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Madame Bovary on DVD (1991)

Madame Bovary cover art
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Average rating: 60%
1326720111113
3.0
from 241 members
 
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Francois Balmer, Christophe Malavoy, Jean Yanne, Florent Gibassier, Lucas Belvaux
Director: Claude Chabrol
Studio: ARROW FILMS
Run time: 136 mins
Certificate: PG
User collections: vive la difference, History through film
Genres: Drama, World Cinema
Languages: French
Subtitles: English
Released: 22/04/2002

Brief synopsis of Madame Bovary

Claude Chabrol's lifelong interest in the psychological lives of women finds a perfect vehicle in Gustave Flaubert's 1856 novel, MADAME BOVARY. Isabelle Hupert, Chabrol's frequent collaborator and muse, brings a detached and icy intensity to her portrayal of Emma, an ambitious farmer's daughter suffocated by her own life. When Emma meets meek country doctor Charles Bovary (Jean-Francois Balmer), she sees a ticket out of her meager existence. However, the lure of marriage and motherhood is short-lived, and soon Emma senses a new set of ever-encroaching snares and limits preventing her from fulfilling the fanciful destiny she constructs for herself out of her own desires and the romance novels that fuel them. When her outlets of novels and the odd ball at the local chateau cease to satisfy Emma's ravenous hunger for passion and luxury, she takes matters into her own hands, embarking on a double life of domesticity and adultery. Chabrol injects the film with his patented dark humour while remaining faithful to Flaubert's stinging depiction of the narrow world of 19th-century provincial life and its clash with female desires as fleshed out by the tragic figure of Huppert's immensely complicated but very real Emma.

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Critics Reviews

Halliwell's Film Guide

A reasonably faithful, but lifeless, adaptation, which seems as stultifying as the middle-class existence it portrays.

Time Out

Chabrol's long-delayed adaptation of Flaubert's novel is as suffocating as its heroine's predicament. Emma, the... Read more on www.timeout.com

Rolling Stone

"...Huppert is astounding....[The film] ranks among the year's best and most provocative films..."

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 2 starsIt's Durkhiem's malady of infinite desire with garlic, (but no vampires or Jack Russells...)

Joe Evans from Wallsuches, Lancashire. , 27/10/2005

I didn't care too much for the film, good acting though, good enough for me to want to shake the too good doctor, (vain and stupid), and strangle Madame B. It's one of those films that really is like watching a train crash in slow motion. You just know it's going to be a bad outcome.I watched it until the characters tried the contemporary equivalent of the 3 mile high club... the 3 feet high club.But overall I tired of waiting for the obvious bad end...Too long, too slow... Perhaps a very overated story... Perhaps Madame B needs to learn the lesson of history, the only thing that can cuddle up to a turd and come up smelling of roses is a rose.

  8 out of 10 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsFor those who loves drama

A customer from Winchester , UK , 26/04/2004

I was quite disappointed by the movie at the beginning because I read the book and i was expecting the movie to match its grandeur. Nevertheless, Isabelle Huppert interprets the role of Madame Bovary superbly.you can actually feel everything the character is feeling. On the surface Madame Bovary seems to have everything to be happy (a maid, loving husband and daughter,nice house etc) but she doesnt feel fulfilled.So she takes lovers who disapoint her, uses self-inflicted misery as a way out and spend money she doesn't have leading her to her tragic downfall.

Good story worth watching if you like tragic drama.

  7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 starsFemale identity in 19th century France

A customer from Essex , 22/10/2005

A watchable adaptation of Flaubert's novel portraying the confines of female identity in 19th century France. The tale of Emma's transformation from countrygirl to adultress under the power of a series of male characters will make women glad they are living on today's society.

  4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsA masterpiece

A customer from Camden , 19/12/2004

If you are a big fan of Isabelle Huppert, you'll like this movie. It is one of her best. She is amazing as Madame Bovary. The film is very faithfull to the book and the modern spirit of Flaubert.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 3 starsFemale identity in 19th century France

A customer from Essex , 22/10/2005

A watchable adaptation of Flaubert's novel portraying the confines of female identity in 19th century France. The tale of Emma's transformation from countrygirl to adultress under the power of a series of male characters will make women glad they are living on today's society.

  4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starswonderful interpretation of the novel

H. D from Salisbury [Highly rated reviewer] , 19/07/2008

Altho' I studied this at school,I'd forgotten how utterly bored Emma was and what drastic steps she took.Terrific acting and a great idea of the stifling small-town life then.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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