We are not sure what point director Athina Rachel Tsangari was trying to make in the rather long-winded Chevalier. A group of men on a fishing trip get competitive about their dull domestic lives to kill time as repairs are done on their hired vessel.
Co-written by Tsangari, with Efthymis Filippou, Chevalier’s screenplay is mildly interesting, if you view it as mild absurdist comedy, shot through with a sinister undercurrent arising from the fact that one of the men has cuckolded the other.
The men are effectively stranded for what seems like a night and a day. While repairs are done, they test each others vulnerabilities and strengths, making notes about each other under the watchful eyes of the oldest, the medical Doctor (Yiorgis Kendras) and Svengali of the piece. Also monitoring matters are the captain and two cooks in the galley.
The idea is that the outright winner of these quizzes and tests will receive the chevalier of the title, a signet ring awarded by vote of his peers. In one of the contests, the guys have to phone a loved one and pretend they are talking alone to the woman in question. They are judged on how well they have handled the conversation, and indeed, how beloved they are back home. This could have been utilised better in a more extended scene - we see only one guy's response.
See no evil: a rare solitary moment in Chevalier
The men apparently can’t stand solitude and prefer to make each other tell the truth about themselves - that's a better option than lies where you might be found out and utterly humiliated. A casual conversation between two of the guys about food becomes one in which each ends up bragging about the dish they can cook or the salad they can assemble.
On being pressed on the matter, Christos (Sakis Rouvas) rather forlornly admits in the end that maybe he should brush his teeth more than three times a day. Yet the expression on his face reveals that he is not quite sure whether that is the desirable answer. So insecure are these fellows that they are not certain how well they are doing. That is until two in particular begin to show their mettle as the finishing post approaches. Yes, that old cliché, penis size also surfs in from the homoerotic undertow.
Show time on board: miming Minnie Riperton's Lovin' You
Once you understand what these caricatured males are at, you begin to see competitiveness everywhere. Stefan goes jet-skiing and blows Christos off his wind surf board - Stefan apologises, which in itself is him trying not to lose face.
Thus the ensemble piece proceeds, seeming to promise one hell of an explosive climax after all the simmering tensions we have witnessed, but it just peters out instead. Still, Chevalier is mildly diverting.
Paddy Kehoe
