Widow Clicquot

Widow Clicquot is a 2023 internationally co-produced period drama film, directed by Thomas Napper, from a screenplay by Erin Dignam and Christopher Monger based on the 2008 book The Widow Clicquot by Tilar J. Mazzeo. It stars Haley Bennett, Tom Sturridge, Sam Riley, Anson Boon, Leo Suter, Ben Miles, and Natasha O'Keeffe.

Widow Clicquot
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Thomas Napper
Screenplay by	Erin Dignam
Story by	Christopher Monger Erin Dignam
Based on	The Widow Clicquot by Tilar Mazzeo
Produced by	Christina Weiss Lurie Haley Bennett Joe Wright
Starring	Haley Bennett Tom Sturridge Sam Riley
Cinematography	Caroline Champetier
Edited by	Richard Marizy
Music by	Bryce Dessner
Production companies	Fourth and Twenty Eight Films WME Independent
Distributed by	Vertical (North America) Vertigo Releasing[1] (United Kingdom and Ireland)
Release dates	September 11, 2023 (2023-09-11) (TIFF) July 19, 2024 (2024-07-19) (United States)
Running time	89 minutes[2]
Countries	United States United Kingdom France
Language	English
Box office	$2.9 million[3][4]

The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2023.

Plot

Widow Clicquot focuses on Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, the woman responsible for the Veuve Clicquot champagne dynasty, that began during the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.

Cast

• Haley Bennett as Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot
• Tom Sturridge as François Clicquot
• Sam Riley as Louis Bohne
• Anson Boon as Edouard Werle fr
• Leo Suter as George
• Ben Miles as Philippe Clicquot
• Natasha O'Keeffe as Anne
• Cecily Cleeve as Clementine Clicquot
• Paul Rhys as Droite
• Ian Conningham as Paquet
• Christopher Villers as Nicolas Ponsardin
• Cara Seymour as Jeanne-Marie Ponsardin
• Phoebe Nicholls as Marie-Catherine Clicquot
• Nicholas Farrell as Jean-Rémy Moët
• Chris Larkin as Muller
• Mark Tandy as Magistrate #1
• Antoine Blanquefort as Magistrate #2
• Joseph Rapp as The Priest

Production

In October 2022, it was announced that Haley Bennett, Tom Sturridge, Sam Riley, Leo Suter, and Anson Boon joined the cast of the film, with Thomas Napper set to direct from a screenplay by Erin Dignam and Christopher Monger and Joe Wright set to produce.^[5]

Principal photography took place in Chablis and Reims, France, in October 2022.^[6]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2023.^[7] In November 2023, Vertical Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film.^[8] It had a wide release on July 19, 2024.^[9] Netfllix in the US began streaming the movie from November 16, 2024.^[10]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of 69 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Centering around Haley Bennett's sparkling performance, Widow Clicquot is a visually impressive tale of resilience that leaves a pleasing aftertaste on the palette [sic]."^[11] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[12]

Christian Zilko of IndieWire rated the film a grade B, commenting that "by swapping Bluetooth headsets for bodices, Napper and screenwriters Erin Dignam and Christopher Monger were able to drape their movie in a period aesthetic that should appeal to the arthouse crowd. But from its eureka moment when Barbe-Nicole develops her iconic rose champagne to its final title cards about the company's ongoing success, "Widow Clicquot" has all the same beats as the walk-and-talk business movie that you watched on your last flight."^[13] Zilko highlighted the film's mixture of "non-linear narrative structure" and "three-cheers-for-capitalism narrative" along with the "draconian laws" around women in business.^[13] He viewed the film as mostly "interested in celebrating the booze industry and the people who overcome needless restrictions to innovate in it."^[13]