(Viewers interested in a tougher view of Jenkins, especially regarding the nexus between privilege and blithe self-belief, should watch the French film “ Marguerite,” a fictionalized version of her life that came out last year.) Clair is yet another user in Florence’s life, or whether his aims are true. Part of the mystery of “Florence Foster Jenkins,” aside from her own obliviousness, is whether St. Clair Bayfield, portrayed by Hugh Grant with his signature ingratiating charm and, ultimately, admirable steel. Nowhere is that truer than in her curious relationship with her young manager and common-law husband St. But even with that troubling question nipping at its heels, “Florence Foster Jenkins” manages to be tender and surprisingly affecting. Music lovers - indeed anyone who admires discipline, virtuosity and intellectual self-awareness - may chafe at that aesthetic calculation. Meryl Streep stars as singer Florence Foster Jenkins, performing with pianist Cosme McMoon (Simon Helberg), as she prepares for an appearance at Carnegie Hall in 1944. Streep, who possesses a lovely singing voice, does a pitch-perfect imitation of a tone-deaf diva, donning copious padding and a slightly askew wig to play a dotty dilettante who, in the film’s telling, becomes a heroic avatar for sincerity and well-meaning amateurism who flourishes in spite of cruel, persnickety critics. “Florence Foster Jenkins” chronicles the final year of Jenkins’s life, opening with a tableau vivant at the New York arts club she founded and following the preparations for her infamous performance at Carnegie Hall in 1944 - a boisterous affair attended by rowdy sailors, camp followers, sundry gawkers and the likes of Cole Porter and Lily Pons. Meryl Streep steps up to the plate with another cheerfully game performance in “Florence Foster Jenkins,” a warm, generous-hearted portrait of the title character: a wealthy music aficionado who, in real life, became a cult figure in the 1930s and ’40s with her earnest, wildly off-key singing. Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.Meryl Streep stars in this biopic on Florence Foster Jenkins, an American socialite and amateur operatic soprano who was ridiculed for her lack of rhythm, pitch and and tone.Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission. Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.(Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article) Submissions should not have more than 5 authors.Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting. Submissions must be You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored: Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment. You must have updated your disclosures within six months: If you are uploading a letter concerning an article: Motor function and equilibrium are preserved and there is no indication of her having tabes dorsalis. She also displays emotional lability and manic symptoms. This perceived talent may also represent a delusion of grandeur, a classic feature of general paresis, a form of parenchymal neurosyphilis. Heavy metal toxicity could have contributed too. Neurosyphilis can cause hearing loss and cranial neuropathies, which may have impaired her ability to hear herself and sing, respectively. Jenkins’ poor singing ability, which she does not seem to be aware of and, on the contrary, she considers herself a talented singer. The most striking feature shown in the film is Mrs. She takes mercury and arsenic, two common therapies at the time. She has alopecia, a common sign of secondary syphilis and occasional seizures, which may be provoked by cerebral gummas, characteristic of tertiary syphilis. The chancre appeared in her left hand, an unusual location as extragenital chancres occur in less than 2% of patients.

Jenkins contracted syphilis at age 18 and has had the disease for nearly 60 years.

Florence foster jenkins movie