Title: Marguerite
Director: Xavier Giannoli
Starring: Catherine Frot, André Marcon, Michel Fau, Christa Théret, Denis Mpunga, Sylvain Dieuaide, Aubert Fenoy, Sophia Leboutte, Théo Cholbi.
The world has always been populated by talentless megalomaniacs. Usually most of these are attracted by the razzle dazzle of success, but very seldom there is a true passion for the arts that motivates them. This is not the case of Marguerite Dumont, a Baroness who lives for music and dreams of becoming an opera singer, but is totally tone-deaf.
French director Xavier Giannoli shapes, with humor and sensitivity, the character of Marguerite into an utterly bighearted naive woman, who is led to believe she can accomplish her dream of living for music during the Roaring Twenties. We are first introduced to Marguerite in her château, where she sings wholeheartedly for a circle of friends, but terribly out of tune. When a young, provocative journalist decides to write a rave article on her latest performance, Marguerite starts to believe even further in her talent. This gives her the courage she needs to follow her dream. Despite her husband’s reluctance, and with the help of an eclipsed opera divo, she decides to train for her first recital in front of a crowd of complete strangers.
Although the movie is not a biopic, Giannoli created a loose portrait of a person who really existed. Florence Foster Jenkins is her name, and she had lived in the United States in the forties. She was a very rich woman who was passionate about music and the opera, but was totally unaware that her voice was so bad. She was used to singing to the same people in the same social circles and no one had ever dared tell her that she sang out of tune. Either they were hypocrites, or they were interested in her money, or they were simply cowards. Nevertheless her legacy has been the inspiration for Giannoli, to expose the cruel side to human nature.
Catherine Frot embodies the wannabe chanteuse with utter elegance, as she marks her big return to cinema after a 3-year absence. Frot took singing lessons so that she could be able to perform Mozart’s The Queen of the Night and Voi Che Sapete and Bellini’s Casta Diva, with the required high coloratura technique, although she purposely had to sing them out of tune.
Beware opera lovers, if you are faint of heart, because legendary arias will be savagely warped. It is in this fashion that grotesque becomes bewitching.
Technical: B+
Acting: A+
Story: A
Overall: A-
Written by: Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi
