Stephen Frears' film Florence Infamous (Florence Foster Jenkins) is a biopic, and we'll give the film the highest compliment if we say that you wouldn't have known that if you hadn't just been told that fact. It is based on the true story of arguably the worst soprano ever, the American Florence Foster Jenkins (played by Merly Streep), who had no sense of rhythm, no ear and no intonation, but nevertheless (or precisely because of that) became extremely popular.
The infamous Florence is a movie about Florence Foster Jenkins (1868–1944), sure worst sopranos ever. But it was her lack of sense of rhythm and everything else that keeps others from singing anywhere but in the shower that led her to a world of fame and glitz, where she was more an object of ridicule as admiration. She was aware of her critics, whom she characterized as professional jealousy, but she herself was convinced of the greatness of her talent and, without a hint of shame, compared herself to famous sopranos such as Frieda Hempel and Luisa Tetrazzini.
Her interpretations of soprano arias, such as the Queen of the Night from Mozart's The Magic Flute and Adele from Strauss's operetta The Bat, still elicit laughter even today, when we are used to everything bad (read: that successful singers can't actually sing). She was the only singer, if you can call her that, who sold out the famous New York concert hall Carnegie Hall.
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And how did she usually address her critics? "People can say I can't sing, but no one can say I didn't sing.” Hold on. As it is true that in this repulsive autobiography in addition Meryl Streep performing Hugh Grant as her blindly devoted husband St. Clair Bayfield.
Biographical comedy drama
The infamous Florence
(Florence Foster Jenkins, UK, 2016)
Direction: Ron Clements, John Musker. They play: Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Helberg, Neve Gachev, Nina Arianda, John Kavanagh, Dilyana Bouklieva.
In the cinema from September 1, 2016.
