Florence Foster Jenkins – a bit of light hearted easy viewing.
This is based on a true story of an American (New York) Socialite who inherited enough money to make her dream of being on the stage a reality. We all love to get under the skin of the performing arts but where the film comes into its own is the on-screen chemistry between Hugh Grant and Meryl Streep. Grant plays her long suffering partner and manager. Narcissus Florence Foster – born July 1868, was a pianist with promise but her father would not fund study further afield. At 14 she eloped with Dr Frank Thornton Jenkins and later married him. Her wedding present from him was allegedly syphilis and she left him.
Later she met her lifelong love St Clair Bayfield and inherited a “considerable” sum of money from her father. She joined clubs and formed her own one – the Verdi club in 1917, producing musicals and operas and talent scouting.
She decked herself up in flowing robes and dripped with jewellery and as a coloratura soprano, she sang to Verdi, Strauss and Mozart arias. Friends supported her but sniggered too. Streep herself describes that when she heard Foster Jenkins in the 70’s “she wasn’t just bad. She was bad with heart”. That was years before she was chosen to play the role of course! Even though the singing was bad Streep did say she felt “a connection”. Screenwriter Nicholas Martin had Streep in mind and said “I kept thinking, “Well its got everything that she’s going to like, and it’s going to stretch her in all the ways she likes to be stretched””. Streep’s previous experience in Ricki and the Flash, Into the Woods and Mamma Mia were on his mind. At least three drafts were written before the script was optioned by producer Michael Kuhn and he in turn got director Stephen Frears on board (Dangerous Liaisons, The Queen and Philomena) which enticed Streep and Grant to “come out of semi-retirement” (quote from The Sunday Times) to act in the film.
Frears described the film as being “clearly in the tradition of Wilder, Lubitsch and Sturges”, preferring Paramount Paris to Paris, France. The New York exteriors were filmed in Liverpool and the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith “played” the Carnegie Hall.
Streep trained with a voice coach for two months to get the “cat choking on a canary” squeak but feels the film is brimful of innocence and good humour and likes it that way. Love is one of the words she uses to describe the essence of the film despite the world being “ugly and despairing and contemptible” (words chosen by her, bearing in mind she is not a young woman anymore.)
Streep has been at the top of her game for over forty years. I once met some young Polish men in Augustov Poland and others there who bemoaned the fact that they did not have many famous people from there. I said “What about Meryl Streep? She was from Polish stock”. They were pleased with that as I had read from a reliable source that her family hailed from Poland many moons ago.
There has been talk that Florence Foster Jenkins may be raised to the accolade of being a feminist icon. It is interesting to consider. Also the costumes are beautiful and oh so different to the ones we see today by popular artists, although Catherine Jenkins still sports fairytale gowns and so do one or two more serious songstresses. The likes of Kate Bush and Celine Dion come to mind in that their material can be more soulful and haunting and delivered in a more serious way than some popsongs since the 70’s – of course I do not wish to entangle those great singers with Florence but the way a person dresses does say something unique about them when they are on a stage for all to see. No doubt Lady Ga Ga’s outfits top them all. Such is showbusiness.
Florence Foster Jenkins was a member of sixty clubs in New York and gave money to art organisations – a woman after many lady creatives hearts today? The charm of the film pervades and gives happy memories even though it is a story about a late great prima donna who wouldn’t take no for an answer but that’s a part of her appeal. It is an interesting concept to wonder what the film would have been like if a less popular actress had been chosen. It really is worth watching the film even if you choose to wait until DVD stage. We all have a yearning for a soft soapy story once in a blue moon. Enjoy!
Penny Nair Price