Florence Foster Jenkins took the tale of the tone-deaf English Diva, cast Meryl Streep, and spun it into an amusing delight. Inspired by the same true story, French movie Marguerite also places a powerhouse actress in the lead, with Catherine Frot delivering a multi-faceted performance as eccentric songstress Marguerite Dupont (the same name as the actress who played the rich lady routinely flattered and fleeced in Marx Brothers movies).
This Marguerite is a music-loving, 1920s French Baroness, for whom“money doesn’t matter – what matters is having it.” Her wealth secures a husband, less interested in her than his cars, and allows her to host and sing at charity recitals, despite being about as tuneful as a tractor explosion.
Marguerite’s delusion grows unchecked, fed by her loneliness and encouraged by greedy hangers-on. Recruited to train Marguerite for her theatrical debut, washed-up opera singer Pezzini (Michel Fau), recognising that “the sublime and the ridiculous are never far apart”, holds his tongue, blocks the servants’ ears with cotton wool, employs a bearded lady as costumier, and takes the cash. It’s a case of the Empress’s New Clothes, in which our voyeuristic schadenfreude is established at the outset, with shots of a giant eyeball opera prop, and photographs of the dire diva, snapped by her devoted butler, Madelbos (Denis Mpunga).
Opting for pathos, writer/director Xavier Giannoli creates a lavishly mounted period melodrama, social satire and tragedy of self-deception, in which we are as complicit as a TV talent-show audience cheering on a tone-deaf granny belting out an Abba hit. Beautifully performed and sumptuously shot, Marguerite is a dramatic delight – amusing, moving and, above all, entertaining.
Also Worth Watching: Florence Foster Jenkins, Saving Mr. Banks, La Vie En Rose
