CHEVALIER (Athina Rachel Tsangari). 105 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (June 3). See listing. Rating: NNNN
Chevalier is a comedy of sorts, with six older Greek men on a yacht who occupy themselves with ridiculous contests designed to determine which of them is “the best” at a given challenge.
Who these men are and why they’re alone together are left unexplained, which is the smartest thing director Athina Rachel Tsangari and co-writer Efthymis Filippou could have done. All we know is that they’re pretty wealthy, and possibly obscenely so.
They could be captains of industry indulging their whims on a vacation, or maybe they’re bankers in exile, hiding from the nation they’ve destroyed. Both interpretations are equally valid, which means it’s possible to take whatever allegorical meaning you want from the games on screen.
What’s more important is that the games themselves be interesting, and they are – both for the psychological insight they offer into the men playing them and for their bizarre invention. And Tsangari seems as curious about the outcome of these challenges as we are.
