MADAME BOVARY
Belgium/US, 2014, 118 minutes, Colour.
Mia Wakiskowska, Rhys Ifans, Paul Giamatti, Henry Lloyd- Hughes, Logan Marshall- Green, Ezra Miller, Laura Carmichael, Richard Cordery, Olivier Gourmet, Luke Tittensor.
Directed by Sophie Barthes.
Gustave Flaubert was not a prolific novelist. But his Madame Bovary became something of a classic, still highly regarded, still considered an opening into France in the 19th century, manners and morals.
There have been several film versions of his novel, a 1949 Hollywood version with Jennifer Jones, a French version in 1989 with Isabelle Huppert. This time, it is an international co-production, with Sophie Barthes as the co-writer and the director was born in France and educated in South America and the Middle East, an Australian star, Mia Waskikowka, as Emma Bovary. The merchant Lhereux is played by Welsh Rhys Ifans. Charles Bovary is the British Henry Lloyd- Hughes, the Marquis is American Logan Marshall- Green, and Charles Bovary’s friend and adviser, Monsieur Hamois, is American Paul Giamatti.
One of the difficulties for this international co-production is the mixture of accents, especially Mia Wasikowska with something of an American accent which the director thought was the neutral accent. It jars throughout the film.
But, that criticism aside, this is a most impressive production, immersing the audience in the 19th century, costumes and decor, wealth and ordinary life in a provincial country town with visits to the society world, the world of business, and the cathedral in Rouen.
But, the focus has to be on Emma Bovary herself. There is very little dialogue in the first ten to fifteen minutes of the film, rather communication by visuals and body language, Emma as a young girl along with other students in an enclosed school, supervised by nuns, learning to go through all the manners and styles of cultivated young ladies. As she lights a candle in the chapel before she leaves, she prays that she will find a good husband.
As her story unfolds, the audience realises with her, that she was quite inexperienced, sheltered, and had imagined a life that was not to be. She later confides that life has been a disappointment. It seems to begin well with a celebration of her marriage, a meal outside event, with a fond farewell from her doting father. As she leaves the party with her husband, with a horse and cart, she hopes that life as the wife of a country doctor will fulfil her dreams.
It is not that Charles Bovary is a bad man. Rather, he is duty-bound, conscious of his role as a doctor and his responsibilities, a doctor by day, a husband by night, rather unimaginative and without a clue as to his wife’s feelings. The village is small, her husband walking her briefly to the edge of the town - and that is it. She feels confined to the house, becomes bored, leaps at the opportunity when the local Marquis invites her to ride to hounds where she witnesses the brutal slaying of the stag.
Temptation comes to her in the form of the local merchant, Lhereux, very well played by Rhys Ifans. He tempts her with luxury, with beautiful fabrics, the possibility of fine dresses, curtains, rugs, and she indulges her love fine things with reckless extravagance, beguiled by seemingly unlimited credit.
It seems inevitable that she will be looking outside the house for some kind of fulfilment, for relationship, for sexual experience – which she finds for a brief time with the Marquis, and also a brief time with a lawyer in Rouen. But, there is gossip, which her husband does not seem to have heard but, passing the local peasant women in the town, she knows that she is the object of the gossip.
There might be some hope in an incident where she urges her husband to operate on the clubfoot of his friend’s apprentice, thinking that this might be some kind of achievement and that the doctor will be happy to move to the city. She is frustrated by the result.
Whether it is fate, whether it is her disillusionment, whether it is a result of her impetuous nature and self-indulgence, she is on the path to tragedy.
The director stages every scene with impressive visual craft, with fine performances, with a sense of French society at the time, differences in class, wealthy aspirations, the role of duty and its suffocating consequences on those who want more from life.
This is a fine film showing how significant literature can be well dramatised on screen.
1. The work of Gustave Flaubert, France, the 19th century? His observation of French manners and morals? The adaptation for the screen, the realism, the re-creation of the period?
2. The 19th century atmosphere, the convent and school, the lady-like exercises for the girls, the supervisions of the nuns, the religious atmosphere, the chapel, lighting the candle? Emma at home, the marriage, the celebration outdoors? Travel by horse and carriage? Going to the village, small, Charles taking her to the edge? The shops, the salon for clothes and specialties? The castle of the Marquis? The hunt in the forest? At home, domestic, her husband’s practice? The city of Rouen, the Cathedral, the office? The musical score?
3. The portrait of Emma Bovary, as a girl, proper, airs and graces, lighting the candle, her hope for a husband? The wedding, the house, the celebration, her father’s speech and farewell? Young, inexperienced, her duties as a wife, the country doctor, the house, the servant? Her being treated as a lady? The young man and his club foot, her influence on her husband, the operation, buying the shoe? The merchant and his visits, tempting her, her growing extravagance, wanting extras, going into debt? Her husband at work, sexual duties? Her ambitions, going to the hunt, the new dress, riding, witnessing the death of the stag? Her meeting with Leon, going to the concert in Rouen, his appearance, her visits, the relationship? Imposing on him, the pressure on him to reject her? Her being led by Lhereux, the rug, the curtains, the boot for the young man? Playing the piano, going to the lesson, an excuse to visit Leon? Getting more into debt, the gossip in the town, the peasant women on the path looking at her? Wanting her maid to be in uniform, her intimate confiding in her? Her visit to the Church? The priest earlier with the first communicants? His asking her about praying, confessing, better to find silence in the woods? The rejection by the Marquis, by Leon? Lhereux and his advances? Her husband’s inheritance, the arrival of the bailiff, the hopelessness of her situation, the Marquis not giving her any money? The pills, walking through the forest, her collapse, her death?
4. Charles, good man in the traditional vein, unimaginative, devoted to his patients? His devotion to his wife? Discussion about his cases and the physiological detail? Meals, calling his wife ‘dear’, the sexual relationship? His friendship with Hamois, the boy, the apprentice, persuaded to do the operation, urged on by Emma, his studying, how he might do the operation, the blood, the failure, possibly cutting the wrong tendon? Allowing Emma her ways, not suspicious? His not wanting the extravagance, able to live without it? The inheritance, the coming of the bailiff, the debts?
5. The Marquis, the dandy, hunt, killing the stag, Emma going to visit him, the sexual relationship, his casual approach, going away, not willing to take Emma with him? His saying he had no money to help her?
6. Leon, his interest in Emma, appearing at the concert, the affair, her visits, the embarrassment, the gossip, his co-workers and their threat, rejecting her?
7. Lhereux as a character, smooth, persuasive, pressurising? The charm and all his fabrics, promises? Ultimately humiliating Emma, her debt?
8. Hamois, his influence, the boy, the operation, the consequences? An adviser to Charles?
9. The village, its life, the class distinctions, Emma and her appearance of wealth, even in the countryside, with the cattle? Costumes and decor? The house and the interiors?
10. The opening and closing, Emma in the forest, her dying? The final scene of the people searching, the torches, calling out her name? Her being lost?
11. Flaubert’s perspective on France of the time, social comment, moral comment?
