Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Top Billed Actors: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers
Won 0 Oscars
Nominated for 7 more:
Outstanding Motion Picture - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Best Actor - Walter Pidgeon
Best Actress - Greer Garson
Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture - Herbert Stothart
Best Sound Recording - Douglas Shearer
Best Art Direction - Interior Decoration, Black-and-White - Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse; Interior Decoration: Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - Joseph Ruttenberg
Plot: A college professor lands one of the university students on the basis of science and they set some unrealistic relationship goals by discovering an element.
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Top Billed Actors: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers
Won 0 Oscars
Nominated for 7 more:
Outstanding Motion Picture - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Best Actor - Walter Pidgeon
Best Actress - Greer Garson
Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture - Herbert Stothart
Best Sound Recording - Douglas Shearer
Best Art Direction - Interior Decoration, Black-and-White - Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse; Interior Decoration: Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - Joseph Ruttenberg
Plot: A college professor lands one of the university students on the basis of science and they set some unrealistic relationship goals by discovering an element.
After the success of Mrs. Miniver (1942) the prior year, M-G-M went with yet another film featuring a titular character played by Greer Garson paired with Walter Pidgeon. Madame Curie (1943) is Garson's third Best Actress nomination in a row, with two more on the way in her illustrious run of five consecutive nods. She would go on to be nominated the following year in yet another film that has the title of her character. If it ain't broke, I guess. The title character here was slated to be played by a slew of actresses. For one in particular, however, the re-cast to Garson was the last straw. Joan Crawford wanted to play both this and the title character in Mrs. Miniver but when both spots went to Garson, she quit M-G-M to work for Warner Brothers. This is also the third year in a row we have the lead pairing of Garson and Pidgeon in a Best Picture nominee. Pidgeon would only be nominated twice at the Oscars and both times was a result of acting opposite Garson.
Madame Curie tell the biopic of a woman scientist and her eventual husband. Although it does omit some key figures in Curie's life, it is considered one of the more accurate re-tellings. I had no idea this was about the scientist team who discovered radium going into this so I appreciated the montage and narration that explained the scientific process for how this element was extracted. I hope most of the science stuff is accurate as I feel like I learned a lot about chemistry as the story went along. The mise en scène of the laboratories makes the picture. These set pieces look so lived in (worked in?) that it seems like real experiments were taking place. All of the instruments, the tools, that shot of the dishes trying to crystallize the elements, the heat and the cold of the shed - seeing this lose in the Art Direction category has me really excited to see the winner, which will be the next and final Best Picture nominee of the 16th Awards. I also must commend the cinematography with emphasis on the blocking. Pidgeon's height captured my attention and there are some wonderfully composed shots utilizing his tall figure. I love his single take proposal scene as well as he towers over Garson who is laying in bed, unable to get a word in as he stumbles into his realization of loving her.
Although I always enjoy a Garson/Pidgeon match, this one did seem awkward at first. Most of that is intentional as Pidgeon's character is constantly nervous and seems committed to bachelorhood. But the teacher going after the student is never clean. Something that does help is that Garson doesn't look like a typical student. She looks very out of place in a college class, especially after seeing her in motherly roles in prior films. She goes from student to wife and full time scientist and doesn't change appearance at all. And then there's a time jump of twenty-five years and she looks like she's aged fifty. It's good that the set designs and costumes are so on point because the aging logic is all over the place.
Overall, another Greer Garson film with the title of the character she plays is a smash hit for M-G-M. Garson is always winning with the cinematically tall Walter Pidgeon (except for perhaps the student/teacher dynamic) and the set design and mise en scène of the laboratories gives the film a realistic feel. I appreciate the scientific narration but the nature of biopics with time jumps can provide character appearances that don't quite match their age.
My Score: 7/10
Madame Curie tell the biopic of a woman scientist and her eventual husband. Although it does omit some key figures in Curie's life, it is considered one of the more accurate re-tellings. I had no idea this was about the scientist team who discovered radium going into this so I appreciated the montage and narration that explained the scientific process for how this element was extracted. I hope most of the science stuff is accurate as I feel like I learned a lot about chemistry as the story went along. The mise en scène of the laboratories makes the picture. These set pieces look so lived in (worked in?) that it seems like real experiments were taking place. All of the instruments, the tools, that shot of the dishes trying to crystallize the elements, the heat and the cold of the shed - seeing this lose in the Art Direction category has me really excited to see the winner, which will be the next and final Best Picture nominee of the 16th Awards. I also must commend the cinematography with emphasis on the blocking. Pidgeon's height captured my attention and there are some wonderfully composed shots utilizing his tall figure. I love his single take proposal scene as well as he towers over Garson who is laying in bed, unable to get a word in as he stumbles into his realization of loving her.
Although I always enjoy a Garson/Pidgeon match, this one did seem awkward at first. Most of that is intentional as Pidgeon's character is constantly nervous and seems committed to bachelorhood. But the teacher going after the student is never clean. Something that does help is that Garson doesn't look like a typical student. She looks very out of place in a college class, especially after seeing her in motherly roles in prior films. She goes from student to wife and full time scientist and doesn't change appearance at all. And then there's a time jump of twenty-five years and she looks like she's aged fifty. It's good that the set designs and costumes are so on point because the aging logic is all over the place.
Overall, another Greer Garson film with the title of the character she plays is a smash hit for M-G-M. Garson is always winning with the cinematically tall Walter Pidgeon (except for perhaps the student/teacher dynamic) and the set design and mise en scène of the laboratories gives the film a realistic feel. I appreciate the scientific narration but the nature of biopics with time jumps can provide character appearances that don't quite match their age.
My Score: 7/10