Madame Bovary (Repackaged) [DVD] [2000]

A beautiful production, excellently cast. This is the story of a young peasant frenchwoman in the late 19th century brought up in the convent atmosphere of ascetic piety and romanticism who searches ever after for romance and is brought relentlessly to earth by her life as a village doctors wife. Frances O'Connor is a delicious Emma who finds exactly the right balance between pathos and vanity to keep us guessing. This is one of the greatest, most subtle mystery stories; what should we feel about Emma Bovary, capricious wanton or oppressed romantic, victim or villain? Is she right to grasp at happiness at the expense of all who love and stifle her, or is her idea of happiness merely self indulgence and cruelty.

The music and the beautiful remote countryside echo her dreamy emotions which are exposed by the decisive characters around her. No nonsense Mme Bovary senior, the banal self important pharmacist, the shopkeeper who turns almost imperceptibly from suave to menacing are brilliantly played. Costumes are beautiful (I want to wear the dress she wears in the cathedral)with lots of corsetry and frills because this is also a story about shopping.

It is however a dark story and as Emma spirals out of control, a shocking story.

Unmissable. (Please let me know if you think she is the victim. I can never make up my mind).

I watched this right after finishing the novel and found it disappointing. The production lacked the dark edge and ironic humour of the book and the characterisation of Emma was all wrong. O'Conner played her as sweet, almost likeable, whereas in the novel she is cruel to her husband and child, utterly selfish and self absorbed, with a narcissistic tendency to self delusion and religiosity.

The village in the novel is a suffocating place, Emma's house is right on the road and she can see everyone go by and hear the relentless droning of the lathe maker at work. In the novel it was a lot poorer and more rural too. Flaubert wants Emma to be utterly revolted by the world in which she finds herself after her marriage. Charles, her husband, is far more clown-like and stupid than he was portrayed in the film, but Rodolphe was good and Leon too, their differences were well brought out in the film.

If you didn't know the book the film is pleasant enough and easy on the eye but the novel deserves a better, darker and far more serious interpretation.
It is hard to bring a great novel to the screen in all its complexity and richness, but this version doesn't seem to try to come close.

Lets face it, Madame Bovary was always going to be difficult to produce. The story really centres around Dr Bovary, and Emma Bovary is his second wife, and you have to read about his first marriage until you get to Emma. Although I am a fan of Flaubert and Madame Bovary, as well as many others, I can also see where a large group of people are coming from when they say that this book is one of the most boring written.Madame Bovary (Penguin Classics) if you would like to read the book.

This production is not a straight transposition of the novel, opening as it does after Dr Bovary has lost his first wife. We see in this drama Dr Bovary getting Emma to become his second wife. Emma has been brought up spoiled by her father. Dr Bovary has been brought up by his domineering mother, and doesn't really have that much gumption. Whilst Emma fantasises about the perfect lives she reads in her novels, Dr Charles Bovary is more pratical. Stuck in the provinces Emma feels stifled and living a life full of drugdery. We must not forget that the full title of the book is Madame Bovary Provincil Lives, and that is what this drama shows. Nineteenth century life in the provinces was a much different existence from the lights and bustle of Paris.

Emma is shown sympathetically in this production, and those familiar with the book will know that a lot of women felt that Flaubert was writing about them. After all, Emma is stuck in the provinces with her husband who is always out on calls, her over bearing mother in law, and no friends or social life. She wants a life that doesn't feel stifled, she wants new clothes, she wants to enjoy herself and have romance. For Emma this leads to retail therapy, but with that age old problem, not enough cash. Those women who have maxed out on their credit cards will know what Emma feels like not being able to have enough money. Emma turns to the draper, who also runs a money-lending business on the side.

So Emma, who can now wear all the latest fashions looks around for romance, and from just flirting takes a lover. To cut a story short, Emma does not find a bed of roses, and eventually after two lovers, a daughter from her husband and bankruptcy, she feels that life is too much to bear, and thus decides to end it all.

What really brings this drama to life is the beautiful and sexy Frances O'Connor as Emma Bovary. Whereas Madame Bovary was banned by the Catholic Church for its immorality, people have always understood what Emma Bovary goes through. This is really a good two and a half hours of viewing.