Rosamund Pike plays Marie Curie in Marjane Satrapi’s feminist biopic of the scientist whose discovery of radium and polonium laid the foundation for atomic energy.
, Marjane Satrapi’s study of the life, work and lasting influence of Polish scientist Marie Curie, is a timely reminder of this exceptional woman's achievements. She is the only person in history to have won the Nobel prize in the fields of both chemistry and physics.
She proudly tries to continue her work in a cold garret with a picture postcard view of the Eiffel Tower seen through a drafty window. Then Pierre Curie jostles her on the street and retrieves her fallen book with the classic pick-up line: “Are you interested in microbiology?” She brushes him off but they meet again in a cabaret where Loie Fuller is dancing “the flame dance” – a fiery metaphor that reappears in the film to characterize the positive/negative power of radioactivity.
Marie and Pierre are both renowned but under-funded when they set up shop together in what looks like a converted stable. Their early experiments look like making filter coffee in test tubes, but they get a bit more authentic when Marie has 40 tons of uraninite ore delivered which she grinds into powder and uses to extract radium. She offers a graceful explanation of what they’re doing to a woman dinner guest, who asks her intelligent questions.
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