Weekend Cooking: Widow Cliquot

I love a good film festival, and here in Melbourne, the British Film Festival has just started. As usual during this annual event, there are more films that I want to see than I can possibly find time for. However, as soon as I saw that there was a special preview for this film, I jumped at the chance to see it, and of course chose the option where we had a glass of Veuve Cliquot in hand whilst we did so.

This film tells the life-story of Barbe-Nicole Cliquot basically starting from her marriage through her widowhood as she fights to be able to continue to run the champagne business that her husband, Francois,  left her when he died and trying to raise her daughter Clementine.

The story is told in a very non-linear way. The movie opens as her husband, Francois, is being buried, and before the wake is even finished, the men from the local champagne producing families like Moet are deciding how they are going to divide up the Cliquot vineyard. However, Barbe-Nicole is having none of it. She is determined that she is going to continue the work that she and Francois started and she begs her father in law to give her a chance to prove herself. Unfortunately though, she soon comes to learn that she is facing an uphill battle, and world events are not helping her. Many of the traditional champagne markets are closed to her due to Napoleon's trade embargo, so in order to succeed she has to think outside the box. Fortunately she has her wine dealer, Louis Bohne, to assist her in this regard. And she has her own new ways of creating champagne that changed the face of the industry.

The other factor is that Napoleonic law has very strict rules about what a woman can and can't do, and it does not allow a woman to continue to operate a business if she remarries. With many of the men hoping that the Widow Cliquot does not succeed, these laws can and are used against her.

Through the mechanism of flashbacks we see how the Cliquots worked together building the vineyards facing challenges together, whilst still in the throes of young love. It is easy to differentiate between the flashbacks and current story. In the earlier story, everyone is dressed in white and it is all bright and fresh. We slowly we begin to see how Francois is struggling with his demons so the colours become a little muted, and then everything after his death is dark, everyone clothed in black for mourning clothes.

Earlier this year, I read Rebecca Rosenberg's book Champagne Widows, which also tells the story of Barbe-Nicole Cliquot, and I know that there are at least a couple of other books about her as well, including the book The Widow Cliquot by Tilar J Mazzeo, which this movie was based on. This movie didn't concentrate as much on Barbe-Nicole's childhood, including her family's connections or her "nose" which enables her to use her sense of smell as she developed her wines which we saw more about in Champagne Widows. My review of Champagne Widows is here.

I really enjoyed the performances of the three main actors. Haley Bennett effectively ran the gamut of emotions from joy to despair, from challenge to triumph. Tom Sturridge was great as the rapidly descending Francois and Sam Riley bought a devil may care attitude to the role of Louis Bohne.

This is the story of a woman who changed the way that champagne was made, who triumphed despite adversity and continues to leave her mark in the world. After all, the very name of the champagne house, Veuve Cliquot, means Widow Cliquot.

Here's the trailer

Weekly meals

Saturday - Butter chicken
Sunday - Out for dinner
Monday - Mac and cheese
Tuesday -
Wednesday - Out for dinner
Thursday - Out for dinner
Friday - Toasted ham and cheese sandwiches

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