florence foster jenkins

Director: stephen frears

Actor: meryl streep,hugh grant,simon helberg,rebecca ferguson

Data Published: Thu May 05 2016

Genres: Biography,Comedy,Drama,Music

Key Words: bad singing,singing out of tune,concert,heiress,singer

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4136084/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins_(film)

Description: Florence Foster Jenkins is a movie starring Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, and Simon Helberg. The story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a New York heiress who dreamed of becoming an opera singer, despite having a terrible singing voice.

Plot: Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep) is a New York City heiress and socialite who founded the Verdi Club to celebrate her passionate love of music. As it is 1944 and the U.S. is in the midst of World War II, Florence is of the opinion that "music matters more than ever." St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), a British Shakespearean actor, is her husband and manager. Despite being married, Florence and Bayfield live in separate residences. She lives in a grand hotel suite while he resides in an apartment in the city with his secret mistress, Kathleen Weatherley (Rebecca Ferguson). Florence suffers from a long-term case of syphilis, which she contracted from her first husband. The illness has caused her to have various health problems for which she takes medication, including mercury and arsenic, that have toxic side effects. Due to the fear of passing the disease on to Bayfield, she remains abstinent from all sexual intercourse in her marriage, and Bayfield has sex with Kathleen. Florence decides to resume her long-neglected singing lessons. She hires pianist Cosmé McMoon (Simon Helberg) and introduces him to her vocal coach, Carlo Edwards (David Haig), the assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. McMoon is shocked that Florence is a terrible singer, yet Bayfield and Edwards pretend she is wonderful, with the former giving McMoon a dire warning against criticizing her. Bayfield arranges a small recital, hand-picking the attendees. On the night of the performance, loyal Verdi Club members watch respectfully, but others can barely contain their laughter. Feeling encouraged by her recital’s good reviews, she makes a recording as a Christmas gift for the Verdi Club. Florence gives McMoon a copy, which leads to her recalling that Bayfield was an unsuccessful actor and that she hid negative reviews from him. She also informs McMoon of her history as a piano player and teacher, having once played for the President as a child. McMoon realizes that Florence is not as musically inept as he had thought, strengthening their friendship. Florence and McMoon write and perform original songs together, one of which gets airtime on the radio, much to the shock and horror of Bayfield and Kathleen, despite many listeners enjoying it, believing it to be comedic. With this burst in popularity, Florence informs Bayfield that she has booked Carnegie Hall for a one night performance and will give away a thousand tickets to soldiers. Bayfield fails to dissuade her. Bayfield stressed over the impending performance, gets into a fight with a group of men laughing at Florence and McMoon's song at a bar. Kathleen, resenting the lack of attention, leaves Bayfield. McMoon confides to Bayfield that he fears that the recital will humiliate him and ruin his career. Bayfield replies that he gave up his acting career to support his wife and urges McMoon to possibly do the same for the sake of his friend. McMoon agrees, elated to at least play at Carnegie Hall. The concert is packed and attended by the likes of Cole Porter and Tallulah Bankhead. When Florence begins singing, the soldiers laugh and jeer. Her supporters and loyal friends, however, scold them and then cheer for her to keep singing. She happily continues her performance. Meanwhile, the columnist Earl Wilson for the New York Post refuses to continue listening, telling a desperate Bayfield that he will write a damning review of the recital. Bayfield, with McMoon's help, goes to great lengths so that she only receives good reviews by buying every copy of the New York Post in the vicinity and throwing them away. After being given sarcastically patronizing comments about her performance alluding to the New York Post's review by a pair of young men, Florence is driven to find a copy of the review in a trash can and is upset to the point of collapse. As she is dying in bed, Bayfield by her side, Florence remembers a fancy angel costume worn for the concert as an angel and imagines herself singing beautiful opera.[6] She imagines that she, McMoon and Bayfield all take a triumphant bow to a standing ovation. She points out proudly that even though people can say she could not sing, no one can say she did not sing. Peacefully, she dies.