From a true story, you have here the tale of a pearl lost in a sea of mud. The mud of hypocrisy, lie and trickery. The tale of an eccentric and wealthy woman who is married to a rich business man who cheats her with a mistress. An eccentric lady played by the outstanding Catherine Frot who has only one dream in life: singing opera, recitals, not in front of wide audiences but circles of music lovers who fake to be her friends. Those "friends" who let her think she is a great singer whilst she sings totally FALSE. Here, the audience is also guilty to laugh at this poor naive woman. Me too laughed and I am ashamed of myself. It's a genuine sad, painful story, I assure you. Catherine Frot has never been better, she gives here a terrific performance. I also appreciated the black butler character whom we at first think of him that he is Frot's close friend and dedicated house keeper. But as the film continues it appears that his behaviour is rather weird, even disgusting. During all this powerful drama I thought of Mark Robson's THE HARDER THEY FALL; the only difference is that this old movie took place in the boxing business. But for the rest, it's the same scheme. Go to see this very good feature showing how a pure pearl got drowned into an ocean of mud. The human mud.
Review of Marguerite
