Marie Curie

The movie painted an interesting portrait on the life of the only person in history to receive two Nobel prizes in different fields. Or at least it tried to. But it dwelt too much on her relationship with a married man which derailed the story.

So I learned something simply from going to see the movie about a female scientist who discovered element 88 and attempted to sell it to the science society as a better way to help destroy cancer.

It's the perfect movie for this age of feminism, cause the movie is about a woman struggling in a society that looks down on her cause she's not a dude, yet the men closet to her loved her mind the most and wanted to see her success be praised.

Albert Einstein is portrayed in the movie. Different from the Einstein I'm use to as he's a younger man with darker hair. I'm guessing this was at a time when he was just smart but did not achieve anything, which is semi-ironic because he's use as a means to show everyone what level of smart Marie Curie is on.

It was much needed. The film does not really talk about the science only mentions that she discovered Radium and she won two Nobel Prizes for it, but never fully goes over why she was nominated, only a few sections on how her new element can help people with cancer.

The movie mostly details the controversy that surrounded her life that almost prevented her from winning the second nomination. It's based on a true story so I can't complain on how the story goes if that's how it happen. As important the historic fact of the struggle for this chemist to be her in a room filled with white men, and how it was so much easier for her to be shamed on for her affair with a married man because she was a woman, I think it would have been just as important to see her doing the science. We see her balance family and work (The scenes with her guiding her daughter (who would follow her footsteps) were great, but it would have been cool watching her do the lab work she did to get to were she got to.

That would have been perfect in a film like this. I loved how kinetic the movie flowed. It was all the same pace and never boring (It does help that Curie has an interesting life and is an interesting person.). Although I must admit, the tempo got a little annoying trying to watch the visuals and stay focus on the subtitles.

Very good for the feminist cause of today, but next time keep in mind that Curie raised a female physicist and we want to do the same and the best way to do that is with more science.

http://cinemagardens.com

I just saw this film at the San Francisco Film Festival. I already knew about Madame Curie's scientific achievements so I was interested in the personal aspects that this film revealed.

The sexist aspects are relevant today. A woman tries to get recognition for her scientific achievements but is thwarted almost every step of the way. Nevertheless, she persisted....

It's a beautiful film, the cinematography is excellent. It's got an artistic feeling that I didn't expect from this period piece.

This is sadly not a film about a great woman who dedicated her life to science and paid the ultimate price in doing so. Rather it is simply yet another tedious promotion of today's feminist agenda telling us how terrible it was to be a woman in the past and (indirectly) how much we must strive to strengthen women's rights in the future. Marie Curie is simply the canvas used to restate this message for the millionth time.

It tells us nothing about her background, her early interests, her historical meeting with Pierre Curie or even the substance of the relationship between them. And most awful of all it tells us nothing of her actual work, how it was that Radium and Polonium were discovered and how this was received at the time.

Instead the film concentrates upon a series of soft porn, soft focus and heavily romantacised encounters between her and a married man whom she partnered after Pierre's death. Curie was then 44 and fairly full figured after having two daughters. But the actress in the film is nothing like that. She has a slim lithe body with perfectly neat compact breasts that would emulate a teenager. In short the woman who partnered a man becuase of shared scientific exploration is now displayed as a sex godess worthy of our admiration on physical grounds alone.

Do youself a favour. Chuck this film in the bin and watch the 1943 version instead. It is much much more rewarding.

Scientist Marie Curie inspired a lot of directors: Mervyn Le Roy's "Madame Curie " (1943) starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon stopped with the discovery of radium ; the MTV "une femme honorable" starring Marie-Christine Barrault in the eighties told her whole life ,including her affair ,passed over in silence by the MGM production (which in the end ,made sense ,for it happened after Pierre's death.)

"Marie curie " has a strong feminist side : it depicts Marie's struggle in a macho world ;when Albert Einstein -whom she actually met:there are famous photographs of both scientists walking and discussing in the country -tells he she's the most clever woman he has ever met ,Marie wryly answers "there's not much competition";she had to struggle to get her late husband 's chair (it's not a place that's passed down from husband to wife); her affair with Langevin gets unanimous thumbs down and meets the populace's hatred (If I were a man, my affair would be taken for granted).

Karolina Gruzka is a convincing scientist , who has "the courage of knowledge " ,at a time when a complete and utter fool could vote and a genius like her was not allowed to .

There are lessons to be learned from Mrs Curie's admirable life : she insists her work be useful to relieve the humanity's sufferings ( it was a brand new way to cure cancer) ;a great woman who gave all and who wanted to live just like a woman , that is to say ,with the right to be in love.