Marguerite (ComDads) is a 2015 French comedy and drama film directed by Xavier Giannoli, starring Catherine Frot.
Marguerite Dumont (Frot), a rich aristocrat, gives private recitals in her house. She is convinced to be a good singer, but actually she sings totally out of tune. Nobody, including her husband Georges, dares to tell her. When a journalist writes a positive article about her performance, Marguerite decides to give a real concert.
Marguerite provides examples of:
- Animal Motifs: Marguerite breeds peacocks (a symbol of vanity) in her park. She also wears a hat with a peacock feather during the private recital.
- Bait-and-Switch: During the training, Atos seems to start telling Marguerite that she sings awfully, but instead he tells her that she is not a coloratura soprano, but a mezzo-soprano.
- Blackmail: Madelbos forces Atos Pezzini to become Marguerite's teacher because he threatens to reveal he has an affair with a teenager.
- Black-Tie Infiltration: Lucien Beaumont and Kyrill von Priest infiltrate Marguerite's private recital.
- Blood from the Mouth: Marguerite start bleeding from the mouth during the public recital. She dies shortly later.
- Camp Gay: Atos Pezzini is gay and he's flamboyant in his dress, speech, mannerisms, and interests.
- Downer Ending: Marguerite gives a public recital. The whole audience laughs at her. Her vocal cords tear apart and she goes mad. The doctor who treats her think hearing her own voice could help her. He is wrong: she dies when she hears it.
- Dreadful Musician: Marguerite. When Atos trains her, everybody in the house wears wax ear plugs.
- Giftedly Bad: Marguerite thinks she is a gifted singer. Everybody who has heard her knows she sings totally out of tune.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Marguerite goes mad after her public recital. Her madness consists of believing she is a famous opera singer.
- Hands-On Approach: Atos Pezzini has a lot of physical contacts with Marguerite during her training. Subverted, because Atos is explicitly gay.
- Magical Negro: Madelbos is a black servant who gives advice to Marguerite. Subverted, because he does not give her good moral advice, but drives her further into her delusion.
- The Mistress: Françoise Bellaire is Georges Dumont's mistress.
- Nobility Marries Money: Marguerite, whose family was rich, married an impoverished baron.
- Old Retainer: Madelbos is very devoted to Marguerite. He even blackmails Atos Pezzini to force him to train her.
- Plot-Driven Breakdown: In the end, Georges Dumont wants to prevent Marguerite from listening to her own singing. On the way to the hospital, his car breaks down and he cannot stop the experience.
- The Roaring '20s: We hear jazz. There are charity events for the victims of the Great War. Charlie Chaplin is mentioned.
- Starving Artist:
- Kyrill von Priest has no money for opening a gallery. He infiltrates the private recital to advertise his works. Then he hopes he can get money from Marguerite.
- Hazel is not very successful either with her singing of modern music.
- Super Doc: Marguerite consults a doctor for a problem with her vocal cords. When she goes mad, the same doctor treats her madness. He is not successful: the treatment causes Marguerite's death.
- Training Montage: There is one when Marguerite prepares for her public recital (with Michael Nyman's Chasing Sheep Is Best Left to Shepherds as background music).
- Upper-Class Twit: Marguerite is rich and married to a baron, but she does not realize she is a bad singer. Many people take advantage of her naïvety to get money.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Loosely based on the life of Florence Foster Jenkins.
