Marguerite is a 2015 French-language comedy-drama film directed by Xavier Giannoli and written by Giannoli and Marcia Romano, loosely inspired by the life of Florence Foster Jenkins. The film is an international co-production among France, the Czech Republic, and Belgium. Marguerite received eleven nominations at the 41st César Awards, winning for Best Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, and Best Production Design.
Plot Set in the Golden Twenties, the film stars Catherine Frot as a wealthy woman who is an enthusiastic amateur singer and believes, wrongly, that she has a beautiful voice.
Cast
Production The film was shot in Prague from mid-September to early December 2014 (from September 15 to November 19).
Release Marguerite was screened in the main competition section of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.
Reception Critical response The film was well received by the critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 95%, based on 110 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Touching, funny, and thoughtful, Marguerite honors its real-life inspiration with a well-acted and ultimately inspirational look at the nature of art and the value of a dream." On Metacritic the film has a score of 76 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Screendaily described the film as "original, funny and touching". Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film "offers up an amusingly entertaining portrait of fortune, infamy and severe melodic dysfunction". Cineuropa gave the film a positive review, and said that the director "has brought together the best of his sensitivity and attraction to characters that are passionate and obsessive to the extreme, to paint the portrait of an unusual woman, who Catherine Frot plays with stunning dramatic and comical genius".
Accolades Award / Film FestivalCategoryRecipients and nomineesResultCésar AwardsBest Film Best DirectorXavier Giannoli Best ActressCatherine Frot Best Supporting ActorMichel Fau André Marcon Best Original ScreenplayXavier Giannoli Best CinematographyGlynn Speeckaert Best EditingCyril Nakache Best SoundFrançois Musy and Gabriel Hafner Best Costume DesignPierre-Jean Larroque Best Production DesignMartin Kurel Louis Delluc PrizeBest Film Lumière AwardsBest Film Best DirectorXavier Giannoli Best ActressCatherine Frot Best ScreenplayXavier Giannoli Magritte AwardsBest Foreign Film in Coproduction Venice International Film FestivalGolden Lion P. Nazareno Taddei Award
See also Florence Foster Jenkins, a 2016 British-French film starring Meryl Streep as Jenkins.
References
External links
Marguerite at Cohen Media Group (U.S. Distributor)