“I felt like I’d been invited to a dinner party and been served soup.”
Such was club member Paul Sullivan’s summation of Widow Cliquot (2023), sub-titled the story of a Champagne empire and the woman who ruled it.
It is the feeling of being short changed in the telling of that story which prompted Mr Sullivan’s astute appraisal, something shared by most at last night’s post-film dinner.
At least half the assembled had read Tilar J. Mazzeo’s The Widow Cliquot but the shortcomings were felt by these readers much further than “the book is always better than the film.”
It came as little surprise to discover that half the film’s budget was lost when an investor pulled out before shooting began. Producer and lead player, Haley Bennett, was left to help steer a film in difficulty – a life imitating art comparison to the character she plays.
Location scenes were dropped and all filming took place at the family estate. This detracted a lot from the spectacle.
Barbe-Nicole Cliquot Ponsardin (Bennett) is married to Francois Cliquot (Tom Sturridge), a winemaker in the Champagne region. Francois has a vision to make something different but is either driven mad in the quest or is suffering from such clinical depression that he fails to achieve it before dying young, presumably at his own hand.
His passion is gifted to Barbe-Nicole. Francois teaches his young wife about the connection with the soil and the vine, recognising her natural affinity with the job at hand. She embraces this with exceptional determination.
After his death, the 27-year-old widow Cliquot refuses to give up the land and convinces her father-in-law Phillipe (Ben Miles) to let her continue the work of making commercial wine.
Her relentless work in the fields and in the laboratory is swamped by very challenging circumstances, not the least being Napoleonic wars but closer to home, the male domination of the era and the industry she has embraced.
“To tell the stories about women who are ambitious and successful is what I want to do,” Bennett said in a 2024 Variety interview. It isn’t just male domination in 1810 which the producer-actress wants to highlight but that this is still occurring.
However, Widow Cliquot has fallen short intelling this storyand the lack of budget has impacted severely.
While we see Barbe-Nicole tirelessly tasting, notating and experimenting with especially sparkling wine, the revolutionary way she produced the first vintage champagne in 1810 isn’t fully enough explained. Uncorking the wine to release sediment before re-stopping it was just one fact which would have rewarded the viewer.
Reference to her bending of the rules by working around Napoleon Bonaparte’s veto on dealing with enemies is given space (and returns to bite at the film’s end when she is tried before a court for her decision).
However, I found this the most fascinating aspect of Mazzeo’s book which was not covered better. By skirting the French borders and showing the travails of wine merchant Louis Bohne (Sam Riley) and the fate of her first vintage would have added immensely to the drama.
Lack of production money can be blamed.
While ignoring Bohne’s problems of ports being closed or being suspected of being a French spy while in Russia, the viewer is shown copious scenes of Francois and his sickness, the effect on Barbe-Nicole and her determination to protect their young daughter.
Widow Cliquot comes in short at 89 minutes, a duration usually the province of comedy. Unlike many films of the modern era which could well do with some tighter editing, reducing the length and less-laboriously explaining the perhaps obvious, Widow Cliquot is too short.
Perhaps Bennett and her co-producers should have taken a leaf from Barbe-Nicole’s story and worked harder to find the money to make the film they wanted?
Location scenes were dropped and all filming took place at the family estate. This detracted a lot from the spectacle.
Barbe-Nicole Cliquot Ponsardin (Bennett) is married to Francois Cliquot (Tom Sturridge), a winemaker in the Champagne region. Francois has a vision to make something different but is either driven mad in the quest or is suffering from such clinical depression that he fails to achieve it before dying young, presumably at his own hand.
His passion is gifted to Barbe-Nicole. Francois teaches his young wife about the connection with the soil and the vine, recognising her natural affinity with the job at hand. She embraces this with exceptional determination.
After his death, the 27-year-old widow Cliquot refuses to give up the land and convinces her father-in-law Phillipe (Ben Miles) to let her continue the work of making commercial wine.
Her relentless work in the fields and in the laboratory is swamped by very challenging circumstances, not the least being Napoleonic wars but closer to home, the male domination of the era and the industry she has embraced.
“To tell the stories about women who are ambitious and successful is what I want to do,” Bennett said in a 2024 Variety interview. It isn’t just male domination in 1810 which the producer-actress wants to highlight but that this is still occurring.
However, Widow Cliquot has fallen short intelling this storyand the lack of budget has impacted severely.
While we see Barbe-Nicole tirelessly tasting, notating and experimenting with especially sparkling wine, the revolutionary way she produced the first vintage champagne in 1810 isn’t fully enough explained. Uncorking the wine to release sediment before re-stopping it was just one fact which would have rewarded the viewer.
Reference to her bending of the rules by working around Napoleon Bonaparte’s veto on dealing with enemies is given space (and returns to bite at the film’s end when she is tried before a court for her decision).
However, I found this the most fascinating aspect of Mazzeo’s book which was not covered better. By skirting the French borders and showing the travails of wine merchant Louis Bohne (Sam Riley) and the fate of her first vintage would have added immensely to the drama.
Lack of production money can be blamed.
While ignoring Bohne’s problems of ports being closed or being suspected of being a French spy while in Russia, the viewer is shown copious scenes of Francois and his sickness, the effect on Barbe-Nicole and her determination to protect their young daughter.
Widow Cliquot comes in short at 89 minutes, a duration usually the province of comedy. Unlike many films of the modern era which could well do with some tighter editing, reducing the length and less-laboriously explaining the perhaps obvious, Widow Cliquot is too short.
Perhaps Bennett and her co-producers should have taken a leaf from Barbe-Nicole’s story and worked harder to find the money to make the film they wanted?
Sadly, soup just didn’t satisfy expectations.
3
I WRIGHT 