min), 1h 26m(86 min) (United States), 1h 32m(92 min) (United States), 1h 32m(92 min) (Argentina), 1h 40m(100 min) (Berlin International) (Germany)".
    • Connections
      Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Observe & Report/Gigantic/Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009)

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    FAQ

    • How long is Chéri?Powered by Alexa
    • Is "Chéri" based on a book?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 8, 2009 (France)
    • Countries of origin
      • United Kingdom
      • France
      • Germany
    • Languages
      • English
      • French
      • Latin
      • Italian
    • Also known as
      • Cheri
    • Filming locations
      • Restaurant Maxim's, 3 rue Royale, Paris 8, Paris, France
    • Production companies
      • Bill Kenwright Films
      • Pathé
      • UK Film Council
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $23,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $2,715,657
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $405,701
      • Jun 28, 2009
    • Gross worldwide
      • $9,368,242
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 40 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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