Movie Essays - Gustave Flauberts Madame Bovary on Film -- Movie Film

Gustave Flauberts Madame Bovary on film The figure of Emma Bovary, the central character of Gustave Flauberts novel, Madame Bovary, caused both cheers of approval and howls of outrage upon its publication, and continues to beguile modern literary critics and film makers. Is she a romantic idealist, striving for perfect love and beauty in dull bourgeois society? Is she a willful and selfish woman whose pursuit of the good life brings approximately her own destruction and that of her family? Or is she, like Ibsens Hedda Gabler and Nora Helmer, a rebel against the repressive, decrepit society in which she finds herself? Is she, perhaps, a bit of all three? both prominent modern film directors have brought Emma Bovarys base to the screen--Vincente Minnelli in 1949 and, much recently, Claude Chabrol in 1992. This paper will study these two versions of Flauberts novel and how from each one director employs and manipulates the medium of film to bring a reverse of f ictionalisation to the screen. The films of Minnelli and Chabrol represent two radically different approaches to Flauberts novel. In general, Minnelli tends to romanticize the paper, rase sentimentalize it, making Emma much more of a sympathetic heroine than seems to be the case in Flauberts text. Much of the ironic line of the novel is lost. Minnelli as well as omits from his film all scenes which ar not directly connected with Emma. The caustic realism and ironic social commentary which underlie Flauberts novel are ignored for the most part. Chabrol, on the other hand, attempts to be scrupulously sheepfold to the text and spirit of the novel. The director claims that virtually every word of talks in the film was taken directly from Flaubert... ...ot literature (Kael 407). This remark competency aptly be applied to Chabrols adaptation of Madame Bovary. She also remarks about Chabrols work in general that there is a remarkable consistency of tone everything s eems on the same level of interest to Chabrol....nothing is very exciting, just as nothing is boring (407). To Kael, Chabrol is a sublime craftsman, the ideal conventional film maker (54). But, in the final analysis, Chabrol is closer to Flauberts artistic techniques. He lets the story speak for itself, and the viewers must form their own judgments about the story of Madame Bovary. Works Cited Harvey, Stephen. Directed by Vincente Minnelli. New York Harper and Row, 1989. Kael, Pauline. Deeper Into Movies. New York short Brown, 1973. Russell, Alan, trans. Madame Bovary. New York Penguin Books, 1950.