Review of Madame Bovary

Introduction

This 1991 version of Madame Bovary was New Wave director Claude Chabrol’s attempt at bringing Flaubert’s classic French novel to the screen.

The eponymous heroine, Emma Bovary, is a beautiful young woman who has entered into a secure but passionless marriage. Her husband, Charles, loves her dearly and would gladly do anything for her, but cannot fulfil her romantic ideals. The film follows the life of this couple and of Madame Bovary herself, as she struggles to find her true love.

Video

The picture is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1, and is on the whole a good transfer. Although the colours are a little dull and there are some print flecks at points, it retains a good level of detail all the way through the film. Considering Madame Bovary was made over 10yrs ago and on a less-than-Hollywood budget, the picture looks very nice.

Audio

The audio is in 2.0 channel French, accompanied by English subtitles. The soundtrack is free from hiss and the dialogue comes across as clear throughout. The subs are white with black outline, so are easy to read at all times.

Features

Unfortunately all of the video extras are in French, and it seems Tidal Creative have not bothered to add English subtitles to them. This is a shame, as the set of extra features here is quite substantial and would have otherwise been an excellent accompaniment to the film.

The most interesting for those of us who lack bilingual abilities is 4min extract of the ‘fair scene’ from Jean Renoir’s 1936 film version of the novel – a special treat as this version has not been released anywhere on DVD as far as I know. Although this seems a direct port from the VHS version, and has obviously not been remastered as it has some specks and missing frames, the print is still in good condition with a decent level of detail. Renoir’s version has dated a lot and now seems almost comical, but comparisons between the filmmaking styles is still interesting to make.

The ten Chabrol trailers are also a very good addition to the disc – like John Woo’s rare Hong Kong trailers were on the now out of print Criterion version of Hard Boiled was. Unfortunately, unlike Criterion who did a fine job, these trailers are of variable quality and lack subtitles.

Other extras – all only in French – is a Chabrol interview, a brief behind-the-scenes featurette, a making-of and a documentary about the period the novel was set in. The theatrical trailer is also, unsurprisingly considering the amount of trailers put on this disc, included too.

Conclusion

Madame Bovary is a good attempt at bringing what has been called a close to ‘unfilmable’ novel to the cinema. The acting, especially by Isabelle Hupport (Emma Bovary) and Jean-Francois Balmer (Charles Bovary) is very good. Chabrol’s directing does come of as a little cold, and his camerawork a little flat - save for the exciting evening ball scene. The film captures the essence of the novel but, as so often with book-to-screen translations, misses much of the atmosphere. Although I’ve only read the English translation of the novel and not Flaubert’s original language, it is obvious that whilst good adaptations an be made, it would be very difficult to fully convey the emotion and richness of the text.

However, I would still heartily recommend this DVD to anyone who has read the book, or fancies a bit of French arthouse one evening. The extras are still good despite no English subs, and the picture is decent too – a solid 7/10.