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Madame Curie (1943)
In director Mervyn LeRoy's fact-based docu-drama/biopic
about ground-breaking research into radioactivity and the discovery
of radium in the late 19th century:
- the scene of determined lab assistant-wife Marie
Sklodowska/Curie (Greer Garson) and physicist-scientist-husband
Pierre Curie (Walter Pidgeon) seeing the results of "four
long years" of their laborious work (isolating radium) in
a shed - the use of a tedious process called "final crystallization" in
order to isolate "precious elusive radium" in a lab
dish within a covered evaporating bowl on one of their lab tables
- however, Marie was ultimately crushed that the crystallization
process produced only a stain rather than a chunk of radium
- the scene of Marie's visit to a doctor for an examination,
where she was cautioned about the danger to her hands after three
and a half years of work - burned by the pure radium and potentially
developing into cancer: ("We have never seen burns quite like
this before. They are very strange. I can't ever remember seeing
anything quite like them. They obviously don't come from any normal
substance"); Marie was cautioned: ("I don't wish to alarm
you, Madame Curie, but it is very possible that these burns might
become serious, might in fact develop malignantly if you continue
to expose them excessively to your unknown element. It is not impossible
that they may be developed into a cancerous nature. It is my advice,
Madame, that you abandon your experiments")
- Marie's frantic reaction to the stain: ("There's
nothing there, not a trace of anything, not a grain. Only a stain.
What's happened, Pierre? Where is our radium? What have we done?
Where is it? What's happened? Where is it, Pierre?...What did we
do that was wrong? What could we have done?...I can't stand it, Pierre.
Where is our radium? We worked for years and years and years. It
must be there. It must be there. Four long years in this shed")
- and later, Marie's flash of insight while lying on
her pillow and speaking to her husband: ("Pierre, that stain
on the saucer...We didn't even test it, did we?...What we are expecting
to find was a definite amount of radium, wasn't it? Something we
could see and feel. Not as much as a pinch of salt, you said....Pierre,
what if it's, what if it's merely a question of amount? What does
so little radium in proportion to the amount of material that we
used that as of now - we couldn't see it. What if that stain, even
with the merest, merest breath...(Marie sat up in bed) Pierre, could
it, could it be that that stain is radium?")
- the next scene when they dressed and rushed to their
lab to test Marie's theory; she was the first to see the glowing
radium through the window from a distance: ("Pierre! It's there.
Our radium! It's there! It's there!"); they ran inside, looked
down at the glowing radium, and hugged each other triumphantly over
their profound discovery
- the concluding scene of a frail and widowed Madame
Curie making an appearance and speech before the Faculty of Science
at the University of Paris, to commemorate the 25th year anniversary
of the discovery of radium: ("Even now, after twenty-five years
of intensive research, we feel there is a great deal still to be
done. We have made many discoveries. Pierre Curie, in the suggestions
we have found in his notes and in thoughts he expressed to me, has
helped to guide us to him. But no one of us can do much if each of
us perhaps can catch some gleam of knowledge which modestly insufficient
of itself may add to man's dream of truth. It is by these small candles
in our darkness that we see before us, little by little, the dim
outlines of that great plan that shapes the universe. And I am among
those who think that for this reason, science has great beauty and
with its great spiritual strength will in time cleanse this world
of its evils, its ignorance, its poverty, diseases, wars and heartaches.
Look for the clear light of truth. Look for unknown new roads even
when man's sight is keener far than now. Divine wonder will never
fail him. Every age has its own dreams. Leave then the dreams of
yesterday. You - take the torch of knowledge and build the palace
of the future")
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Burns on Marie's Hands
The Tedious Work to Isolate Radium in Lab
Madame Curie's Flash of Insight About the Stain Being
Radium: "We couldn't see it"
Glowing Radium in Lab: "It's There. Our Radium"
Madame Curie's Speech at Univ. of Paris 25 years
later:
"Look for the clear light of truth"
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