Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Radioactive 2019

     This film is based upon a graphic novel written by Lauren Redniss titled Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout.  It is about the incredible true story of Marie Sklodowska-Curie and her Nobel Prize-winning work that changed the world.  This is director Marjane Satrapi's first film based on a graphic novel that she did not write.  Two of her films "Persepolis" and "Chicken with Plums" are based on graphic novels written solely by Redniss.  
Marie has a magnetic and brilliant personality plus she is a two-time Nobel Prize-winning physicist and chemist.  She is feisty and no-nonsense, fragile and impulsive working in a man’s world.  Curie is very smart, she knows what she is doing and what she wants to do.  She doesn’t let the men put her in their perceived place or station!!  The young Polish immigrant born Maria Sklodowska and the man who goes on to become her lab partner, husband and the father of her two daughters, French scientist Pierre Curie explained many technical things to each other (as well as their feelings).  


   Over time, the Curie’s attain acclaim and fame but they work very hard to reach these goals.  They discover two new elements they have named radium and polonium.  Plus, they have two daughters, Eve and Irene.  Despite their dual discoveries, only Pierre is accepting the Nobel prize in Stockholm in 1903, Marie is not allowed to attend the ceremony.  I found this film and the information about the Curie’s very interesting and informative.  

     In this film there is love and a steady, supportive relationship between Marie and Pierre.  He is heavily involved in her discoveries.  Marie is inspiring, displaying great compassion and sacrifice to help others during World War I.  There are themes of conflict, violence is alluded to throughout and the devastating effects of war are evident.  Marie's discoveries are used by others for destructive gains for atomic bombs and this is something that weighs heavily on her conscience.  Other uses are positive and the healing and diagnosis of illnesses.  Some characters suffer and die from radiation poisoning.  There's brief nudity when two characters run naked toward a lake and there is kissing. Characters drink and some background characters smoke.  5* (I really  liked this movie)
 

109 min, Bio directed by Marjane Satrapi and written by Jack Thorne with Rosamund Pike, Yvette Feuer, Mirjam Novak, Ralph Berkin, Sam Riley, Simon Russell BEale, Sian Brooke, Faye Bradbrook, Drew Jacoby, Aneurin Barnard, Harriet Turnbull, Georgina Rich, Elise Alexandre.

Note:  Imdb 6.2* out of 10* with 7288 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 61% with 142 critics 47% with 144 audience scores, Metacritic 56 out of 100 with 31 critics 5.7 out of 10 with 11 ratings, Roger Ebert Christy Lemire 2*, RollingStone 3 1/2* out of 5* Peter Travers, The Guardian 3* out of 5* Peter Bradshaw, Amazon 3* out of 5* with 1397 reviews, Common Sense Media Stefan Pape, age 13+, 2* out of 5*, 3* positive, violence, sex, 4* told models, 2* language, 1* drinking, drugs & smoking.


Special Note:  Rosamund Pike (Marie) and Harriet Turnbull (Young Marie) also starred as mother and daughter in the 2014 film, What We Did On Our Holiday.  Gabriel Lippmann was the doctoral advisor of Marie and Pierre.  Pierre was also the advisor of Paul Langevin.  Langevin, in turn, was the advisor of Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie.  Both the Curies experienced radium burns, accidentally and voluntarily, they were exposed to extensive doses of radiation while conducting their research.  They experienced radiation sickness and Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia in 1934.  Even now, all their papers from the 1890s and even her cookbooks are too dangerous to touch.  Their laboratory books are kept in special lead boxes and people who want to see them must wear protective clothing.  If Pierre Curie not been killed, it is likely that he would have eventually died of the effects of radiation the same as his wife, their daughter Irene, and her husband Frédéric Joliot.  Eve Curie Labouisse died at the age of 102, she was a journalist and she wrote a bestselling biography about her mother.
 

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