1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:03,920 Speaker 1: Break the Flick with Ben o'he on ninety six a m. 2 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:09,080 Speaker 2: Good morning band, Good morning guys. Are we Bridgeton fans? 3 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:09,399 Speaker 1: Oh? 4 00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:13,320 Speaker 2: Absolutely loves it? Love it. Yeah. 5 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:16,120 Speaker 3: So this movie we're going to talk about today, Chevalier 6 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:19,080 Speaker 3: is a bit like Bridgington. You certainly look at the trailer, 7 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:21,079 Speaker 3: you look at the poster, and you go, Okay, I 8 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:24,040 Speaker 3: know what I'm getting here. It's kind of a period drama. 9 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:26,720 Speaker 3: They play loose and fast with history, but that's okay 10 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:30,319 Speaker 3: in the name of entertainment. Shows like Bridgeton and the 11 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:33,280 Speaker 3: Great they sort of take a modern lens to history 12 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:36,279 Speaker 3: and they and they rewrite it a little bit with 13 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:37,400 Speaker 3: it's fun. 14 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:38,839 Speaker 2: Right, Like it's a diverse cast. 15 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:43,199 Speaker 3: Sometimes there's modern language, modern music, and it makes us 16 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:46,120 Speaker 3: sort of a statement about the past and some of 17 00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:51,640 Speaker 3: the discrimination and the inequality that existed back then, and 18 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 3: it kind of, you know, makes us think about whether 19 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:56,560 Speaker 3: or not those things exist today. And so on the surface, 20 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:59,160 Speaker 3: Chevalier looks exactly the same, and especially at the start 21 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:03,760 Speaker 3: where it with no less than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 22 00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 3: a beautiful Paris opera house in eighteenth century France. He's 23 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:10,320 Speaker 3: playing his Concerto number five. All of a sudden, there's 24 00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:13,800 Speaker 3: an interruption from the crowd and this really handsome black 25 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:17,120 Speaker 3: man walks through the crowd and challenges Mozart to a 26 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:21,399 Speaker 3: violin duel, and you go, okay, this is a bit fanciful, 27 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:26,240 Speaker 3: but it's quite entertaining. And this black virtuoso violinist turns 28 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:28,520 Speaker 3: out to be better than Mozart, kind of schools him 29 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:33,160 Speaker 3: in playing cadenzas and much to the amazement of this crowd. 30 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:36,280 Speaker 3: And this man in the movie is Joseph Bologna, the 31 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 3: Chevalier de Saint George, and he was actually a real 32 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:44,000 Speaker 3: life dude. It's a true story. It's an incredible true 33 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:47,920 Speaker 3: story that was erased from history. This is a guy 34 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:51,320 Speaker 3: who was born the illegitimate son of a sort of 35 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:56,160 Speaker 3: a West Indian French plantation owner and an African slave. 36 00:01:56,920 --> 00:01:59,360 Speaker 3: He was brought to France when he was about seven 37 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:03,280 Speaker 3: years old out of his formal education, and straightaway just 38 00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:07,720 Speaker 3: excelled at everything. He was amazing at the violin, He 39 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:11,600 Speaker 3: was incredibly intelligent, he was deadly with the sword, as 40 00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:14,520 Speaker 3: he was a fencing champion. Basically was the talk of 41 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:18,480 Speaker 3: France in eighteenth century France to the point where so 42 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:21,680 Speaker 3: one of the US founding fathers, John Adams, actually met 43 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:24,120 Speaker 3: him back in the day and wrote in his diary 44 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:27,639 Speaker 3: that Joseph Bologna is the most accomplished man in Europe. 45 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:32,040 Speaker 3: He is the best that I've ever seen at writing, dancing, music, fencing. 46 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:34,920 Speaker 3: And so this was a guy who was just so 47 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:39,840 Speaker 3: incredibly talented in so many different fields. But then when 48 00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:44,160 Speaker 3: the French Revolution happened and Napoleon took over, he reinstituted slavery, 49 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:46,120 Speaker 3: and the whole thing about that was you have to 50 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:48,400 Speaker 3: kind of convince everybody that it's okay to have black 51 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:53,320 Speaker 3: people as slaves, so you can't really have excellent talented 52 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:56,800 Speaker 3: black people. So he basically erased Joseph Bologna from history, 53 00:02:56,840 --> 00:02:58,960 Speaker 3: which is why no one has ever heard of him. 54 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:01,640 Speaker 3: But now his storians are looking back at this period 55 00:03:01,639 --> 00:03:04,240 Speaker 3: and saying, well, this guy was the black Mozart that 56 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 3: just nobody's ever heard of. And so now they've made 57 00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 3: a film about his life. 58 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:10,440 Speaker 2: I bet he could play golf really well too, Ben 59 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:12,200 Speaker 2: He's sick one of those people. 60 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:15,160 Speaker 3: He could do everything, and he was also it was 61 00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:18,000 Speaker 3: also pretty handy with the ladies of court. He was 62 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:21,639 Speaker 3: mates with Marie Antoinette. 63 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:24,640 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, and he gets it, gets pretty brigident. 64 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:28,160 Speaker 3: And so in the film, Bologna is played by Kelvin 65 00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:30,959 Speaker 3: Harrison Junior, who we've seen a couple of times recently, 66 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 3: just give amazing performances. He was in Cyrano, that adaptation 67 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:40,840 Speaker 3: with with Peter Dinklage, and he was he played Bibi 68 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:43,279 Speaker 3: King in Basilehrman's Elvis movie. 69 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:46,320 Speaker 1: And he was and he was really great in that, 70 00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:47,400 Speaker 1: in that smaller role. 71 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 3: And as Joseph Bologna, he's amazing, Like he really captures, 72 00:03:51,480 --> 00:03:55,120 Speaker 3: you know, the blokes incredible talent and also his ego, 73 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:57,040 Speaker 3: because he had a raging ego that got him into 74 00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:00,280 Speaker 3: huge trouble at a time at a time when like 75 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:03,440 Speaker 3: people really you know, wanted to see black people serving them, 76 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:06,640 Speaker 3: they didn't necessarily want to hear from them. And he 77 00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:09,520 Speaker 3: was a guy who was just sort of fiercely committed 78 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:11,040 Speaker 3: to showing off how much. 79 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:13,360 Speaker 1: Better he was than everybody else, which. 80 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:16,960 Speaker 3: You know, rubbed a few French noses at a joint. 81 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:17,800 Speaker 2: To see the swagger. Yeah, fair enough. 82 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:21,040 Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's he in. 83 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:23,320 Speaker 3: His mistress in the film is played by none other 84 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:27,920 Speaker 3: than Samara Weaving. Hugo Weavings niece who is a sort 85 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:31,640 Speaker 3: of aspiring opera singer who he cast in his opera 86 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:34,239 Speaker 3: and then they sort of fall for each other. She's 87 00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:39,400 Speaker 3: married to a retired vengeful general, so you know there's 88 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:42,279 Speaker 3: going to be a bit of trouble there. But the film, 89 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:46,440 Speaker 3: the film is not perfect, like it probably goes a 90 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:48,600 Speaker 3: little bit too far down the sort of the bridgeton 91 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:52,960 Speaker 3: glossy path when maybe there was an opportunity to make 92 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:55,840 Speaker 3: a statement there was a bit deeper and. 93 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:56,560 Speaker 2: Not quite so superficial. 94 00:04:57,240 --> 00:04:59,520 Speaker 1: But Kelvin Harrison Junior is so amazing. 95 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:02,800 Speaker 3: He's actually playing the violin himself in these scenes where 96 00:05:02,839 --> 00:05:07,000 Speaker 3: he's dueling against Mozart and playing in operas and things 97 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 3: like that. He grew up playing the violin, but spent 98 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:11,600 Speaker 3: six hours a day actually while he was in Australia 99 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:17,640 Speaker 3: shooting Elvis working on his violin playing. And he's incredible 100 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:19,320 Speaker 3: in the film. 101 00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:22,719 Speaker 2: Right, Well, how many it's not, Maurice Chevaliers are you 102 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:27,280 Speaker 2: giving it? I'm going to give it three and a half. Oh, 103 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:34,680 Speaker 2: very good. And you know what, all played the piano. 104 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:38,240 Speaker 2: It's a great one. Check it out and real thank you, 105 00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:39,640 Speaker 2: good you guys.