Madame Bovary

Plot

Literary critics long regarded Gustave Flaubert's iconic French novel Madame Bovary as unfilmable (despite several attempts by Vincente Minnelli and others to bring it to the screen), but Nouvelle Vague architect Claude Chabrol set out to definitively prove them wrong with this Oscar-nominated feature adaptation from 1991, starring Isabelle Huppert (The Lacemaker). Huppert stars as Emma Bovary, a woman whose happiness depends exclusively on elements outside of herself. She spends her days indulging in flights of fancy and endless romantic longings, emotionally estranged from her good-natured but ignorant husband Charles (Jean-François Balmer) a physician whom she married as an escape from her landowner father's farm. Her fate seems poised to change when she meets and falls hard for Rodolphe Boulanger (Christophe Malavoy) - a lover who takes her to bed and then vows to elope with her. Pinning all of her hopes on this, she invests in a traveling costume that she's unable to afford (rendering herself completely in debt with a local millner), and plans to skip town with Rodolphe when the monies come due. Alas, Rodolphe, as it turns out, never planned to follow through with the elopement plans, and promptly abandons Emma, leaving her to face the dire consequences of her foolish decisions. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Review

Director Claude Chabrol's 1991 version of Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary is closer to the source than Vincente Minnelli's Hollywoodized 1949 version, but far less lively and passionate. On the credit side, Isabelle Huppert is flawless as the tragic Emma Bovary. A crude country girl aspiring for the better things in life, Emma marries wealthy Charles Bovary (Jean-Francois Balmer) purely to gain social recognition. Expressing open contempt for her husband, Emma collects lovers like other women collect chinaware. Most of her amours are self-involved boors, which of course was Flaubert's satirical point: in trying to escape her bourgeois surroundings, Emma has merely stepped into a new sphere of pompous phonies. In the end, Emma gives up the security of marriage for a hotblooded affair with someone she genuinely cares about, losing everything--including her life--as a result. Despite Huppert's energetic performance, it's hard to care about what happens to Emma Bovary or anyone else in this film, thanks to Claude Chabrol's cold, analytical approach to the material. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Cast

• Isabelle Huppert - Emma Bovary
• Christophe Malavoy - Rodolphe Boulanger
• Jean-François Balmer - Charles Bovary
• Jean Yanne - Monsieur Homais
• Lucas Belvaux - Leon Dupuis

Christiane Minazzoli - Widow LeFrancois; Florent Gibassier - Hippolyte; Marie Mergey - Charles Bovary's Mother; Henri Attal - Master Hareng; Gilette Barbier - Natasie; Sabeline Campo - Felicite; Thomas Chabrol - Vicomte; Dominique Clement - Madame Homais; Etienne Draber - Master Guillaumin; Julien Dubois; Pierre-Francois Dumeniaud - Hivert; Jacques Dynam - L'Abbe Bournisien; François Maistre - Lieuvain; Jean-Louis Maury - Lheureux; Bernard Mazzinghi; Christine Paolini - Mother Rolet Nourrice; François Perier - Narrator; André Thorent - Doctor Canivet; Yves Verhoeven - Justin; Dominique Zardi - Blind Man; Claude Pascadel; Tina Sportolaro; Jean-Claude Bouillaud - Monsieur Rouault; Jean-Marie Arnoux

Credit

Corinne Jorry - Costume Designer, Cecile Maistre - First Assistant Director, Alain Wermus - First Assistant Director, Claude Chabrol - Director, Monique Fardoulis - Editor, Matthieu Chabrol - Composer (Music Score), Michele Abbe-Vannier - Production Designer, Jean Rabier - Cinematographer, Yvon Crenn - Production Manager, Marin Karmitz - Producer, Claude Sune - Set Designer, Jacques Mollon - Set Designer, Jean-Bernard Thomasson - Sound/Sound Designer, Claude Chabrol - Screenwriter, Gustave Flaubert - Book Author

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