Hotel Mezzara was used as the setting for Lea's home in the movie.
The movie Chéri 2009 starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Friend and Kathy Bates an adaptation of the novels of both "Chéri" and "La Fin de Chéri" by French author Colette is set in 1900s Belle Époque Paris, Chéri tells the story of the end of a six-year affair between an aging retired courtesan, Léa, and a flamboyant young man, Fred, nicknamed "Chéri" ("Dear"). French for "Beautiful Era" Belle Époque was a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I. The Belle Époque was named in retrospect, when it began to be considered a "golden age" when compared to the horrors of World War I.
In the newly rich United States, emerging from the Panic of 1873, the comparable epoch was dubbed the Gilded Age. In the United Kingdom, the Belle Époque overlapped with the late Victorian era and the Edwardian era. Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette is a French novelist and performer 1873-1954. She is best known for her novel Gigi which was also set in the Demi-monde. Demi-monde refers to a group of people who live hedonistic lifestyles, usually in a flagrant and conspicuous manner. The term was commonly used in Europe from the late 18th to the early 20th century. Externally, the defining aspects of the demimonde were an extravagant lifestyle of fine food and clothes, easily surpassing that of most other wealthy women of their day, because of the steady income they made in cash and gifts from their various lovers. Internally, their lifestyle was an eclectic mixture of sharp business acumen, social skills, and hedonism. The smart demimondaine would invest her wealth for the day when her beauty would fade. Others ended up penniless and starving when age finally took its toll on their beauty, unless they managed to marry one of their lovers. The behaviour of a person in the demimonde being different to more traditional or bourgeois values. Such behaviours often included drinking or drug use, gambling, high spending (particularly in pursuit of fashion, as through clothing as well as servants and houses), and sexual promiscuity. The term demimondaine referred to a woman who embodied these qualities; later it became a euphemism for a courtesan. As the 20th century dawned women's suffrage and the flapper movements resulted in the label demimondaine becoming obsolete. The term then became commonly used to refer to the class of 'starving artists'.
As with all movies featured here I recommend Chéri as an enjoyable movie especially for lovers of Art Nouveau as it is a veritable feast of beauty. I did hesitate to include Chéri here, Mirror Mirage being dedicated to science fiction and fantasy movies and Chéri being based in a real world of the time, I decided that this was truly a fantasy for most women almost like living in a jewel box of indulgence.
In the newly rich United States, emerging from the Panic of 1873, the comparable epoch was dubbed the Gilded Age. In the United Kingdom, the Belle Époque overlapped with the late Victorian era and the Edwardian era. Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette is a French novelist and performer 1873-1954. She is best known for her novel Gigi which was also set in the Demi-monde. Demi-monde refers to a group of people who live hedonistic lifestyles, usually in a flagrant and conspicuous manner. The term was commonly used in Europe from the late 18th to the early 20th century. Externally, the defining aspects of the demimonde were an extravagant lifestyle of fine food and clothes, easily surpassing that of most other wealthy women of their day, because of the steady income they made in cash and gifts from their various lovers. Internally, their lifestyle was an eclectic mixture of sharp business acumen, social skills, and hedonism. The smart demimondaine would invest her wealth for the day when her beauty would fade. Others ended up penniless and starving when age finally took its toll on their beauty, unless they managed to marry one of their lovers. The behaviour of a person in the demimonde being different to more traditional or bourgeois values. Such behaviours often included drinking or drug use, gambling, high spending (particularly in pursuit of fashion, as through clothing as well as servants and houses), and sexual promiscuity. The term demimondaine referred to a woman who embodied these qualities; later it became a euphemism for a courtesan. As the 20th century dawned women's suffrage and the flapper movements resulted in the label demimondaine becoming obsolete. The term then became commonly used to refer to the class of 'starving artists'.
As with all movies featured here I recommend Chéri as an enjoyable movie especially for lovers of Art Nouveau as it is a veritable feast of beauty. I did hesitate to include Chéri here, Mirror Mirage being dedicated to science fiction and fantasy movies and Chéri being based in a real world of the time, I decided that this was truly a fantasy for most women almost like living in a jewel box of indulgence.
