Marguerite (2015 film)

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. 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. 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.

Cast

 * Catherine Frot as Marguerite Dumont
 * André Marcon as Georges Dumont
 * Denis Mpunga as Madelbos
 * Michel Fau as Atos Pezzini / Divo
 * Christa Theret as Hazel Klein
 * Astrid Whettnall as Françoise Bellaire
 * Sylvain Dieuaide as Lucien Beaumont
 * Aubert Fenoy as Kyrill Von Priest
 * Sophia Leboutte as Félicité La Barbue
 * Théo Cholbi as Diego

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.

Critical response
The film was well received by the critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 95%, based on 92 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".