Madame Bovary (1975) User Reviews

Not exactly likable, but SO well done!

[DAHLRUSSELL · 8/10 · 10 December 2006]

This is one of the better BBC historical dramas from the 1970s. Many are stagy and slow, and while this production of MADAME BOVARY is very much constrained to stay indoors, this works to advantage for this story of a woman who feels so trapped by her life and her world.

Emma Bovary is not a very sympathetic creature. She is married to a man who loves her with all his heart, who tries to give her everything she wants, is willing to ruin himself to make her happy, and she still cheats on him and remains miserable. In short, she is selfish and inconsiderate, as ugly inside as she is pretty on the outside.

Francesca Annis plays Emma. She is indeed very beautiful. As an actress she often comes across as bright and hard, flirty and flighty, but cold and self satisfied. These qualities, of course, are perfect for this character. Here she seems to be more in love with the idea of being in love than actually loving. Almost anything to break up the dismal tedium of her life and her disgust with everyone and everything in it.

It is very hard for a modern audience to feel sorry for her. Her daily trial does not include housework or drudgery, she has maids for that. She is bored because she is useless, she is useless because she is too lazy to seek something meaningful to do; she wants life to be a party, and resents it when it is not.

Tom Conti plays her devoted husband, who is completely devoid of ambition, in work or society. As an actor, Conti often seems to have just woken from a nap, and this dampness is just right for Dr. Bovary. He too is very lazy in his way, but his seems to stem from ignorance. When contrasted with Emma's willfulness, her husband seems the infinitely better of the two. Conti is really fine here as a man completely out of his depth with this racehorse of a wife.

In much the same way, while Annis is briskly carrying every scene, Conti just leans into her energy and quietly steals every one of them. A perfect pairing for these roles.

All the actors here are top notch, and the casting a bit off beat (the lovers aren't exactly dashing), which adds to the interest. The costumes, especially Emmas, are a luxurious parade of overindulgence. Absolutely beautiful. While we as an audience enjoy the parade of finery, we can also see how this wardrobe would drive even the richest man into the poorhouse. The production is topped off with a novel and lovely score of predominantly piano compositions; pretty and lilting, but melancholy and dissonant.

Don't let this one get lost in the shuffle, it is worth seeing.

1975 BBC TV Mini-series gives classic 1991 French version a real run for its money

[Turfseer · 8/10 · 29 June 2022]

My initial assumption about an adaptation such as this which was done in English in 1975 by the BBC, was that it would not be good as the 1991 French version directed by Claude Chabrol and starring the esteemed actress Isabelle Huppert in the title role.

Huppert was obviously too old for the part (almost 40 at the time the French version was made) but still did a great job conveying Emma Bovary's ridiculous sense of entitlement as well as her child-like self-centeredness.

I soon discovered that noted British actress Francesca Annis as Emma was just as good as Huppert if not better in this TV mini-series. Hers is a far different interpretation. Unlike Huppert who emphasized Emma's juvenile demeanor, Annis is sophisticated and adult. I would say she presents Emma as a bit more intellectual and a lot more sociable than Huppert's confirmed "cold fish" wife of a provincial doctor.

What Flaubert's narrative really comes down to is a critique of the moral history of a community. Annis plays Emma as a woman who on the surface is well-liked in the community but is morally depraved in her unceasing "what's-in-it-for me" demeanor. Not only is Annis's Emma cold but is infinitely more calculating and what some may term "dangerous."

If there is any character close to a victim here it's Emma's husband, Charles (Tom Conti, perfectly cast in the role). Conti impressively plays the provincial doctor as a happy-go-lucky kind man. He's very believable in the role as the solicitous husband. However, in keeping with Flaubert's social criticism, he is not without faults.

First of all, he is a typical doctor conforming to the dubious methods of treatment (such as using leeches to induce bleeding) promoted by the orthodox medical establishment of the time. He also has little backbone most egregiously demonstrated when Homais the chemist convinces him against his better judgment to operate on his manservant's club foot with the full knowledge that he has little to no training in that kind of surgery. But the worst thing about Charles is that he cannot see Emma for what she is and constantly enables her which leads to both their ruin.

The casting here is impeccable across the board. Of note is Dennis Lill who plays Rodolphe Boulanger, the "country gentleman" landowner who Emma has her first affair with. Both versions eschew the idea that Boulanger is overly handsome and depict him as a man who sets out to seduce Emma with unabashed premeditation.

Christophe Malavoy had a certain charm in the 1991 French version as Boulanger, but Gill took it a step further with that odd stiff formality reminiscent of Boulanger becomes besotted with Emma and seems to forget his initial plan of mere seduction (actually falling in love with her) but finally comes to his senses by realizing that running away with her is an extraordinarily bad idea.

Boulanger proves to be an unadmirable cad who contributes to Emma's decompensation. Similarly, Leon Dupuis (Brian Stiner) is quite good as the young law student who also becomes besotted with the attractive Emma, responsible for the second affair she has with him.

Leon uses his wit to suck Emma into his orbit but Emma's interest this time around seems less a desire for passion but to assuage her loneliness and simply convince herself that she can function on the "rebound."

Leon (despite his intellect) also appears to be as reprehensible as Boulanger in that he knows Emma is married (to a good guy to boot) but still is intent on satisfying his carnal desires.

I found the best scene in this four-part TV series to be when Emma tears up the power of attorney note in front of Charles's mother and then cutting to her laughing in the hotel room with Leon, cavalierly describing how she easily convinced Charles to sign a new power of attorney giving her complete control over his assets. And then Leon matches Emma's arrogance by reciting that mock letter to Charles, claiming he's claimed the cuckolded wife for his own!

Emma in her arrogance believes that Charles's inheritance following his father's death will save her from debtor's prison. As it turns out, the property from the inheritance is worth virtually nothing and she must turn to others who summarily reject her with claims of virtual poverty.

Science and rationalism are also another source of Flaubert's biting wit as he has the anti-clerical Homais (Ray Smith) put down all the religious faithful who indulge in their alleged superstitious beliefs and reject modern-day science and medicine. Ironically it is Homais who is responsible for Charles's botched operation of his manservant Hippolyte (John Tordoff) who ends up having his leg amputated. In the novel, Homais notably receives the Legion of Honour at film's end.

Flaubert also gets his digs in at the priesthood as Father Bournisien (David Waller) proves completely ineffectual when Emma comes to him for help with her depression. The "good" Father can do nothing more than deliver platitudes and require mere attendance at church services as a palliative for her overwhelming angst.

And what of Lhereaux the Draper (an excellent John Cater), who basically manipulates Emma into buying on credit putting her in inescapable debt? He's just as bad as all the other "honorable" characters populating Yonville where the tragedy ultimately plays out before us.

I can't say enough about Francesca Annis's performance (30 years old at the time). Pay particular attention to how she depicts Emma unravelling.

The BBC production could still have used some judicious editing but is a fine achievement by director Rodney Bennett and screenwriter Giles Cooper.

The best adaptation of Madame Bovary

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 9 February 2014]

All five versions standing on their own are watchable at least, though neither are as savagely biting as the classic book. This mini-series is the best of the five, the only one actually that I truly loved. The others being the excellent but too short 1934 film from Jean Renoir(who intended for it to be twice as long as it was), the very good if lacking-in-depth-and-edge(that's what the Production Code does) Vincente Minnelli film with the glorious ballroom sequence, the well-made if cold 1991 film with Isabelle Huppert and the decent 2000 version with Frances O'Connor. This mini-series is a perfect length, the book is big and very detailed and complex that wouldn't have been done complete justice in a film, and is the pacing is also just right, deliberate but never stodgy thanks to the quality of the writing and performances. The production values are very high being evocative and opulent, Emma's dresses are simply to die for, and the whole adaptation is attractively photographed, not from personal view coming across as dated at all. The music, dominated by piano, has a real melancholic beauty to it, while the writing is not just poetic and very well-written but comes the closest to capturing the book's dark edge and ironic humour(if not quite as savage or biting, not surprising seeing as the anti-clerical statements was one of the reasons for Madame Bovary's controversy) of all five adaptations of Madame Bovary put together. The story remains passionate and moving and the details and spirit of Madame Bovary also. Francesca Annis pulls off a notoriously difficult character to play- definitely in the top 10, even 5, of literary characters hardest to portray- splendidly, she is the most beautiful Emma and she is possibly at her most glamorous but she also has the right degrees of haughtiness and selfishness as well as the vulnerability of victim of own passions to her performance. Tom Conti succeeds in not making Charles bland or too much of a clown, while there are moments where Charles in the story is a dork in a way he is the most sympathetic character in the book, with Conti there is some amount of languidness but with the quiet sympathetic nature Conti also adopts you do feel for him. In fact the adaptation and the performances of Annis and Conti does a great job in making Emma and Charles identifiable when they could've easily not been, of the other four versions the only one that comes the closest is the Renoir film. The supporting cast are also right on point, especially the handsomely suave and menacingly enigmatic Rudolphe of Dennis Lill and John Cater's oily L'Heureux. The direction gives the adaptation space to resonate yet takes care not to make the drama pedestrian. Overall, wonderful on its own and as an adaptation, of the five Madame Bovary adaptations this is right at the top. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Probably no finer adaptation of a classic novel

[clyons · 15 February 2003]

I couldn't but marvel that this British mini-series adaptation of Flaubert's novel hadn't been commented upon. Francesca Annis was unquestionably the definitive Emma Bovary, and casting as a whole was impeccable. I remember watching this on Masterpiece Theatre, and being captivated (and aroused) by the impassioned fervor for life Annis imparts to the character. And Tom Conti was an idea Dr. Bovary, far better than Van Heflin in the Hollywood version of the novel.

I haven't seen every adaption of this book, but I'd be very surprised to learn that this one wasn't far and away the best. It ended with Emma on her deathbed, imagining herself as a young girl, chasing a butterfly, that somehow just eludes her.