Colette (2018): A Name Bloomed Through Gaslighting, Declaring the Sovereignty of Desire

What is it like to live a life vicariously satisfying the desires of another, hidden behind their name? If the act of creation is an asceticism that carves away at the soul, how heavy must be the silence of one whose fruits of labor have been stolen? In the twilight of 19th-century Paris, during the glittering Belle Époque, a woman obscured behind that radiant light fights a fierce struggle to reclaim her “name”—a struggle that transcends time to pose a question to us today.

The raw truth is revealed only when one peels away the numerous social shells that define them: wife, muse, ghostwriter. This film does not merely remain a biopic illuminating a genius writer of the past. It is a magnificent narrative of liberation, demonstrating how a human being, robbed of selfhood, uses their own voice as a musical score to stand proudly upon the stage of the world.

🌿 Moments When This Film Resonates Deeply

• For those exhausted by irrational relationships where their achievements are craftily substituted as the credit of another.
• For those who wish to confront the reality of emotional exploitation and gaslighting perpetrated under the guise of love.
• For the souls seeking to face their true desires by shattering the framework of “femininity” dictated by social conventions.
• To all those who wish to be called by a name they have defined themselves, rather than one bestowed by others, I dedicate the final sentence of this piece.

🎞 Note Before Viewing

This work realistically depicts the conservative gender norms and the sexist structure of the art world in late 19th-century France. In the process of addressing the relationships between characters and their internal growth, emotional conflicts and the exploration of sexual identity are portrayed in depth according to the historical context.

🎬 Film Information

• Title: Colette (2018)
• Director: Wash Westmoreland
• Screenplay: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland
• Source Material: Based on the true story of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
• Country: UK, USA, France
• Genre: Drama, Period Drama
• Running Time: 111 minutes
• Platforms: Wavve, Watcha, Apple TV
• Cast: Keira Knightley, Dominic West, Eleanor Tomlinson, Denise Gough

📖 Colette: The Truth Hidden Behind the Name and the Prison of Creation [No Spoilers]

Gabrielle, an innocent girl from the French countryside, enters the glamorous social circles of Paris by marrying Willy, a famous literary editor and businessman. However, Willy is less a talented writer and more a businessman who sells his own name by employing ghostwriters. When faced with financial crisis, he urges his wife, Gabrielle, to write.

Gabrielle pens the Claudine series, infusing it with her childhood memories. The books are published under Willy’s name, sparking a syndrome across Paris. For the sake of success, Willy locks Gabrielle in a room, forcing her to write and thoroughly exploiting her talent for commercial gain.

Behind the sweetness of success, Gabrielle feels a sense of loss as her existence is erased. Amidst Willy’s repeated infidelities and deceptions, she gradually discovers her true self. Her encounter with the aristocratic Georgie and her communion with Missy, who possesses a masculine identity, serve as catalysts that awaken her sexual freedom and autonomous self.

As the desire to protect her creations and the will to maintain her dignity as a human being erupt, Gabrielle finally begins preparing to escape Willy’s shadow and declare her name, “Colette,” to the world.

🎨 The Mise-en-scène of Oppression: The Stranger in the Mirror

The film visualizes Colette’s isolation through her early costumes and spaces. The process of Gabrielle, once free amidst the greenery of the countryside, becoming trapped in Parisian corsets and flamboyant dresses symbolizes her incorporation into the power structure of Willy. While Willy attempts to preserve her talent as a commodity of “girlhood,” Colette first attains physical freedom by cutting her hair and wearing trousers.

These shifts in mise-en-scène run parallel to the gradual hardening of her literary style. Unlike the early scenes where she gazes at her reflection in the mirror with estrangement, Colette’s gaze while standing on stage with Missy in the latter half is no longer swayed by external evaluation. Space is no longer a villa that imprisons her, but expands into a stage upon which she directly stands.

🖋 Creative Sovereignty and the Liberation of the Name: Colette’s Inevitable Conclusion

In the finale, Willy’s act of selling the copyrights to Claudine without Colette’s consent goes beyond mere economic betrayal; it is the final act of violence intended to annihilate her past and her soul. At this juncture, Colette realizes that remaining a beloved wife to Willy comes at the cost of erasing her own existence.

The moment she leaves Willy and releases her first work under her own name, the film completes the birth of a self rather than the end of a relationship. This is a structural reorganization wherein a woman transforms from a male appendage into an independent artist. Rather than mourning the lost copyrights, she stands certain that the countless sentences she will write hereafter will exist solely under her own name.

“The recovery of the name ‘Colette’ is a declaration of victory where a subjective narrative acquires objective power.”

🎭 The Map of Desire and Solidarity Blurring Gender Boundaries

The relationship with Missy in the film carries meaning beyond simple romance. Missy, who deviated from the “feminine norms” permitted by society at the time, serves as a mirror for Colette. Missy is a figure who embodies in reality the autonomous desires that Colette sought to reveal through her writing.

The scene of the two kissing on stage is a direct confrontation with social taboos, which becomes literary nourishment for Colette. She sublimates the passive pain felt while witnessing her husband’s affairs into active artistic energy through her solidarity with Missy. Their relationship presents an archetype of an equal partnership where each other’s existence is fully affirmed—an antithesis to the marriage with Willy where a power imbalance existed.

🔎 Colette’s Ending and the Mode of Representing Women’s Narratives

Q: How do you view the criticism that portraying Willy as an overly one-dimensional villain undermines the depth of the narrative?

A: I acknowledge that Willy may appear as a somewhat stereotypical exploiter. However, the purpose of this film is not to explore the complex love-hate relationship with him, but to vividly expose the “patriarchal capitalism of the Belle Époque” that he symbolizes. Willy’s flatness paradoxically emphasizes the universality of the oppression Colette experienced, serving as a device that makes her process of breaking through that solid wall even more dramatic.

Q: What impact did the change in sexual identity in the film have on the protagonist’s literary world?

A: For Colette, sexual freedom was directly linked to freedom of expression. As she began to describe her own body and senses directly, moving away from the “feminine tastes” defined by male writers, her writing gained an unrivaled vitality. This can be evaluated as a pioneering example of “Écriture féminine” (feminine writing), which is treated importantly in modern feminist criticism.

✨ Colette: A Name Exists Not to Be Called, But to Be Carved by Oneself

We still live lowering our voices to meet the expectations of others. But Colette says: if your story is shining by borrowing someone else’s name, it is not a radiant glory, but merely a splendid prison. This film proves how power within a relationship can eat away at an individual’s creativity, and that the momentum to break those chains comes only from honest desire toward oneself.

True independence is not separation from others, but reclaiming the right to place the period at the end of every sentence in one’s own life.

🎙️ Between the Gaze of Others and My Own Voice

When someone claims your efforts as their own or tries to deny your identity, what choice will you make? Will you choose stability through silence, or will you go out into the uncertain wilderness and shout your own name?

🔮 Violet Screen Curation: The Aesthetics of Other Relationships

• 《The Feels》(2017) — Directed by Jenée LaMarque
  • Reason for Recommendation: Follows a weekend trip of a lesbian couple and their friends before their wedding. It delves into concerns regarding trust and sexual identity in a way that is both comedic and sharp. It possesses the distinct realism of independent film, similar to Same But Different.
• 《Princess Cyd》(2017) — Directed by Stephen Cone
  • Reason for Recommendation: Dealing with the solidarity between a teenage girl and her aunt, it lyrically depicts the process of women from different generations and values affirming their desires through one another. It is an excellent work in terms of the expansion of the self.