SFF NOTES: Chevalier (2015, Dir. Athina Rachel Tsangari)

I've got to say, I was hoping Athina Rachel Tsangari, who pretty much started the Greek Weird Wave back in the late '00s producing many of the movements key films and directing her own confrontingly absurd Attenberg, was going to trump herself with her long-awaited follow-up. It turns out Chevalier isn't all that weird, though it does have waves, being set predominantly on a luxury yacht in the Aegean.

Tsangari has kept to the tenets of the movement she triggered; Chevalier does work to an off-kilter worldview, with a group of men agreeing to a ridiculous manhood-measuring contest the rules of which fluctuate with the whims of the group's members. Tsangari sticks to the concept but it is not as robust framework as, say, her compatriot Yorgos Lanthimos' The Lobster, which took the Wave mainstream last year. Instead, Chevalier settles early on into a delightfully strange examination of masculinity in all its modern forms - a sort of all-male rom-com.

As far as cock measuring competitions go (and this goes literal with that too), the commentary here is more amusing than consequential. The underlying pettiness of manliness is about deep as the theming goes but it is endlessly fun to watch. Abundant recognition keeps the film afloat (everyone loves an IKEA furniture joke) and the laughs are frequent.

There are surely wider parallels to draw on in the light of Greece's shifting place in the EU and the cultural mentality that has brought that about but the line between this group's films and their real world political existence has always been obscured. If anything, Tsangari's lighter, more accessible approach makes this relationship clearer and more toothless. Though she may forego the bite, the surprisingly forgiving tone yields some touching moments.

One gets the sense that, Greek language notwithstanding, Tsangari was angling for crossover here. Chevalier will certainly pull a bigger audience than many of the preceding films. It is certainly entertaining; it is just a shame about the trade-off.

★★★☆

Trailer:

Chevalier screened as part of the Sydney Film Festival 2016.

You can check out other films from the festival here.