5/5
Review by Michele E. Hawkins.
It’s 1805, and François Clicquot (Tom Sturridge) and his wife Barbe-Nicole (Haley Bennett) are living a joyous life on François’s property, where he envisages creating exquisite wines from his grapes. His methods, including singing to the vines, strike his fellow winemakers as wildly eccentric, but Barbe believes in her husband’s ideas.
When François dies young, leaving Barbe a 27-year-old widow with a six-year-old daughter, Clémentine (Cecily Cleeve), François’s father, Philippe Clicquot (Ben Miles), arranges the sale of the vineyard to his friend and neighbouring vintner Jean-Remy Moet (Nicolas Farrell).
But Barbe tells Philippe that she will not sell. In a move unheard of from a woman at that time, she declares her fervent wish to bring François’s vision to reality.
The path to accomplishing that — and indeed the road prior to François’s death as it appears in flashback — which is anything but smooth, forms the substance of the film.
Integral to the story are Barbe’s relationships with her father-in-law, Philippe; with her maid, Anne (Natasha O’Keeffe); with her friend and wine merchant, Louis (Sam Riley); with her accountant, Edouard (Anson Boon); and with her workers, on whose steadfastness she heavily relies.
Haley Bennett gives a compelling portrayal of a sensitive woman of dignified resolve facing obstacle after obstacle in her passion to fulfil her husband’s vision. Ben Miles is convincing as her authoritarian father-in-law (said in real life to have been a generous man), and Sam Riley as Louis offers a standout performance as the lynchpin to Widow Clicquot’s success.
Widow Clicquot showcases glorious cinematography of the vineyard in summer; the threatening nights of winter frosts; the encroaching desolation of the Napoleonic war; the happy, carefree years of François and Barbe’s marriage; and the shadow of his death. Costuming is superb, as are the interior sets, which take us from opulence to stark necessity as the years take their toll through crop failure and war.
Based on Tilar J. Mazzeo’s book on the life of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, who lived from 1777 until 1866, Widow Clicquot is an absorbing portrayal of the several years following the death of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot’s husband, the years in which she paved the way to changing forever the world of the production of champagne.