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.
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Plot summary
Left alone with two young daughters after the accidental death of her beloved husband Pierre Curie, Marie Curie faces her duties with greatest courage as a mother and a scientist. But science is primarily a man's world and Marie's audacity is not well seen by everybody. As she embarks on a passionate affair with the mathematician Paul Langevin, she provokes a huge scandal and the tabloids drag her name through the mud. Alarmed by all the malevolent headlines, the Swedish Nobel Academy, who wants to award her a second Nobel Prize (making her the first person ever to receive two),forbids her to drive to Stockholm to fetch her award.
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Great to know who she is, but it's not that great in telling me what she did.
A feminist scientist
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.
This isn't a film about science. It's about a woman scientist.
Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge (2016) is a Polish/French film co-written and directed by Marie Noelle
The wonderful Polish actor Karolina Gruszka stars as Marie Curie. Charles Berling portrays Pierre Curie, and Arieh Worthalter plays Paul Langevin, a married scientist with whom Marie had an affair.
If you're looking for a movie that explains Marie Curie's discoveries, and how she arrived at them, this isn't that film. If you're looking for a movie that portrays Marie Curie as a brilliant scientist, and a young widow that does, indeed, have an affair, this is that film.
This movie portrays the plight of women scientists in the early 20th Century. Male scientists simply wouldn't accept the fact that a woman could be a brilliant scientist. We know that Marie Curie was brilliant--she won two Nobel prizes. The scientists of her day must have known that she was brilliant, but it was easy to ignore this fact because she was a woman. Think of how many frustrated women lived their lives with their intellect undiscovered. Think of the great minds that were lost to science. These are not happy thoughts, but they reflect reality.
I enjoyed this movie. We had seen Karolina Gruszka in another Polish movie--The Happiness of the World. She is a brilliant actor. Directors love to photograph Gruszka getting into and out of her bath. Who can blame them? (She must be the cleanest actor in Poland.)
For whatever reason, this film has a ghastly IMDb rating of 5.9. This is one of those situations where I say, "Did they see the same film I saw?" It's not a perfect movie, but it's a very good one.
We saw the film at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre, as part of the great Rochester Polish Film Festival . It will work well on the small screen. My advice--ignore the IMDb rating and watch this movie. I think you won't be disappointed.