As they say in the credits, they did play around with the history a bit. Cosme McMoon knew FFJ socially before he became her pianist, and it seems likely that there was no audition. This makes me wonder how much of the story as per the film was truth, and how much was fiction.
shareBiopics tend not to let the facts get in the way of telling a story. I can't think of one that's truly accurate in every respect. But Florence Foster Jenkins is a very good movie, in my opinion. It won me over completely.
shareI'd agree that it's a good movie. But, I think it perhaps stretched reality a bit more than most biopics.
shareThe respect with which this movie was made is a new thing since Hollywood always disrespects the big personalities in films about music.
For a typically horrible example of disrespect, see "Copying Beethoven", the worst biopic ever made.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424908/?ref_=nv_sr_3
"Copying Beethoven" made no claim of accuracy. Right there on the page, under "Plot", it says "a fictionalized account of the last year of Beethoven's life." There are literally hundreds of movie "biographies," and very few of them come close to being accurate. No one can possibly name the actual worst one ever made.
The value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it.-Oscar Wilde
But I wasn't even talking about accuracy -- just respect.
shareWorse than 'Wired'? I doubt that.
Hawkeye: Do you know how it feels to be unmade?
The Avengers
A movie that many consider to be a biopic, "Saving Private Ryan", really stretches reality. Why? Because it isn't a biopic even though it tried to bill itself as one. Private Ryan never existed and there a rescue mission to find him. The closest match to such a story is Frederick “Fritz” Niland, who had 3 brothers in WWII that died and he was sent home to his mom after she received all 3 death notices at the same time. Nobody went looking for Fritz though. There's a lot of movies that stretch reality, but I doubt Florence Foster Jenkins takes as many liberties as you would see in war movies.
shareSince you don't know the facts, why would you think it "perhaps stretched reality a bit more than most biopics."
It's not a documentary. You know that, right? The movie actually jives closely with the biography of Jenkins and Bayfield that I've read.
The audition scene, while humorous and introduces us to McMoon, is a minor detail.
I agree. What many people don't consider is that the story is altered to create a better story. This isn't a documentary, it's an entertaining story. Though it isn't as far fetched as Errol Flynn's Charge of the Light Brigade or They Died with Their Boots On, it is an interpretation of the story and well done.
I can't understand why people don't understand that concept.
Easy. I read up more of the actual reality after I saw the film.
Not knowing the facts during the film means that I took some of the 'changes' at face value. After reading some biographies of the major characters, I then knew the facts, and could see how the film had changed them.
The film also makes it seem like St. Clair shielded Florence from ever hearing a negative audience or critic reaction in her life, but according to her Wiki page, the real Florence had heard negative reaction but didn't believe it or didn't care, which would make the real-life Florence slightly more delusional (or at least defiant) than the movie Florence.
Anyway, no matter what minor details were changed I think the film still captured the important essence of Florence's story pretty well.
Har ring molassis abounding
Common lap kitch sardin a poor floundin.
Meryl Streep has to play delusional...with an accent.
shareI think she must have been either in denial or delusional. She had a heart attack 5 days after her carnegie hall performance which implies that she was shocked by the harsh truth. Also the syphilis probably caused "progressive deterioration of the central nervous system" and "Nerve damage due to the disease may have been compounded by toxic side effects—such as hearing loss—from mercury and arsenic, the prevailing syphilis remedies of the time."
It's definitely a tremendous movie. The singing was hilarious!
And the actors are playing so endearing.
This story would have been fun to seen in documentary form instead of Streep Oscar bait form.
shareAlso FFJ was far less amiable in real life, according to the research done by Hugh Grant (who read Bayfield's diaries and correspondence in the Lincoln Center archives). He concluded that she was more self-aware than we think for most of the film.
The Fabio Principle: Puffy shirts look best on men who look even better without them.
Does it matter?
The film makers put that part in there to help make a story. Otherwise we would have had a biopic of her, and those tend not to be comedy oriented kind of films.
A good part of the story revolves around him meeting her, and use seeing what he thinks of her. In a sense we are him in this film. That's why the film was made the way it was.
If you want a documentary, then go see one. Hollywood has always taken great liberties with their "based on" or "inspired by" true story adaptations.
shareOh, a bit here and there. Perhaps the most glaring for me was the presence of black soldiers and sailors in audience at the Carnegie concert. Either they would have been consigned to the upper balcony or not allowed in at all.
Aside from that? Well, the film suggests that the Post review killed her within days of the concert. It no doubt helped her along, but she did live two more months after that night.
Beyond that? Dont know, dont care. They did an excellent job of evoking FFJ, and sometimes that's all that matters.
Perhaps the most glaring for me was the presence of black soldiers and sailors in audience at the Carnegie concert. Either they would have been consigned to the upper balcony or not allowed in at all.That's not true. Although segregation would have been a factor in theaters in the South and many other places around the country, Carnegie Hall was desegregated from its opening in the 1890s:
With no barriers. Carnegie Hall was never segregated.
"I think 1892, Sissieretta Jones appeared here,” Gillinson says. “I mean, the first African-American artist within probably 12 months of when the hall first opened."
http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/carnegie-hall-at-125/2016/06/6/carnegie-hall-at-125--a-look-at-the-institution-s-prestigious-history-and-hopeful-future.html
Carnegie would not have prevented anybody with a ticket from attending the show, although there might not have been the level of "mixing" as shown in the movie. Also, I have found little to support the story of the show being a "military only" affair, although it was, indeed, sold out (weeks before the show). There were several celebrities, including Porter (who reportedly adored FFJ), in attendance.
She died a month after the concert, although it likely had little to do with any reviews. She was apparently in a music store less than a week after the concert, where she had a heart attack; she then lingered a few weeks before succumbing. Then again, maybe it took the full five days for the Post review to really sink in (hey, taking a little artistic license myself). The concert was on October 25, 1944, with her death, at the age of 76, on November 26, 1944 (I would assume her age, coupled with a few medical issues, might have more to do with her demise than a bad review...yeah, those can be hard to deal with, but they are rarely fatal).
If the reviews would have impacted her, she probably would have died immediately, as almost ALL the newspaper reviews were negative (they kind of painted the Post critic rather harshly, but he was not alone in his disdain for her "abilities"). A sizable portion of the reviews she got that were nice to her were written by friends or, reportedly, FFJ herself...she was probably well aware that most real critics were not impressed by her operatic prowess and reading the Post might have annoyed her at most, if she even bothered (I'd be willing to bet she only read reviews she already pretty much knew the content of).
Yeah, there were inaccuracies, which is really rare for Hollywood biopics (cough, cough), but it was still an enjoyable movie.
The movie was quite accurate with regard to Jenkins' life. There are plenty of articles which bear this out.
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