Chevalier (2015) and the rules of the European game

Rushton, Richard (2019) Chevalier (2015) and the rules of the European game. Studies in European Cinema, 16 (3). pp. 218-231. ISSN 1741-1548

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Abstract

This article reads Chevalier (2015, Rachel Athina Tsangari) as an allegory of the Greek ‘crisis‘ following the global economic downturn of 2008. This has been a common theme of the recent Greek 'weird wave’, but the article claims that Chevalier offers a somewhat different approach to politics than that offered by other weird wave films. Informed by the writings of political philosopher Etienne Balibar, the article foregrounds notions of the conflict between the individual and the community, especially of the ways in which the actions and decisions of individuals are usurped by external authorities. The article thus argues that the game played by the main characters in Chevalier offers an allegory of the austerity measures imposed on Greece by the European Union in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Ultimately I argue that Chevalier relates specifically to the conditions of the Greek crisis, but that it also points to the ways in which the European Union, in its current guise, has stifled democracy in favour of a system of rules that limits the possibilities of what Balibar calls reflexive individualism.