Widow Clicquot

Posted on July 18, 2024 at 5:48 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:

High School

MPAA Rating:

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language, sexual content, nudity, and some drug use

Profanity:

Strong language

Alcohol/ Drugs:

Drinking, drugs

Violence/ Scariness:

Very sad death, reference to war

Diversity Issues:

A theme of the movie

Date Released to Theaters:

July 19, 2024

I never knew that the legendary Veuve Cliquot champagne was named for the woman who created it in the late 18th century. Veuve means widow.

Haley Bennett, who also produced, plays Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, devastated by the death of the husband she adored when she was still in her 20s. In flashbacks (too many) throughout the film, we see that her relationship with Francois (Tom Sturridge) was deep, intimate, and meaningful. They were both committed to full partnership in the family wine business and he had complete faith in her judgment and taste. That is why, almost unheard of in that era, he made it clear in his will that he was leaving her the vineyards and the business. Throughout the film, she faces one crisis after another as her father-in-law, Philippe (Ben Miles), tries to seize control of the company, her less hierarchical and more inclusive relationship with her workers is challenged, and production and logistics problems make it impossible for her to sell her wine. She gets support (and more) from a man who was her husband’s close friend (perhaps more) and the sales and distribution partner of the business, (Sam Riley).

Trailer for Widow Clicquot

Cinematographer Caroline Champetier, production designer Stéphane Sartorius and the sound team have created an immersive world that makes us feel like we’re inside a Napoleonic era oil painting. The creaking floorboards, high ceilings, and flickering candlelight are in sharp contrast to the natural world of the vineyard, where Barbe-Nicole is happiest and most at home. Bennett has a quiet, almost serene, quality but seems to glow from within. Her scenes with Sturridge in the blissful early days and then as he became more unstable (there is an implication that he may have committed suicide) and when she makes the decision to send their daughter away to protect her from her father’s deterioration, are subtle but effective, as is Barbe-Nicole’s passion for the vineyard and for making the most delicious champagne ever created. As she talks about the flavors and the size of the bubbles, as she talks about evading Napoleon’s restrictions on international sales, she is quiet, but sure. A defining moment is when she explains that she wants to rotate the crops because the vines need to struggle. That moment and her literal final word tell us that one of the world’s most delicate and cherished drinks is the result of struggle, one that all who embraced considered worth it.

Parents should know that this film includes a mental breakdown and a possible (offscreen) suicide, grief, some sexual situations with nudity, and the misogyny of the era.

Family discussion: Why was Madame Clicquot so confident and determined? What was unusual about the way she treated her employees? Was she right to try to evade the trade restrictions?

If you like this, try: The book by Tilar J. Mazzeo, and Bennett’s film, “Cyrano.” And, if you’re old enough, try some champagne.

Related Tags:

Cyrano

Posted on January 31, 2022 at 6:48 pm

A-

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for some strong violence, thematic and suggestive material, and brief language
Profanity:	Brief strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol
Violence/ Scariness:	Sword fights and battles, characters injured and killed
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie, but transphobic humor
Date Released to Theaters:	February 4, 2022
Date Released to DVD:	April 18, 2022

“Cyrano” is a gorgeous film, a true labor of love. The basis, of course, is one of the great classic plays of all time, Edmond Rostand’s 1897 Cyrano de Bergerac, inspired by a real soldier/writer. Jose Ferrar won an Oscar for his performance as the title character in a 1950 film. The story of the man who cannot tell the woman he loves how he feels because of the way he looks has been adapted and rebooted many times, with probably the best known Steve Martin’s Roxanne and most recently set in a high school in “The Half of It.” Everyone can identify with a character who is afraid to approach the object of their affection and everyone would like to identify with a character whose wit is as ready and sharp as his sword. In the original and the Steve Martin version, the main character’s rapier-like comebacks to a thoughtless bully are a highlight.

In the original and “Roxanne,” the impediment is a nose so big that the Cyrano character believes no one can see him as a romantic partner. In this swooningly romantic new version, set, like the original, in the 17th century, the physical obstacle is size. Writer Erica Schmidt adapted the play as a musical to be performed on stage by her husband, actor Peter Dinklage (“Game of Thrones”) as Cyrano, and ravishingly lovely Haley Bennett as Roxanne. They play those parts in this film, directed by Bennett’s significant other, Joe Wright (“Atonement,” “Pride and Prejudice”)

Roxanne is loved by three men: Cyrano, the handsome but better-with-a-sword-than-with-poetic-love-letters Christian (Kelvin Harrison, Jr. of “Waves”), and the selfish, predatory De Guiche (Ben Mendelsohn). Cyrano has been her closest friend and confidant since childhood. De Guiche is pressuring her to marry him. Her maid reminds her that she has no money and no other options for supporting herself. But one night at the theater, she glimpses Christian, a newcomer to the military unit where Cyrano serves, and she loses her heart to him. Cyrano agrees to ghost-write love letters from Christian to Roxanne. He pretends it is to help the new recruit but in reality it is to have his one chance to tell the woman he loves how he feels, even if the letters are signed by someone else.

In a way, Schmidt is giving her words to the man he she loves so that we can see him the way she does, gallant, mordantly witty, a brilliant actor, and a person of deep and generous humanity. A scene where he is almost about to dare to hope that Roxanne will say she loves him, the emotions that flicker across his face as he is almost successful maintaining his composure is one of the most touching moments on screen this year.

With Schmidt and Wright creating the words and images for the people they love, in spectacularly beautiful costumes (Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran) and settings (Sicily filling in as 17th century France) with music and even some dance numbers, the unabashed romanticism almost bursts out of the screen. Bennett makes a lovely Roxanne, clever and spirited but allowing her own romanticism to blind her to the love that is already hers. Mendelsohnn seems to specialize in bad guys these days, and this is another strong performance, De Guiche’s brutality glimpsed under a very thin veneer of suavity. Harrison makes a gallant Christian. But it is Dinklage who is in every way the heart of the story. Just as we get to see Cyrano finally use his own words under cover of darkness to play the part of the man whose outside matches his inside, in this film we get to see Dinklage take center stage, with a performance of heart-stopping vulnerability. Rostand would be proud, and so would the man who inspired the play that continues to capture us more than a hundred years later.

Parents should know that this film includes brief strong language, sexual references, sword fights, and battle scenes, with characters injured and killed.

Family discussion: Should Cyrano have told Roxanne how he felt? If so, when? Is there a time when you misjudged someone based on looks or when you were misjudged?

If you like this, try: “Roxanne” and the Ferrar and PBS versions of “Cyrano de Bergerac”