In Widow Clicquot, Thomas Napper wonderfully captures the soulful vibrancy of the Grande Dame of Champagne, Barbe Nicole Clicquot. For the most part, you alternate between the timelines of the formation of an idea and its launch–the idea being the very inspiring Barbe Nicole herself. It’s often even a strangely trippy coming-of-age of sorts, one that plays out like the inner monologue of a person trying to achieve an emotional breakthrough. Barbe Nicole took the good and rejected the bad or the unreliable every step of the way as she gradually achieved her ideal self–a creator guided by tenderness and determination.
Spoiler Alert
What happens in the film?
Barbe Nicole’s voice pulls us into the movie with her understanding of what makes a person want to create something. She says that it’s the only way a person fully becomes themself and makes their existence worth remembering. The creation in question here is wine. The creator, Barbe Nicole. And her first and most significant connection to the magic that vineyards hold is her recently deceased husband, Francois. Her love for this wonderful, charming, complicated, and often emotionally unstable man melded with her love for his vineyard in Champagne. And after his tragic death, with her parents whisking their daughter Clem away from the grief-stricken abbey, Barbe dreamed of nurturing the vineyard with a mix of her and her late husband’s goals for the vintage. If it hadn’t been for Barbe’s stance against letting go of the vineyard that Francois loved almost as much as he loved her, his dad Phillipe would’ve sold it off. When she was given a shot at managing the vineyards, it came with a lot of prejudice and conditions, the most unavoidable one being the effects of the Napoleonic Wars. Phillipe sent Edouard with the ledgers to intimidate Barbe. He thought she would be too feeble and unsure to continue down the path she’d chosen when she got a peek at the obstacles. But that only motivated Barbe further. People like Droite, those who got too comfortable in upholding the hierarchy that made them feel good about themselves, were extremely wary of handing the reins over to a woman. So you can imagine the issues stacked against Barbe in a very patriarchal 18th century France. The only person who believed in her without reservation was Louis Bohne, Francois’ friend. There’s a clear implication that both Barbe and Francois had feelings for Louis, but Barbe was the only one who was okay with it. With Louis’ faith and support bolstering her resolve, Barbe created the pink champagne that held the very essence of her love for her late husband and the vineyard.
Did Barbe Nicole’s business venture succeed?
Anyone who tried to get to know Barbe Nicole with an unprejudiced mind recognised her potential. But they were measly in number compared to the whole army of people who’d already written her off before she’d even started. Droite gave her the hardest time when he felt threatened by the idea of taking orders from a woman, even though Barbe Nicole never tried to stifle his voice. Louis knew the world of men better than Barbe Nicole did. But while it would’ve been easier for her to take his advice and let the men reimpose the hierarchy they were so desperately dependent on, Barbe Nicole didn’t want to coddle their insecurities. She realized that the only way she could make the vintage a space that nurtured new creation was by maintaining harmony between the workers. It helped that there were a few, like Edouard and the new vineyard foreman she hired, who believed that a woman could achieve greatness. There was a lot of pressure on Barbe Nicole to prove herself to her father-in-law and the rest of the naysayers. But that didn’t scare her into playing safe. When she created the perfect blend in the form of that pink champagne, which thoroughly impressed a seasoned wine merchant like Louis, Barbe Nicole took a huge risk and proceeded to defy Napoleon’s trade embargo laws to sell her champagne outside of France. The whole future of the vineyard and the dream she saw with her late husband hinged on that venture. It devastated Barbe Nicole when the champagne didn’t survive the journey to Amsterdam, but that didn’t keep her down for too long. She believed in her creation too much to accept defeat as long as she still had more to give. Her goal meant more to her than all the material possessions strewn across the abbey. Just to be able to keep the vintage running, Barbe Nicole sold everything she had. But even a dream as desperate as hers wanes in the lack of reassurances. Lucky for Barbe Nicole, the reassurance came to her when she least expected it. While most of the champagne had spoiled, Louis went out of his way to sell some to the Russians. It might not have been a financially successful trade, but by giving the Russians a taste of Barbe Nicole’s creation, Louis created the demand that pushed her to carry on.
Why did Barbe Nicole say no to Louis Bohne’s proposal of marriage?
Remember how I said that Widow Clicquot has got this trippy quality? For the most part, the film implies and indicates more than it says anything out loud. When it comes to Barbe Nicole’s marriage with Francois, the flashbacks that are mostly seen through Barbe Nicole’s perspective are all we’ve got. And that creative choice makes sense in more ways than one, the most significant one being that what we’re watching is essentially a glimpse of everything that plays a significant part in who Barbe Nicole was as a person and a creator. Love never eluded Barbe Nicole and Francois’ relationship. It’s implied that she’d been married off against her will, but she soon came to be madly in love with Francois and all his sweet eccentricities. It didn’t take her long to realize that to love Francois is to share in his love for the vineyard. She believed in his vision for the place and its potential. Francois was far from perfect. In fact, he was so mentally unwell that his outbursts would often get out of hand. But while everyone, including Phillipe, only saw his mad side, Barbe Nicole saw Francois beyond that and looked right into his tender soul. It left her absolutely shattered when Francois got too tired of his battles with his own mind and ended his life. So part of the reason Barbe Nicole picked up his dream and tried to polish it with her sensibilities was so that she could prove his vision to Phillipe. She wanted her father-in-law to realize that Francois was so much more than his emotional struggles. When her blends were cherished by the Russians and her business flourished, she was reaching for a win that Francois didn’t get to experience in his life.
Louis and Barbe Nicole were bound to get close. In Francois’ absence, they understood each other and validated each other’s dreams more than anyone else. But her romantic entanglement with her wine merchant provided a weapon to those who couldn’t wait to see her fail. The combined efforts of people like Droite and those who wanted to purchase the land got Barbe Nicole in trouble with the law. It was an alien sensation to the flag-bearers of patriarchy to watch a woman win. She defied and worked around their unfair rules. And when she was brought to trial with the accusations of breaking the very misogynistic Napoleonic law that prohibited women from owning businesses, all the testimonies were from people who loathed her audacity to dream. This was a time when people found the very idea of a woman running a business ridiculous. Barbe Nicole’s competence threatened the patriarchal monopoly of power. The likes of Droite pointed their finger at Barbe Nicole for having a romantic relationship with Louis, hurling the accusation that she was only staying a widow so she could be in charge of her late husband’s vintage.
In Widow Clicquot’s ending, Louis meant well when he proposed to Barbe Nicole in court. But Barbe Nicole was loyal to her truth. She didn’t want to remarry for the sake of cleansing her image in a world that was hellbent on getting her to cower. She loved Francois, and she wanted to achieve their shared goal while being true to herself and the world. Barbe Nicole Clicquot had too much respect for herself and her creation to bend to the will of the man. She chose to keep her rose champagne, the success she’d go on to achieve, and her legacy as a visionary vintner unadulterated and proud.
Related
This post was originally published on here
