Marguerite and Florence Foster Jenkins: When We Can't Hear Ourselves!

I was really touched by the movie Marguerite, the French version of the Florence Foster Jenkins story that's going by that name in the American movie with Meryll Streep in the role of the woman who really thought she could sing--and everyone kept the truth from her.

I wonder what kept her from hearing herself--what malady or bone structure?

But it's a touching story for other reasons like the very symbolism of it all.  

How often do I get praise for something I'm not doing well?  Not often enough, say I!

I want more praise when I sing off-key, but...

I don't want to be regarded as a freak.

Then there's the kindness (or cruelty) of the people who didn't tell her the truth.  Her husband tried to help her keep her illusions. 

And oh, that servant of hers--played by Denis Mpunga.  How often do servants watch their employers make fools of themselves?  In this case, he was the guardian angel of her illusions!

In the 1960's South, the "colored" people who worked for us must have seen us imagining ourselves superior and learned to keep a straight face through it all.

I just listened to the real Florence Foster Jenkins because I had thought there was some exaggeration.  There wasn't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6ubiUIxbWE