ArkaEvren

FILM · 2018 · UK

Colette

12 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

12 Interesting Facts About Colette

Interesting Facts (7)

  1. #001

    The director had Keira Knightley in mind for Colette from the very beginning and first met her via FaceTime when he was invited to the Shanghai Film Festival. It was midnight at the time and he had almost no phone battery left. Within a few minutes, just before the phone died, he managed to persuade her to join the adventure.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  2. #002

    While writing the first version of the screenplay, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland were staying in a mansion lent to them by a friend. It turned out that the friend's aunt was very close to Colette's granddaughter, Anne de Jouvenel.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  3. #003

    Wash Westmoreland first wrote the screenplay in 2001, but at the time he was unable to get the film made.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  4. #004

    The writer Colette wrote the short novel 'Gigi', which formed the basis of the stage production and film of the same name.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  5. #005

    The scenes in the Burgundy house and gardens (wisteria and others) were shot at a mansion in Oxfordshire, which was also used as the location of the less prosperous farmer's cottage in several episodes of Downton Abbey (2010).

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  6. #006

    Colette's works have often been adapted for the screen, most famously Vincente Minnelli's Gigi (1958) and Stephen Frears's Chéri (2009). The French writer was portrayed by Mathilda May in Becoming Colette (1991) and by Marie Trintignant in Colette, une femme libre (2004).

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  7. #007

    The train station in Börgönd, Hungary, had shutters added to its windows and all electric lights and cables removed or hidden to make it resemble a 19th-century French building.

    INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

    ShareReport

Production Story (1)

  1. #008

    Exteriors were shot in Paris, but the French countryside was recreated in the Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire regions. Because there was not enough budget to shoot the entire production in Paris, the team also moved to Budapest, where they filmed at Origo Studios as well as in natural locations.

    PRODUCTION STORY · SOURCED

    ShareReport

Behind the Scenes (1)

  1. #009

    During the Budapest shoot, temperatures were sometimes so high that Dominic West wore a water vest under his heavy costume that functioned like a car radiator, circulating cold water over his upper body. The device was suggested to him by John C. Reilly, who had used such an apparatus while playing the portly Oliver Hardy in the biographical film Stan & Ollie (2018).

    BEHIND THE SCENES · SOURCED

    ShareReport

Deeper Meaning (2)

  1. #010

    At the time, it was illegal for women to wear men's clothing in France, which is why Colette's choice to start wearing trousers caused a scandal. Ironically, homosexuality was legal and had been since 1791.

    DEEPER MEANING · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  2. #011

    The locomotive, MAV 220.194 number 204, and the carriages came from the Budapest steam railway museum.

    DEEPER MEANING · SOURCED

    ShareReport

Career & Awards (1)

  1. #012

    Colette grew out of director Wash Westmoreland's partner and friend Richard Glatzer's interest in the French writer. In 1999 he began reading books about her, and the idea of making a film about her emerged. When Westmoreland and Glatzer became the center of attention thanks to Julianne Moore's Oscar for Still Alice (2014), they finally decided to take on Colette. Unfortunately, by then Glatzer had been hospitalized with end-stage ALS and could communicate only through an iPad app that turned text into speech using his toe. He died shortly afterward.

    CAREER & AWARDS · SOURCED

    ShareReport

Continue through the archive

Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work