Widow Clicquot

Can't understand how critics and other reviewers have got this so wrong! This movie, sadly, is ghastly! Tilar Mazzeo wrote a fabulous biography on The Widow Clicquot, just 185 pages long in 2008. Easy to read - and explains properly why Barbe-Nicole clicquot was such an incredible woman. And there's plenty of drama in the true story. Absolutely no need to completely change so many facts for dramatic purposes - and a crying shame to downplay her brilliant achievements. I suspect a very low budget. No big scenes off the vineyard with extra cast - Camera work and editing seemed ropey too. Really not worth screen time. I hope someone sometime makes a proper film of this incredible story.

Haley Bennett is perfection. This is not a movie about wine-making. It is a true story about a woman’s resilience and determination. Madame Clicquot was a French widow 1777-1866. She successfully changed French winemaking during a time in history when men ran everything and women needed a man’s permission to do anything. My words are inadequate so the following is quoted from the end of this movie: “Thanks to her fierce determination and vision, Barbe-Nicole’s innovations revolutionized the industry over the next 50 years. Her inaugural ‘Comet’ vintage is still regarded among the greatest in the history of winemaking.” “The methods she engineered are still used today…by all champagne producers. She was one of France’s first and most celebrated women entrepreneurs and Veuve Clicquot endures as one of the preeminent champagne houses in the world, her legacy intact.”. Every girl in the world needs to watch this.

This is a very well done biopic. The cinematography is gorgeous, but of course it has the advantage of being shot in the gorgeous French countryside. The picture captures the look and feel of the period very well. The heroine in our story didn't cure cancer or advance the cause of world peace, but she did, against all odds, succeed in a very specialized and difficult business during a period of time when women were neither in fact, nor in law considered the equal of men as far as society was concerned. Notably, that business continues to thrive to this day and its product remains a well respected and globally recognized brand entirely because of her genius and perseverance. Haley Bennett playing the Widow Clicquot was well cast and she did a superb job in her performance of a strong willed, very bright young woman in an age that simply didn't allow her to be so in any meaningful way. I hope Haley has the opportunity to put her talent on show in many movies to come. The Widow Clicquot navigated extremely difficult waters in that time period and the character is tempest tossed by her husband's mental illness, her genuine respect and love for him, how she handles his all too early death, her determination to carry out his vision and her need to succeed against all odds. And that she did as this movie conveys to us so well. The man she falls in love with after her husband's death, portrayed by Sam Riley, was her late husband's best friend and business partner is a confirmed libertine who joins with her in the business when she picks up the reigns after her husband's passing. As partners, the widow and the husband's best friend become even more well acquainted over time and his extraordinary talent at charming wealthy clients are also the charms of his she ultimately cannot resist. That she declined to marry him despite her open admission of sleeping with him says a great deal about her spirit and desire to be independent in a day and age that definitely frowned upon and did not approve of independent women. This is a great period piece that tells a great story about a woman's triumph despite everything including nature being against her. If you like movies of this kind you will love this one. Definitely worth watching and appreciating like a good glass of champagne.

Interesting story about a female business pioneer.

A bit jumpy, excessive and not always relevant flashbacks. No great drama despite wonderful story. Underwhelming

Napoleonic 'Days of our Lives'. A turgid 90 minute exercise of sheer tediousness, moving from one scene of confected melodrama to the next. Take a minute to close your eyes and listen to just the script - it'll make you LOL it's so bad. Oh, and apparently, the War of the Sixth Coalition (1814) included a battle fought between French and Russian forces (replete with cannons!!) just over the hill from the Verve vineyards, 3km outside Reims. Wow! Better adjust the history books, now! Barbe-Nicole Clicquot's life story is worth the telling, an incredible woman in a man's world during the early 19th century. A person of great resilence and courage, her willingness to defy prejudice and flout convention changed the way champagne is made and built a wine empire in the process. Pity then this film plumbs the depths of every vomitous romantic movie-trope one can think of, the very antithesis of the subject it claims to represent. Ugh!

The focus of the film was not satisfying for me. Too much dreamy focus on her and her first husband, who seemed to have a mental illness. I was expecting how she developed the great champagne. The grapes, the process, the superior product. Unless you know the product already there was little to be learned.

When it ended so abruptly with so many loose ends not even close to being tied up, I had to double check that this wasn’t a short series and that it actually HAD just… ended… like that. Such a beautiful setting and powerful female icon as the subject and all was wasted on flashbacks of the husband in the bad wig. Very major hardships came off as very minor inconveniences because the audience never got the chance to witness the solutions due to how quickly the movie bounced from one thing to another and then moved on to the next chapter without ending the present. I had assumed the whole point of making the movie was to explore HOW she turned things around for the vineyard and became a leader in the industry, etc. etc., and we didn’t even get to find that out. Disappointing to say the very least!!

This movie sure has all the earmarks of running out of money and being told to wrap it up before the story really unfolded... too bad because the subject is a good one and now it will have to wait a long time before someone decides to do it right!

An intriguing historical biopic. Performances were very good - my issues lay with the direction and pacing, which seemed to drag at several points