Must music always be about superb performance and artistic brilliance, or can a dream and a heart full of passion be enough to inspire those around us? The new film by Stephen Frears, Florence Foster Jenkins, opens August 12, and profiles one of the most maligned voices of the 20th century — before those “American Idol” audition bloopers, before YouTube’s Miranda, and long before your neighbor whose shower morphs into Carnegie Hall every morning. The subtitle is “Every Voice Deserves to be Heard”, and the film may challenge a lot of ideas about inspiring performance.
“FloFoJ”, as she is sometimes known to young upstart vocal students, is kind of our own urban legend… except she was a real person, a socialite living in New York in the 1940s who dearly loved music, and whose wealthy husband would do just about anything to make her happy. Recordings still exist, and are usually the butt of jokes. But now Frears has enlisted the likes of Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, and Big Bang Theory‘s Simon Helberg to tell this remarkable tale of faith in music, determination and an ear that defies the imagination. While the film is being marketed as a comedy, even the trailer shows a lot of heart as well, and this is a likely must-see for the vocal community.
Check out the film with the Listers on Wed 8/17
Of course, a film like this means a Lister outing, and we’re planning a group trip to the multiplex on Wednesday, August 17 in Pasadena. Join us at Laemmle Playhouse 7 — be there with cash for your tickets by 6:45 for the 7:10pm showing, and we’ll include you in our group Premiere Card purchase for $2 off each ticket. Save a few bucks for a bite at Urth Caffé after the flick, if you’re up for it…
Take a peek at the trailer for yourself:
This isn’t the first time Mrs. Jenkins has hit the silver screen, of course: last year’s French effort, Marguerite, was also based on her life, but with a decidedly more sedate tone. Has Frears managed to find the happy medium between biopic and pity? We hope so. Whatever her talent was, she captured the hearts of the community in a unique way, and deserves our respect for that, at the very least. We shall see…
Check local movie showtimes
Check out the Facebook event for our 8/17 movie night in Pasadena
