In the two decades between the First and Second World War, Maurice Ravel was feted as France’s greatest living composer. Like Debussy, he was aligned with the Impressionists – a term they both loathed. His work also melded modernism, baroque and neoclassicism, with later compositions also embracing jazz. For all his range, Ravel is best-known for his 1928 composition Boléro, whose conception lies at the heart of Anne Fontaine’s elegant film. It weaves Ravel’s working process and life through his encounters with three women: the Russian dancer Ida Rubinstein, whose commission led to the music’s creation; his patron Misia Sert, and his pianist friend Marguerite Long. The past bleeds into the present through restrained flashbacks, which add depth to this consummate portrait of a skilled, sensitive artist.

Fontaine is no stranger to the biopic, her Coco avant Chanel (2009) was a colourful portrait of the fashion designer and iconoclast. Based on acclaimed French musicologist and journalist Marcel Marnat’s admired 1986 monograph Maurice Ravel, Fontaine’s drama captures the composer’s life with passion, intelligence and wit, and is aided in no small part by Raphaël Personnaz as Ravel, with excellent support from Jeanne Balibar, Doria Tillier and Emmanuelle Devos.

– Ian Haydn Smith