Marguerite Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Marguerite Blu-ray Movie Review

Wait—where’s Florence Foster Jenkins?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 10, 2016

There are all sorts of jokes built around various practitioners of the musical arts, with whole genres devoted to certain instruments. The great finger picking guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel even has a little stand up comedy routine he inserts into some of his concerts where he delivers a litany of such jokes, with my personal favorite being, “Do you know what the definition of a gentleman is? Someone who can play the bagpipes but who chooses not to.” There are also a number of “how do you know a [insert musician here] is at your door?” jokes, including, “How do you know a drummer is at your door? The knocking slows down.” Another great one is, “How do you know a soprano is at your door? She can’t find the key and doesn’t know how to come in.” Singers seem to invite the umbrage of other musicians in a perhaps disproportionate ratio, as evidenced by this joke I suspect was probably written by (ahem) a pianist:

A pianist and singer are rehearsing "Autumn Leaves" for a concert and the pianist says: "OK. We will start in G minor and then on the third bar, modulate to B major and go into 5/4. When you get to the bridge, modulate back down to F# minor and alternate a 4/4 bar with a 7/4 bar. On the last A section go into double time and slowly modulate back to G minor." The singer says: "Wow, I don't think I can remember all of that." The pianist says: "Well, that's how you did it the last time."

Being the butt of jokes is perhaps an occupational hazard for any musician, especially singers, but what if the singer in question is something of a joke? Some singers (one thinks of the short-lived late sixties-early seventies phenomena of Tiny Tim, or the similarly “endowed” Mrs. Miller) are actually able to forge careers out of their less than spectacular “talents”. Meryl Streep is probably chasing down her gazillionth Academy Award nomination for her turn as the inimitable Florence Foster Jenkins , the New York doyenne whose singing career either delighted or appalled (or perhaps both), depending on the listener’s tolerance and inherent sense of humor. One of the supplements included on this new Blu-ray release offers co-writer and director Xavier Giannoli unapologetically confessing to the fact that Marguerite is a more or less Gallic version of her saga (at least in general concept), but even given that fact it’s interesting to note (no pun intended) that two of Giannoli’s previous films, When I Was a Singer and Superstar, toyed with some of the same ideas of talent and celebrity that Marguerite does.

Fans breathlessly awaiting The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection might pause for a moment or two when considering that the heroine (?) of this film is named Marguerite Dumont (Catherine Frot), and it seems likely that the name was not chosen by accident, for her appearance in the film is at times very like that of Margaret Dumont in her guise as the Marx Brothers’ comedic foil. But the fact that Marguerite’s first “performance” in the film is Mozart’s iconic “Queen of the Night” aria from The Magic Flute , a piece Jenkins herself famously destroyed on several occasions, probably makes it as clear as anything that indeed Jenkins’ life at least helped to spark the genesis for this film. It’s the 1920s, and Baroness Dumont has invited a glittering array of French folks with deep pockets to a gala that is raising money to support war orphans. There are actual talented musicians in attendance, including a sizable orchestra and a young music student named Hazel Klein (Christa Theret), who has been hired to be one of the performers in the gorgeous duet “Duo des fleurs” from Léo Delibes’ Lakmé. But the main attraction, for better or worse, is Marguerite herself.

Marguerite details a number of bittersweet elements about the ostensible singer’s life, including a somewhat fractured marriage to her Baron husband Georges (André Marchon), and her “dress up parties” in old operatic costumes which are memorialized photographically by her empathetic butler Madelbos (Denis Mpunga), a man who supports his employer’s delusions by drowning the estate in flowers supposedly sent by well wishers after her concert. The film perhaps falters a bit, though, in the introduction of a number of interlinked supporting players and subplots, including Hazel, who also interacts with two party crashers in the opening sequence, a journalist named Lucien Beaumont (Sylvain Dieuaide) and a somewhat enigmatic poet and illustrator named Kyrill Von Priest (Aubert Fenoy), whose initial motivations for being there aren’t clear, but which are clearly mercenary in some way. There's also a needlessly shocking sex scene inserted into the film (apart from Georges' dalliances with a mistress), something that is tonally at odds with the rest of this outing.

The film does much better in its perhaps simpler formulation of the kind of sad but in a way noble struggles of Marguerite to “prove” how much she loves music by attempting (and let’s face it, failing) to sing. Frot is an incredible presence in the film, able to convey huge waves of emotion with little more than a glance. Her performance anchors this inherently flighty subject matter with a rather unexpected gravitas, and is (not to put too fine a point on it) perfectly in tune with both the text and subtext of this fascinating character.

Marguerite Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Marguerite is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Media Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists the Arri Alexa XT as the camera of choice for this shoot, and the results are often quite sharp and arresting looking, especially given the obviously intentional strategy to desaturate the image to near monochromatic levels a lot of the time, as well as another tendency to have effulgent light sources without accompanying overheated contrast, something that leads to a fair amount of gauziness a lot of the time. Other than that particular element, fine detail levels are often superb, offering great looks at things like the fur that several characters wear, or the textures in some of Marguerite's old opera costumes. What I personally found interesting (not necessarily in a good way) throughout this film is what might be termed an almost obsessive use of lens flare, to the point that I started to wonder whether some of it was digitally created or the result of a malfunctioning lens and/or camera. While examples like screenshot 1 are pretty "natural" looking, given the fact the camera is pointed at a variety of light sources, other instances (see screenshots 16-19) feature sometimes odd and maybe even inexplicable horizontal striping that is occasionally a distraction.

Marguerite Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Marguerite portends a hopefully permanent change back to lossless audio for Cohen releases, with a nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (there's also a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track included on the release). Things open up quite nicely in the musical moments, with an appealing spread of sound through the surround channels, while also offering lifelike support for vocal elements. Ambient environmental sounds occasionally dot the surrounds when the film ventures outside. Dialogue is cleanly and clearly rendered on this problem free track.

Marguerite Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 7:17)


• Interview with Xavier Giannoli (1080p; 18:05)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:09)

Marguerite Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Marguerite would seem to be a near perfect double feature or at least companion piece to Florence Foster Jenkins. The story may be at least somewhat familiar, even to those who haven't (yet) seen the Streep film, but it's presented here with both whimsy and a certain depth of emotion that's quite remarkable. Aside from weirdly incessant lens flare (whether natural or otherwise), the video component to this release is really nice looking, albeit not especially colorful (by design) and Cohen seems to be back on track with lossless audio again. Highly recommended.