Madame Bovary (1991 film)

Last updated
Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary (1991 film).jpg
Directed by Claude Chabrol
Screenplay byClaude Chabrol
Based on Madame Bovary
1857 novel
by Gustave Flaubert
Produced by Marin Karmitz
Starring
Narrated by François Périer
Cinematography Jean Rabier
Edited byMonique Fardoulis
Music by Jean-Michel Bernard
Matthieu Chabrol
Maurice Coignard
Distributed byMK2 Diffusion
Release date
  • 3 April 1991 (1991-04-03)
Running time
143 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench

Madame Bovary is a 1991 French drama film directed by Claude Chabrol and based on the 1857 novel Madame Bovary by French author Gustave Flaubert.

Contents

Set in Normandy in the 1850s, the film follows the story of Emma Bovary, an attractive young woman full of romantic notions, whose marriage to an unexciting country doctor leads her to adulterous affairs and tragedy.

Plot

Facing spinsterhood on her widowed father's farm Emma, with the help of her father, is successful in attracting and contracting a marriage with the local doctor, whose wife has recently died. Charles Bovary is kindly and conscientious, but lacks assertiveness and is a dull conversationalist. Following an aristocratic ball she is more dissatisfied than ever and her husband, noticing this, moves to a larger town with potentially greater diversions, where he is befriended by the apothecary.

There she meets the law clerk Léon, with whom she can talk about art, literature, poetry and music. His attentions to her cause adverse comment and eventually prompt her to instead become more attentive to her husband and baby, but this leads her to become dissatisfied yet again. The parish priest is a poor listener and does not respond to her unhappiness. Léon, disappointed by her rejection, leaves to study in Paris, leaving her without congenial company.

After encountering her, the womanising landowner Rodolphe decides he would like an affair with her and, under the pretence of offering riding lessons, finds her more than willing. After four years, she demands that they run away together and, after he agrees, buys travelling clothes and luggage on credit; instead he writes her a farewell letter and leaves town.

She is in despair, until she discovers that Léon has found a job in the city of Rouen nearby. Under the pretence of having piano lessons, she takes the regular coach to Rouen and meets him in a hotel. To pay the cost of the coach fares, the hotel room, smart clothes to go to town and gifts to Léon, together with extravagant furnishings, she runs up debts with the conniving shopkeeper Lheureux. When he demands repayment, neither of her lovers will help and she cannot face the truth coming out. Bailiffs seize the contents of the house, which is put up for sale by court order, and a lawyer she consults wants sex in return for his help, which she rejects. After taking poison, she dies in prolonged agony. Her husband, devastated when he learns all that has happened, dies of grief. Their child ends up with a penniless aunt, who puts her to work in a factory.

Cast

Reception

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4 in his 1991 review. He particularly praised the performance of Isabelle Huppert: "...Chabrol was quite right to find Emma Bovary within her.... Who else could do so little and yet project such a burning need - such a cry for deliverance from the bondage of self?" [1] Vincent Canby of the New York Times also gave a generally positive review and concluded that "Mr. Chabrol errs on the side of understatement. His Madame Bovary is not to be dismissed. It is so good in so many details that the wish is that it were better. See it. You won't be bored, but you may want to talk back to it." [2]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 67% from 15 reviews. [3]

It was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film as well as for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. It was also entered into the 17th Moscow International Film Festival where Isabelle Huppert won the award for Best Actress. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claude Chabrol</span> French film director (1930–2010)

Claude Henri Jean Chabrol was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues and contemporaries Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Éric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette, Chabrol was a critic for the influential film magazine Cahiers du cinéma before beginning his career as a film maker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabelle Huppert</span> French actress (b. 1953)

Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert is a French actress. Known for her portrayals of cold, austere women devoid of morality, she is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation. With 16 nominations and two wins, Huppert is the most nominated actress at the César Awards. She is also the recipient of several accolades, including five Lumières Awards, a BAFTA Award, three European Film Awards, two Berlin International Film Festival, three Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival honors, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award nomination. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her second on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century.

<i>Madame Bovary</i> 1857 novel by Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary, originally published as Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners, is a novel by French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1857. The eponymous character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life.

<i>Coup de Torchon</i> 1981 French film

Coup de Torchon is a 1981 French crime film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and adapted from Jim Thompson's 1964 novel Pop. 1280. The film changes the novel's setting from an American Southern town to a small town in French West Africa. The film had 2,199,309 admissions in France and was the 16th most attended film of the year. It received the Prix Méliès from the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics as the best French film of 1981.

<i>Le Beau Serge</i> 1958 film

Le Beau Serge is a 1958 French film directed by Claude Chabrol. It has been cited as the first product of the Nouvelle Vague, or French New Wave, film movement. The film is often compared with Chabrol's subsequent film Les Cousins, which also stars Gérard Blain and Jean-Claude Brialy.

Madame Bovary is novel by Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856.

<i>La Cérémonie</i> 1995 film

La Cérémonie is a 1995 French-German psychological thriller film by Claude Chabrol, adapted from the 1977 novel A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell. The film echoes the case of Christine and Lea Papin, two French maids who brutally murdered their employer's wife and daughter in 1933, as well as the 1947 play they inspired, The Maids by Jean Genet.

<i>Every Man for Himself</i> (1980 film) 1980 French film

Every Man for Himself is a 1980 drama film directed, co-written and co-produced by Jean-Luc Godard that is set in and was filmed in Switzerland. It stars Jacques Dutronc, Isabelle Huppert, and Nathalie Baye, with a score by Gabriel Yared. Nathalie Baye won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress. It also was submitted as the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 53rd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

<i>Madame Bovary</i> (1949 film) 1949 film by Vincente Minnelli

Madame Bovary is a 1949 American romantic drama, a film adaptation of the classic 1857 novel of the same name by Gustave Flaubert. It stars Jennifer Jones, James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, Alf Kjellin, Gene Lockhart, Frank Allenby and Gladys Cooper.

<i>Le Boucher</i> 1970 film by Claude Chabrol

Le Bouchera.k.a.The Butcher is a 1970 French psychological thriller film written and directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Stéphane Audran and Jean Yanne. Set in the village of Trémolat, it tells the story of butcher Popaul who falls in love with Hélène, the head teacher of the school, while a murder spree is taking place in the area.

<i>Rosebud</i> (1975 film) 1975 American film

Rosebud is a 1975 American action thriller film directed by Otto Preminger, and starring Peter O'Toole, Richard Attenborough, and Peter Lawford. The script was by Otto's son, Erik Lee Preminger, based on the novel by Joan Hemingway and Paul Bonnecarrère. Originally the film was set to star Robert Mitchum, but he left after disagreements with Preminger. Kim Cattrall made her film debut as a teenager.

<i>La Garce</i> 1984 film

La Garce is a 1984 French thriller film directed by Christine Pascal and starring Isabelle Huppert and Richard Berry.

<i>Merci pour le Chocolat</i> 2000 film

Merci pour le Chocolat, also known as Nightcap, is a 2000 French psychological thriller film directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Isabelle Huppert and Jacques Dutronc. The film is based on the novel The Chocolate Cobweb by Charlotte Armstrong.

<i>Comedy of Power</i> 2006 film

Comedy of Power is a 2006 French drama film directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Isabelle Huppert. The French title means "drunk with power". The film is loosely based on a true story involving the french former oil and gas company Elf Aquitaine and judge Eva Joly.

<i>Inspecteur Lavardin</i> 1986 French film

Inspecteur Lavardin is a 1986 crime film co-written and directed by Claude Chabrol. It is the sequel to his 1984 film Cop au vin.

<i>Madame Bovary</i> (2014 film) 2014 film

Madame Bovary is a 2014 historical romantic drama film directed by Sophie Barthes, based on the 1856 novel of the same name by French author Gustave Flaubert. The film stars Mia Wasikowska, Rhys Ifans, Ezra Miller, Logan Marshall-Green, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Laura Carmichael, Olivier Gourmet, and Paul Giamatti.

<i>Madame Bovary</i> (1934 film) 1934 film by Jean Renoir

Madame Bovary is a 1934 French historical drama film directed by Jean Renoir, starring Max Dearly, Valentine Tessier and Pierre Renoir, and adapted from Gustave Flaubert's 1857 novel Madame Bovary.

<i>Madame Hyde</i> 2018 film

Madame Hyde is a 2017 French drama film directed by Serge Bozon. It was screened in the International Competition section of the 2017 Locarno Film Festival. Drawing on the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, it tells the story of a struggling school teacher who is suddenly imbued with new powers. By day she becomes a success in her job, but by night she sinks into a horror of mayhem and murder.

<i>Madame Bovary</i> (1975 TV series) British TV series or programme

Madame Bovary is a British period television series, based on the novel of the same title by Gustave Flaubert. It originally aired in four episodes on BBC 2 in 1975.

References

  1. ↑ Ebert, Roger. "Madame Bovary movie review & film summary (1991) | Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com/. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
  2. ↑ Canby, Vincent (1991-12-25). "Review/Film; From Claude Chabrol, A 'Madame Bovary' With Isabelle Huppert". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-06-09.
  3. ↑ "Madame Bovary - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes .
  4. ↑ "17th Moscow International Film Festival (1991)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2014-04-03. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.