Widow Clicquot

Based on the New York Times bestseller The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It, the latest film from director Thomas Napper (Jawbone) is set in France during the Napoleonic Wars, and tells the true story of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, the “Grande Dame of Champagne,” otherwise known as Veuve Clicquot. After her husband’s untimely death, Clicquot (Haley Bennett) flouts convention by assuming the reins of the fledgling wine business they had nurtured together. Steering the company through dizzying political and financial reversals, she defies her critics and revolutionises the champagne industry to become one of the world’s first great entrepreneurs.