Bryce Dessner (The Two Popes, Bardo, A Good Person, The Kitchen, Irresistible) of the rock band The National has composed the original music for the upcoming French/British historical drama Widow Clicquot. The film is written and directed by Thomas Napper (Jawbone) and stars Haley Bennett, Tom Sturridge, Sam Riley, Leo Suter, Anson Boon, Ben Miles, Cecily Cleeve, Natasha O’Keeffe, Paul Rhys, Christopher Villiers, Ian Conningham, Cara Seymour and Mark Tandy. The movie is set in France during the Napoleonic Wars and tells the true story of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, the “Grande Dame of Champagne,” (aka Veuve Clicquot) who, at the age of 20, became Madame Clicquot after marrying the scion of a winemaking family. Erin Dignam (Land, The Last Face) wrote the screenplay. Bennett is also producing the project with Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice) and Christina Weiss Lurie (Persuasion, Rupture). Dessner has previously collaborated with Wright (and Bennett) on 2021’s Cyrano. Widow Clicquot is premiering this week at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
Dessner’s other recent scoring projects include Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing, which just premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, Rebecca Miller’s She Came to Me, which will be released in U.S. theaters on October 6 by Vertical Entertainment following its premiere at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, as well as Nicole Riegel’s Dandelion (co-scored with Aaron Dessner), which will be distributed by IFC Films and is currently awaiting a release date.
