Chéri | Synopsis
Paris, 1906. By the turn of the 20th century, Paris had enjoyed several years as the most fashionable city in Europe. Its artists and writers were world famous, it was at the forefront of cultural and intellectual progress and it was the destination of choice for the world’s richest and most powerful people. It was also, of course, famous for its courtesans, women so beautiful, witty and expert in the art of love-making that Crown Princes, Grand Dukes and captains of industry from all over Europe competed for their favours – favours that came at a price.
One of the most successful is Léa de Lonval, who has become a rich woman thanks to her smart financial sense. Now in her 40s, but still a beautiful woman, she lives in an elegant Art Nouveau house where she enjoys her wealth and well-earned independence.
One day Léa goes to lunch with her old friend and former colleague Mme Peloux. Once a great beauty, Mme Peloux is keenly aware that she has lost her looks with the passing of time and this has made her a bitter and spiteful middle-aged woman. Léa has no great affection for her but knows that women of their profession have few friends in whom to confide.
Mme Peloux’s son is Fred, nicknamed Chéri by Léa, a gorgeous but spoilt young man of 19 who is living a life of louche hedonism. Mme Peloux knows he needs to grow up and sees in Léa the perfect mentor who will instruct him in the art of living and loving and prepare him for his future. Chéri looks up to Léa almost as much as he looks down on his own mother and playfully flirts with her. But there seems to be more to their feelings than mere affection: when he kisses Léa passionately on the mouth as they talk in the conservatory after lunch, she momentarily loses her cool and he is suddenly overwhelmed.
The deal, however, is set: Léa will take Chéri in until he has become a man and is ready for marriage. And so begins the education of an indolent and unformed teenager by a worldly older woman, both certain that they have built robust defence mechanisms against becoming too emotionally involved.
It was meant to last just weeks but six years has passed and Chéri is still in Léa’s house. The couple are very comfortable together, gently teasing each other, bickering good-naturedly and still luxuriating in each other’s arms. But when Chéri is summoned to lunch with his mother, her acquaintance Marie-Laure, another courtesan, and Marie-Laure’s teenage daughter Edmée, they are both surprised that Léa has only been invited to join them for tea.
When Léa arrives after lunch, Mme Peloux tells her that she is arranging a marriage for Chéri. Léa successfully conceals her shock but the news chills her. She realises it is Edmée who is the lucky bride-to-be and that the deal has been hatched between Mme Peloux and Marie-Laure, all too keen to be rid of her daughter so she can be free to work. The wedding is set for a few weeks’ time.
The same evening, Léa confronts Chéri about the news, smarting at the fact that he’d known about it for months and been too cowardly to break it to her. Her seemingly casual exterior hides a very real anger and hurt. Chéri is hurt too, and his concern is for Léa’s future: what is she going to do now? He wants to be the last young man in her life but knows that she is unlikely to change her ways.
It’s dawning on both of them that the marriage will mean the end of their relationship. Although Chéri wants to continue to be a part of Léa’s life, she knows that her time is over and she must banish him from her life. The realisation cuts them both to the bone.
During their honeymoon in Italy, Chéri’s anger and frustration comes to the fore and his emotional cruelty towards his innocent young bride is shocking. Meanwhile back in Paris, Léa has to endure the barbed comments of Mme Peloux who takes great pleasure in seeing her rival so emotionally vulnerable. She decides to escape to Biarritz and leads Mme Peloux to believe she’s in the company of a new man. Indeed, when she arrives on the coast, she meets a young man named Roland who enthusiastically enjoys her favours.
When Chéri and Edmée return, it’s clear the honeymoon has not brought them closer together. And it’s clear that Chéri is still pining for Léa. Very soon, it becomes too much for Edmée and she snaps, reproaching her husband for his indifference and cruelty. Chéri can bear it no longer and later that night leaves the house. He moves into the Hotel Regina and spends his days partly staking out Léa’s villa awaiting her return and partly killing time in an opium den run by a former courtesan, La Copine.
Three weeks later, Léa is back in Paris and Chéri returns overjoyed to his mother’s house and into Edmée’s arms – at last, the waiting is over! Mme Peloux visits Léa and the mention of Chéri’s name send a shiver of melancholy yearning through her – which Mme Peloux, in all her spite, enjoys provoking.
Later that night, Léa is confronted by Chéri who sweeps into her boudoir announcing his return. Léa is overjoyed at his return and the pair collapse into each other’s arms. The next morning she begins to make arrangements for their departure – to the South, perhaps, somewhere far away where they’ll cause as little scandal as possible – but Chéri is strangely quiet. He wasn’t expecting this, he wanted to keep Lea in Paris as a distraction from his life with Edmée. At least with Edmée he can be a man, he thinks; with Léa, he’ll always be a boy.
It’s too much for Léa. After a tearful embrace, she makes the ultimate sacrifice and forces him to leave. As she watches him walk away, she begins to contemplate a life without him.
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