I googled her, didn't read a lot though - but she has been a writer too. She wrote under the name Daniel Stern.(http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/ac/agoult.htm) Weird that it's not mentioned in the film - or I didn't hear it.
I like the film just as it is though.
Marie D'Agoult didn't become a writer until after Chopin and Sand became lovers -- past the point where the film ends. She also was hospitalized for a while with depression. Sand considered Marie to have been a treacherous friend, and got even with her by telling the whole story to Balzac (after her breakup with Chopin), who then wrote a novel where the main characters were thinly disguised versions of George, Chopin, & Marie. The latter two got roundly satirized, and the character based on George was practically canonized. The novel's name in French translates something like "The Galley Slaves" referring to two people chained to each other forced to row (Sand/Chopin). In English the novel was called "Beatrix." Hard to find, but very funny in places, especially if you know the provenance of the characters....
shareThanks for the info. She just seem so unintellectual, only good for gossiping and looking pretty on Liszt's arm. It's hard to believe she worked for a newspaper. Surely she's not stupid, but a working girl?
shareWell Lizst left her so she had to do something to maintain her stature (also to compete with george Sand by taking a male pen name and making a career for herself). Without Lizst, and having been drummed out of the aristocracy cuz she left her Count husband for Liszt, the only choice was between reinventing herself and descending into obscurity and ignominy. Yes she was pretty smart and definitely an intellectual -- or had intellectual pretensions. But it took a while to get enough self-confidence to stake her own claim, because she started out as a trophy wife and then became a mistress bearing 3 illegitimate children. That kind of took up her time for a while! Her chief ambition in those days was to become a muse to great art. Which you could say worked out for her, because Chopin dedicated the second opus of Etudes to her, and Liszt obviously for a while was in love with her and probably dedicated stuff to her too.
I've never read any of her writing, but it was respected in its day.
No offense mita, but I think you're making the mistake of conflating a character as portrayed on screen with the real life person. Because of a movie's form, we can only get to know the characters in lesser roles through broad generalizations. After all, this wasn't a d'Agoult biopic. Each of these characters, such as Delacroix, etc. were very interesting in their own right. There's always much more to be learned than what can be presented in a short two hours. For example, this film doesn't even explore one tenth of the life of George Sand, her numerous lovers, her relationship with her mother, her husband or her children...
http://saucybetty.blogspot.com
Haven't see this particular movie yet, however Marie d'Agoult cannot be considered a working girl. Maybe a high-class courtisane, but we have to be careful, as such allegations have been frequently used after a person's death to disparage women's litterary works or historical essays. A case in point would be Olympe de Gouges.
Marie d'Agoult's Histoire de la Révolution de 1848 serves as a reference for ppl interested in revolution theory. It's also been the basis for many creative works of art. I would suggest one read the bd Sambre if interested about French life cerca 1848. The author, Yslaire, found most of his documentation in Marie d'Agoult essays.
I do not know, however, if English translations are available.
bebebert,
I think the other poster meant "working girl" as a woman with a profession and not the oldest one. Because she wasn't a prostitute or a courtesan by a long shot. Just a fool for love.
I actually meant to point out the differences between the impression I got from the character in the film and how the real person was, I didn't think for one moment that she was exactly as portrayed in the film, or else I wouldn't have gone and read any further.
She's the only character there who I don't know much of, so I thought it will be interesting to discuss her and see what everyone else can add.
Perhaps it was the way she was written, but I don't see why she was always so jealous of George. Perhaps if she'd played a little hard to get instead of throwing herself at her guy's feet, he would've treated her differently.
shareThe movie wants Marie to be the villainess in the Sand/Chopin story but this is apparently not true and the real Marie was quite different than what we see in the film. For one thing, she was only one year Lizst's senior in real life, he was not her boy toy. And if anyone was a nasty character it was Lizst; their children being illegitimate, he was the only legal parent and when they broke up he took them away from her and did not allow her access to them for the rest of their childhood.
It has been suggested Marie was "inspired" to write as something of a rivalry to George but she did receive some acclaim and popularity with her works though never on George's level. And sadly nothing she wrote has ever been translated into English although that's not too surprising given the surprisingly limited number of George Sand's works that have been translated to English.
According to wikipedi, d'Agoult was born in Dec. 2005, while Liszt was born in Oct. 2011, almost a 6-year difference.
shareI haven't seen everything Bernadette Peters has ever been in, but I found the Marie character the most interesting, and Peters' acting to be very good and nuanced.
While Judy Davis handled her role just fine, I always looked forward to the next Marie/Bernadette scene.
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