“When I first read the script for Widow Clicquot by Erin Dignam, what jumped out at me was the life of a unique woman, Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, told through a battle between the present and an invading army of memories,” says director Thomas Napper. “It’s about Barbe-Nicole’s transformative relationship with herself and her work (the vines), arriving into her own power, her own identity, and creating her own incredible legacy.”

Widow Clicquot is based on the New York Times bestselling biography, “The Widow Clicquot” by Tilar J.
Mazzeo.

Shot entirely on location in France, most of the production took place in Burgundy at the historical Chateau de Beru, with its picturesque vineyards and large manoir, a substitute for the real Verzy, home of the Clicquots, where the world-famous Veuve Clicquot champagne was brought to life in the early 1800’s.
With personal guidance from the brand’s archivist, the cast and crew had an inside look at the life of
Barbe-Nicole and gleaned extraordinary insight into her eventual champagne empire. The film’s closing
scenes were shot in Reims, in the heart of Champagne.

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After her husband’s untimely death, Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot flouts convention by assuming the reins of the fledgling wine business they had nurtured together. Steering the company through dizzying political and financial reversals, she defies her critics and revolutionizes the champagne industry to become one of the world’s first great businesswomen. Her entrepreneurial mindset and devotion to her product continue to pay off when Barbe-Nicole invents the “table de remuage” (riddling table), allowing her to clear champagne in a fraction of the time and get her product to market faster than her Competition. Her doubters believe she is degrading a highly regarded process sacred to the Champagne region. They force her into court to face an accusation that she is illegally running a business and is a widow in name only, trying to destroy her personally and professionally. She emerges victorious, Gradually building the Veuve Clicquot property through intuition and acumen to make it one of the foremost vineyards in all of Champagne. Within just a few years, she turns the name Veuve Clicquot into a brand of excellence, a name that is now renowned throughout the world. Barbe-Nicole is remembered as the “Grande Dame of Champagne”.

Statement from director Thomas Napper

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But ultimately, this is about Barbe-Nicole’s transformative relationship with herself and her work
(the vines), arriving into her own power, her own identity, and creating her own incredible legacy.
Like Sunset Boulevard, the story begins with an unexplained corpse, a young husband, François Clicquot
and a newly created widow, aged 26. One strand of the film slowly fills the gaps of a life lived and then
tragically lost. If you like, this part of the film is traveling backwards.

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The present tense of the story navigates the life of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot as a young widow – her struggle to become the proprietor and then desperately trying to continue the work she had started with her husband; her attempts to build a business in early 19th century France, when she could not sell her champagne nor export it abroad due to the Napoleonic wars and their restrictions; her then resorting to smuggling and, with the help of Louis Bohne, shipping her first vintage to Amsterdam.

Widow Clicquot is the chronicle of a deeply resourceful and entrepreneurial force being born. Barbe
-Nicole was clearly an exceptional and dedicated young woman. She found a way to keep going and
produce not only one of the greatest vintages of champagne ever made, but managed to ship it through a blockade to her market in St. Petersburg. We focus the film on her work, her dedication to the vines and
counterpoint it with memories of her marriage, which is slowly disintegrating. The movement between
the past and present allows us access to the inner life of this extraordinary woman as she arrives into her
power, just as her husband is losing his battle with mental illness and opium.

In our story, Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot never leaves the vineyard after her husband’s passing, she
was forever ‘married to the vines’. Apart from the final court scene, the entire film takes place within the
corridors and rooms of the one house, warehouse, vineyard and the caves of the Clicquot Family estate. I
saw within this limitation a strange kind of creative freedom and liberation. The beauty of the Verzy
vineyard becomes a psychological prison from which she does not wish to escape, and only in the final
courtroom sequence is she forced to venture beyond the walls of her prison.

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The film ends on her ultimate decision to remain a widow and to devote herself to the vines alone. It is in
this small triumph, where in my mind the past is finally exorcized, that the ghost of her husband has been
put to rest. It is a powerful and poignant moment of self-realization and I think incredibly relevant to see a woman from the Napoleonic age hold such staunch values and self-belief. I love all the characters in this
story, and the actors have truly given everything to excavate and deliver these performances, in the rain
and the deep mud of a French November.

This film has been a labor of love, a true collective effort. Knowing we were holding the delicate tendrils
of this superb story bound us together and I feel very privileged to have been part of this amazing team of creatives and producers. Widow Clicquot is a truly independent film.

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