"Widow Clicquot" is an art film with historical chops helping those of us who love champagne and those who study Napolean. "Widow" is important in that title because in the early 19th century Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot (Haley Bennett) challenged the 1804 Napoleonic code that didn't allow women to be business owners unless she was a widow.
Throughout the story, flashbacks allow us to see how she became widowed and how she grew into a winemaker helping to establish forever the méthode champenoise. The contemporary scenes allow reflections on the past and, most importantly, the role of women in the early 19th century. Although the early parts where she is struggling and learning the business of producing champagne is visually dark, Bennett infuses Barbe with enough potential energy to light up the screen.
More exciting than seeing her romances with men and wine is the process of refining her test samples into what has been known as "Comet Champagne" after the inspiration of a comet in her sky at that time. Her formula now is identified as Clicquot, a gold standard for fine champagne.
It's possible some would like to discount the feminist angle of this rich biography, but at their peril. The seeds of reasonable progress are sown here because of her excellence in developing the winery and thereby one of the world's greatest wines.
The dramatic tale, from reality, is as powerful as any romantic drama today. Too bad some will miss it out of a fear of being preached to about women's place. It is all about human ingenuity and ambition, male or female.
