Described as a ” good man and a good doctor”, the gravely handsome Charles is also a man of set routines and modest ambitions. The whole film is a flashback recounting the events that have led to her tragic ruination.īarthes quickly covers the young Emma’s convent education and arranged marriage to Charles Bovary (Henry Lloyd-Hughes). The film begins as Emma staggers through the autumn woods, clutching her sides in agony as a lethal dose of poison works its way through her system. In the end, this Madame Bovary, like so many others, is unlikely to stand as the definitive version of the Flaubert text but it makes an honourable, beautifully crafted attempt to understand a woman crushed by the morality of the times and her unrealistic expectations of the world.īarthes and co-writer Felipe Marino have extensively condensed the novel, stripping away a considerable amount of the attention devoted to Charles Bovary and narrowing the focus to Emma, played by Mia Wasikowska. It may lack the emotional intensity that the material might suggest but there are enough elements here to attract lovers of period dramas and adaptations of the classics. In only her second feature, Cold Souls director Sophie Barthes wrestles a refined, languid period drama from the novel that is not without its flaws but impresses with its fastidious attention to detail, craftsmanship and oppressive atmosphere. Gustave Flaubert’s once scandalous 1856 novel has defeated many an experienced director from Vincente Minnelli to Claude Chabrol.
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