Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge

I found the film interesting. I generally knew about Maria Skłodowska-Curie (she was a Pole, born and raised in Warsaw). I knew nothing about her personal life in Paris, which is the focus of this film.

The film looks more at her personal life and the large challenges she faced being a woman (and mother of two) in a Man's World. Worth seeing.

If you expect a literal scientific bio of Marie Curie, it is not that film. However, Marie Noelle focuses on the protagonist as a woman, first of all, and then as a scientist fighting in the world of men-dominated academia. And this selection makes the film particularly interesting. Beautifully shot, with masterfully selected music, and splendid performance of Karolina Gruszka. You can watch it as a love story or more as a dedication to your love. A very inspiring tale of tenacity and courage.

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.

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.

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.