Florence Foster Jenkins

Director: Stephen Frears Stephen Frears

Overview

Heiress Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep) longs to become an opera star in 1940s New York, despite possessing a horrible singing voice. With the help and encouragement of her husband (Hugh Grant) and a talented musician (Simon Helberg), she finds a very strange kind of success as a performer and recording artist. Rebecca Ferguson and Nina Arianda co-star. Stephen Frears (Philomena) directed this biopic, which is based on the real-life socialite and opera singer of the same name.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/13/2016
UPC:	0032429252722
Original Release:	2016
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	PARAMOUNT
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:50:00
Sales rank:	30,129

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Meryl Streep	Florence Foster Jenkins
Hugh Grant	Bayfield
Simon Helberg	Cosme McMoon
Rebecca Ferguson	Kathleen
Nina Arianda	Agnes Stark
Stanley Townsend	Phineas Stark
Allan Corduner	Actor,John Totten
Christian McKay	Earl Wilson
David Haig	Carlo Edwards
John Sessions	Dr. Hermann
Brid Brennan	Actor
John Kavanagh	Actor
Pat Starr	Actor
Maggie Steed	Actor
Thelma Barlow	Actor
Liza Ross	Actor
Paola Dionisotti	Actor
Rhoda Lewis	Actor
Aida Garifullina	Actor
David Mills	Actor
David Menkin	Actor
Sid Phoenix	Actor
Tunji Kasim	Actor
Carl Davis	Actor
Lloyd Hutchinson	Actor
Josh O'Connor	Actor
Stefan Bednarczyk	Actor
Nathan Osgood	Actor
Caolan Byrne	Actor
James Sobol Kelly	Actor
Dar Dash	Actor
Neve Gachev	Actor
Jorge León	Actor
Dilyana Bouklieva	Actor
Danny Mahoney	Actor
Philip Rosch	Actor
Richard Kilgour	Actor
Ewan Stewart	Colonel
Cameron Cuffe	Gino
Grant Gillespie	Brooklyn Man
Mark Arnold	Actor
Nat Luurtsema	Actor
Alexandre Desplat	Composer

Technical Credits

Nicholas Martin

Stephen Frears	Director
Nicholas Martin	Screenwriter
Michael Kuhn	Producer
Tracey Seaward	Producer
Christine Langan	Executive Producer,Producer
Cameron McCracken	Executive Producer,Producer
Malcolm Ritchie	Executive Producer,Producer
Kathleen Chopin	Casting
Leo Davis	Casting
Lissy Holm	Casting
Manex Efrem	Special Effects
Eunice Huthart	Stunts
Mark DeSimone	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

Florence Foster Jenkins, a socialite living in 1940s New York City, possesses great musical talent. She confesses to her astounded accompanist Cosmé McMoon (Simon Helberg) that she was once a piano prodigy who performed at the White House at the age of eight, but that she can no longer play due to her atrophied left hand. The indefatigable artiste has instead turned to singing as a way to quell her thirst for music, and while most people with a voice like hers do not sing in public, either tone deafness or fanatical enthusiasm has rendered her oblivious to her own glass-breaking timbre. Her impeccably mannered husband, St Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), is desperate to keep her ignorant of this truth; luckily for both of them, the New York press are willing to play along with the deception. Meanwhile, musical "colleagues" like Arturo Toscanini (John Kavanagh) and Maestro Carlo Edwards (David Haig), the latter the assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and Jenkins' vocal coach, appreciate how generous of a patron to the arts she is. They congratulate her on her upcoming recitals and send their regrets that, unfortunately, they'll be away and cannot attend. They smile broadly and praise her voice for its...authenticity. However, it turns out that this pigeon-breasted society grande dame has a past. Her deceased first husband was "a human alley cat," as she bitterly recounts to a visiting doctor alarmed at the syphilis lesions on her back. Jenkins isn't a product of our current age of bold self-disclosure, and so instead of trumpeting details of what she's endured to anyone who will listen, she simply soldiers on in her genteel world of finger sandwiches and ladies' clubs. The façade only cracks when a knife dropped carelessly to the floor triggers tears. As with Ricki and the Flash, Meryl Streep is once again playing a self-deluded musician; this time around, it's one who prefers frilly matron frocks and pearls to rock-star leathers. Streep is an excellent singer in real life, but here she must take on the difficult task of putting that talent aside in order to intentionally sing poorly. She proves up to the vocal challenge, wavering her explosive and gasping notes in the exact same manner in which Florence Foster Jenkins did (recordings survive of her remarkable voice). It's impossible not to snicker as she commands the stage at Carnegie Hall, resplendent in ludicrously spangled diva gowns, and mangles Mozart's "Queen of the Night" aria into what sounds like a dog vigorously attacking a squeaky toy. But it's also impossible not to applaud her spirit. Is Florence Foster Jenkins a tragic figure? A comical one? Inspirational? Delusional? She is all of those things, and the triumph of director Stephen Frears' portrait of the performer, who sadly hit the wall of her own talent long before her passion ran dry, is that it never chooses one note to play, or one pat answer to sum up the ultimate meaning of her career. Her music may torture audiences and she may live a quietly tortured life, but she's no tortured artist. Even in the shadow of chronic illness and possible death, her love of music inspires her, and that love will linger for movie audiences after the lights come up. Florence Foster Jenkins is vastly more successful as a work of art than anything Jenkins ever sang, but it's triumphant and joyous heart comes from the unforgettable muse at its core.