Marguerite: did the heroine of the film really exist?

Arte is broadcasting, this Wednesday, September 21 at 9 p.m., the film Daisydirected by Xavier Giannoli, in which Catherine Frot embodies Marguerite Dumont, a singer who sings extremely out of tune but to whom neither high society, whom she finances, nor her husband, who initially married her for his fortune, dare to tell the truth. For the occasion, Télé Star invites you to find out if the heroine of the film really existed or not.

If the character of Marguerite Dumont did not really exist, this film is inspired, in reality, by the life of Florence Foster Jenkins. The latter was born in the United States, at the end of the 19th century, and on the death of her father inherited an immense fortune which she used to launch her career as a singer. Very quickly, despite her mediocre level, she did not hesitate to compare herself to the greatest singers of her time. In 1944, aged 76, Florence Foster Jenkins performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, in front of the press which, the next day, destroyed her. The singer will not survive the criticism and succumbs to a heart attack two days later. It is the extraordinary life of this singer that Xavier Giannoli decided to use to produce Daisy.

Florence Foster Jenkins: Marguerite but also a biopic for the singer!

If, in Marguerite, Xavier Giannoli opted for a character inspired very freely by Florence Foster Jenkins, the latter also had the right to her own biopic. In 2016, it was, neither more nor less, than Meryl Streep who played the singer in an eponymous film by Stephen Frears. Hugh Grant played his manager.

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