The psychological novel Madame Bovary brought fame to the author, which has remained with him to this day. Flaubert's innovation was fully manifested and amazed readers. It consisted in the fact that the writer saw material for art "in everything and everywhere", without avoiding some low and supposedly unworthy of poetry topics. He urged his colleagues to "get closer and closer to science." The scientific approach includes the impartiality and objectivity of the image and the depth of the study. Therefore, the writer, according to Flaubert, "must be in tune with everything and everyone, if he wants to understand and describe." Art, like science, should be distinguished not only by the completeness and scale of thought, but also by the impregnable perfection of form. These principles are called Flaubert's "objective method" or "objective writing".
The meaning and main principles of Flaubert's objective method on the example of the novel Madame Bovary
Flaubert wanted to achieve visibility in art, which reflected his innovative literary method. The objective method is a new principle of reflecting the world, which implies a dispassionate detailed presentation of events, the complete absence of the author in the text (i.e., his opinions, assessments), his interaction with the reader at the level of means of artistic expression, intonation, descriptions, but not direct utterance. If Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, for example, explained his point of view in numerous lyrical digressions, then Gustave Flaubert completely lacks them. An objective picture in Flaubert's work is more than a mimesis, it is a meaningful and creatively reworked reproduction by the author, stimulating the thought processes and creative possibilities of the reader himself. At the same time, the writer disdains dramatic effects and accidents. A real master, according to Flaubert, creates a book about nothing, a book without an external tether, which would be held by itself, by the inner strength of its style, like the earth, supported by nothing, is kept in the air - a book that would have almost no plot or , at least in which the plot, if possible, would be mail invisible.
Example: the main idea of the novel Madame Bovary, which describes everyday life as a story or an epic, is revealed with the help of virtuoso composition and all-conquering irony. An illustration can serve as an analysis of the scene at the fair, when Rodolphe confesses his love to Emma: ardent speeches are interrupted by farcical cries about the price of agricultural products, the achievements of the peasants and bidding. In this scene, the author emphasizes that the same banal, vulgar deal is taking place between Emma and Rodolphe, only it is embellished appropriately. Flaubert does not impose morality: “Oh, how vulgarly he seduces her! How it looks like a marketplace! It's like they're buying chicken!" There is no such tediousness at all, but the reader understands why love is talked about at the fair.
To extract poetry from primitive characters, Flaubert was sensitive to truthfulness in depicting the relationship of personality and circumstances. Loyalty to psychology, according to Flaubert, is one of the main functions of art. Flaubert's perfectionism of form is not formalism, but the desire to create "a work that will reflect the world and make you think about its essence, not only lying on the surface, but also hidden, wrong side."
The history of the creation of the novel Madame Bovary. Is Emma Bovary a real woman or a fictitious image?
The work "Madame Bovary" is based on non-fictional history of the Delamare family, which Flaubert was told by a friend, the poet and playwright Louis Bouillet. Eugene Delamare - a mediocre doctor from a remote French province, married to a widow (who died shortly after marriage), and then to a young girl - this is the prototype of Charles Bovary. His young wife Delphine Couturier- exhausted from idleness and provincial boredom, squandering all the money on frilly outfits and whims of lovers and committing suicide - this is the prototype of Emma Rouault / Bovary. But we must remember that Flaubert always emphasized that his novel is not a documentary retelling of real life. Tired of questioning, he replied that Madame Bovary did not have a prototype, and if she did, then it was the writer himself.
The image of the province: the manners of the petty-bourgeois province as typical circumstances for the formation of personality
Flaubert ridicules provincial mores and reveals the patterns of personality formation in the provincial petty-bourgeois society. Madame Bovary is an attempt at an artistic study of social reality, its typical manifestations and tendencies. The author describes in detail how Emma and Charles were formed under the influence of bourgeois prejudices. They are accustomed from childhood to be the "golden mean". The main thing in this moderate life is to provide for oneself and look decent in the eyes of society. A striking example of petty-bourgeois prudence: Charles's mother, a respectable and wise woman, chose a bride for him according to the size of her annual income. Family happiness is proportional to earnings. The measure of public recognition in this environment is solvency. The embodiment of the ideal provincial tradesman is the image of the pharmacist Gome. His vulgar maxims shine with everyday, practical wisdom, which justifies anyone who is wealthy and cunning enough to hide his vices under a greasy layer of piety. Petty calculations, gluttony, deliberate housekeeping, petty vanity, secret love affairs on the side, obsession with the physical side of love - these are the values and joys of this society.
Emma Bovary is different from the philistine standard the fact that she notices his vices and rebels against the ordinary device of provincial life, but she herself is a part of this world, cannot rebel against herself. The character of a person is very dependent on his environment, so Emma absorbed provinciality with her mother's milk, she will not change without a radical change in the environment.
The main features of the bourgeois province of Flaubert:
- vulgarity
- lack of reflection
- base passions and ambitions
- crude, wretched materialism
The Cause of Emma Bovary's Tragedy: Flaubert's Appreciation
Emma was educated in a monastery, so she was cut off from the miserable reality. Her upbringing consisted of the majestic, but incomprehensible to her, Catholic rites and dogmas, along with romantic novels about love, from which she drew sublime, unrealistic ideas about this feeling. She wanted book love, but did not know life and true feelings. Returning to the farm with her rude, uncouth father, she faced everyday life and routine, but continued to be in illusions, which was facilitated by her religious upbringing. Her idealism took on a rather vulgar look, because she is not a saint, she is the same philistine at heart, like all those who are so disgusting to her. The tragedy of Madame Bovary is that she could not come to terms with herself, she is philistinism. An inappropriate upbringing in captivity, a rich imagination and the pernicious influence of low-grade literature on this imagination, already prone to ridiculous fantasies and heaps of shaky ambitions, gave rise to an internal collision.
How does Flaubert feel about Emma Bovary? He is objective to her: he describes both ugly hands, and ordinary eyes, and clapping wooden shoes. However, the heroine is not without the charm of a healthy young peasant woman, who is adorned with love. The writer justifies the rebellion of Madame Bovary, derogatoryly describing the bourgeois environment. He denounced the illusions of a naive limited woman, yes, but even more of the author's sarcasm went to her environment, the life that fate had prepared for her. Everyone accepted this routine boredom, and she dared to rebel. Emma, it must be said, has nowhere to know what to do, how to fight against the system, she is not the savage Aldous Huxley. But it is not the inhuman society of the future that kills her, but ordinary philistinism, which either grinds a person down or throws them overboard in cold blood. However Flaubert's creative discovery lies in the fact that he leaves the reader to deal with the problem and judge Emma. Logical accents, distortions of actions and intrusion of the author are unacceptable.
The relevance of Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary
It is interesting that excessive knowledge brought misfortune and anxiety to Madame Bovary. Knowledge does not bring happiness, a person, in order to be satisfied, must remain a limited consumer, as described by Huxley in his. Emma initially had a mediocre mind (she didn’t finish anything, she couldn’t read serious books) and didn’t make strong-willed efforts, so she would be happy to lead a cozy life of an inveterate provincial with primitive, limited interests. After all, she was drawn to earthly ideals (nobility, entertainment, money), but she went to them in mystical, romantic ways in her imagination. She had no reason for such ambitions, so she invented them, as many of our acquaintances and friends invent. This path has already been passed more than once and is almost paved, like a full-fledged life road. Inflamed fantasy often excites the minds of the provincial philistines. Everyone must have heard about imaginary connections, huge capitals of tomorrow and utterly ambitious plans "FROM MONDAY". Victims of the cult of success and self-realization speak competently about investments, projects, their business and independence “from their uncle”. However, years pass, the stories do not stop and only acquire new details, but nothing changes, people live from credit to credit, and even from binge to binge. Every loser has his own tragedy, and it's not unlike Emma Bovary's story. At school, they also said that excellent students would live happily ever after. And so a person remains alone with his diary, where he has fives, and the real world, where everything is evaluated by other criteria.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!The novel Madame Bovary is the most famous work of the French prose writer Gustave Flaubert, a classic example of realism in literature and, according to critics of the 21st century, one of the most significant novels of all times and peoples.
Madame Bovary (in some translations Madame Bovary) was published in 1856 on the pages of the thematic literary magazine Revue de Paris. For naturalism, the novel was criticized and recognized as "immoral", and its author was sent to court. Fortunately, Flaubert and Madame Bovary were acquitted. The modern reader is unlikely to find anything provocative, let alone immoral, in Flaubert's novel. The work is a textbook and is included in the mandatory list of literature for school and university courses.
Great love of Charles Bovary
France. Rouen. 1827. The young doctor Charles Bovary drags out a bleak married life next to an ugly, quarrelsome wife, whom he agreed to marry at the instigation of his mother. The mother of Charles was attracted by a solid dowry of the future passion, Madame Bovary, as usual, did not worry about the happiness of her son.
But once the gray everyday life of Charles Bovary sparkled with unknown colors. For the first time in his life, he fell in love! His heart was captured once and for all by the daughter of Papa Rouault, a patient of Charles, whose farm was next door. Emma (that was the name of the young daughter of Rouault) was smart and beautiful - dark smooth hair, a slender figure in the girth of sophisticated dresses, she was a pupil of the Ursuline monastery, a wonderful dancer, needlewoman and a skilled performer of touching motifs on the piano.
Charles's visits to Rouault are becoming more frequent, and the nit-picking of the legal wife is even more persistent and caustic. The love story of Charles Bovary risked turning into a tragedy, but the grumpy wife died suddenly, giving way to a young and beautiful one. Having barely endured the time allotted for marital mourning, Charles marries Emma.
Blissful times come in the life of Charles. He idolizes his wife and is ready to drown in the folds of her dress. What can you say about Emma. When the solemn excitement subsided and the wedding dress was tightly locked in the closet, the young Madame Bovary began to languish. Her husband now seemed to her boring, mediocre, weak-willed, married life gray and dull, and provincial existence gloomy and bleak. Madame Bovary was frankly bored.
Reading romance novels, young Mademoiselle Rouault imagined marriage quite differently. She imagined herself the mistress of an ancient castle, waiting for her husband in the chambers. Here he is returning from a dangerous military campaign, she rushes to meet him, cuddles up to his broad courageous chest and thrives in his strong arms ... The reality of the cruel disappointed Madame Bovary. Little by little she began to languish, to get sick. The frightened Charles blamed the unfavorable climate of the town of Toast for everything, where the young family moved after the wedding. It's decided - he and Emma move to Yonville and start life anew.
Emma was inspired by the move, but after a short acquaintance with Yonville, the girl realized that this town was the same hopeless hole as Rouen. The Bovarys get acquainted with a few neighbors - the narcissistic pharmacist Ome, a merchant and part-time usurer Mr. Leray, a local priest, an innkeeper, a policeman and others. In a word, with a provincial and close-minded audience. The only bright ray for Emma was the notary's assistant Leon Dupuis.
This fair-haired young man with long girlish curled eyelashes and a timid blush on his cheeks positively stood out among the whole of Yonville society. With him, Emma could talk for hours about literature, music, painting. Dupuis really liked Emma, but he did not dare to show his feelings towards a married woman. Moreover, Bovary had just had a daughter. True, madam wanted a boy. When the girl was born, she named her Berta, gave her to the nurse and completely forgot about the child, always remaining cold to this alien little creature. All her thoughts were occupied by the forbidden Leon Dupuis. Leon's departure to Paris was a real tragedy for Madame Bovary. She almost went crazy with grief, but then Rodolphe Boulanger appeared.
Neighboring landowner Rodolphe Boulanger brought his servant for examination to the doctor Bovary. Rodolphe was a well-built thirty-four-year-old bachelor. Confident, assertive, courageous, he quickly fell in love with the inexperienced Emma. At every opportunity, the couple went on a horseback ride, indulging in love pleasures in a house on the edge of the forest.
Emma was beside herself with the new feeling. She painted romantic continuations of her love adventure and elevated the landowner Boulanger to the rank of a medieval knight. Over time, Rodolphe began to be alarmed by the pressure of his new mistress. Emma was too desperate and could compromise both of them. Moreover, Bovary demanded ridiculous oaths of eternal love and devotion from him.
Rodolphe did not want to leave pretty Emma, but when she started talking about escaping, Boulanger gave in. Promising to take her away with him, at the last moment he sent Emma a letter in a basket of apricots. The note stated that he would travel on his own, no longer wishing to continue his relationship with the married Emma Bovary.
Another love disappointment caused Emma a serious illness. She has been in bed for over a month. Her first public appearance after her illness took place in Rouen. Her husband bought Emma tickets to the opera Lucia de Lemermoor. Poor Bovary did not suspect that his wife would meet Leon Dupuis there.
This time, the lovers no longer held back their feelings. From that day on, under the guise of attending music courses, Emma went to Leon's Rouen apartment. However, Madame Bovary's happiness was not destined to last long. Over the years, Emma had one weakness - extravagance. Bovary threw crazy sums on jewelry, clothes, gifts for her lovers and hobbies, which she threw as quickly as she caught fire with them. To hide embezzlement from her husband, Emma borrowed from the moneylender Leray. At the time of the Rouen romance, the amount of her debt was so great that it was possible to pay off the bills only by a complete inventory of property.
Desperate Emma turned to Leon for help, but he, showing cowardice, refused to help Bovary. He was already beginning to be weighed down by the too frequent visits of a married lady. Leon dreamed of making a brilliant career, successfully marrying, and therefore a discrediting relationship with a married lady was extremely inconvenient for him.
Betrayed, Bovary rushes to her former lover Rodolphe Boulanger, but here again she is refused. Then Emma decides on a desperate act. She sneaks into a drug store and takes a massive dose of arsenic.
The closest person
Emma died for several days in terrible agony. All this time, faithful Charles did not leave her bed. After the death of his wife, a terrible truth was revealed to the widower - he was ruined and betrayed.
However, this is no longer important. Charles would forgive Emma all her betrayals if she opened her eyes again. Heartbroken, he roams the garden like a ghost and dies of grief after his wife.
Little Bertha moves in with her grandmother (older Bovary). Soon the grandmother dies and the poor orphan goes to work in a factory. Leon, meanwhile, successfully marries. The pawnbroker Leray opens a new store. The Apothecary receives an Honorable Order. Life in Yonville and other small towns in France continues to flow as usual.
Flaubert's Madame Bovary had a very real prototype. The girl's name was Delphine Couturier. She was the daughter of a wealthy farmer. At the age of 17, the romantic pupil of the Ursulines monastery was married to the provincial doctor Eugene Delamare. Delamare had once studied medicine with Father Flaubert. He was very diligent, but, alas, a mediocre student. Having failed the decisive tests, Eugene lost the opportunity to make a successful career in the capital, so he ended up in one of the godforsaken provincial towns that abound in France.
In the future, the story of Couturier-Delamar developed in the same way as described in Flaubert's novel, and ended with the tragic death of the debt-ridden Delphine Delamare. There was even an article about it in the local newspaper. True, the reasons that provoked suicide were not made public.
Inspired by the tragic history of the family, Flaubert created his Delamares - Charles and Emma Bovary. Vladimir Nabokov, in a series of lectures on the work of Gustave Flaubert, focused on the originality of the plot and the problems of Madame Bovary: “Do not ask if the truth is written in a novel or a poem (read “fiction”) ... Emma Bovary never existed; Madame Bovary will live forever. Books live longer than girls.
A huge number of works can be attributed to the masterpieces of world literature. Among them is Gustave Flaubert's novel, Madame Bovary, published in 1856. The book has been filmed more than once, but not a single film creation is able to convey all the thoughts, ideas and feelings that the author has invested in his offspring.
"Madam Bovary" Summary of the novel
The story begins with a description of the young years of Charles Bovary - one of the main characters of the work. He was clumsy and had poor academic performance in many subjects. However, after graduating from college, Charles was able to study for a doctor. He got a place in Toast - a small town in which, at the insistence of his mother, he found a wife (by the way, much older than him) and tied the knot.
One day, Charles happened to go to a neighboring village to inspect the farmer. There he first saw Emma Rouault. It was a young attractive girl, who was the complete opposite of his wife. And although the fracture of the old Rouault was not at all dangerous, Charles continued to come to the farm - supposedly to inquire about the patient's health, but in fact to admire Emma.
And then one day Charles's wife dies. After grieving for a month, he decides to ask for Emma's hand in marriage. The girl, who had read hundreds of love stories in her life and dreamed of a bright feeling, of course, agreed. However, having married, Emma realized that in family life she was not destined to experience what the authors of her favorite books so vividly wrote about - passion.
Soon the young family moves to Yonville. At that time, Madame Bovary was expecting a child. In Yonville, the girl met different people, but they all seemed terribly boring to her. However, among them was the one at the sight of which her heart began to tremble: Leon Dupuis - a handsome young man with blond hair, as romantic as Emma.
Soon a girl was born in the Bovary family, who was named Berta. However, the mother does not care about the child at all, and the baby spends most of the time with the nurse, while Emma is constantly in Leon's company. Their relationship was platonic: touches, romantic conversations and meaningful pauses. However, this did not end with anything: soon Leon left Yonville, going to Paris. Madame Bovary suffered terribly.
But very soon their city was visited by Rodolphe Boulanger - a stately and self-confident man. He drew attention to Emma instantly and, unlike Charles and Leon, possessing great charm and the ability to win the hearts of women, charmed her. This time everything was different: very soon they became lovers. Madame Bovary even firmly decided to run away with her lover. However, her dreams were not destined to come true: Rodolphe valued freedom, and he had already begun to consider Emma a burden, so he did not find anything better than leaving Yonville, leaving her only a farewell note.
This time, the woman began to experience brain inflammation, which lasted a month and a half. Having recovered, Emma behaved as if nothing had happened: she became an exemplary mother and mistress. But one day, while visiting the opera, she met Leon again. Feelings flared up with renewed vigor, and now Madame Bovary did not want to restrain them. They began to arrange meetings at the Rouen hotel once a week.
So Emma continued to deceive her husband and overspend, until it turned out that their family was close to bankruptcy, and apart from debts they had nothing. Therefore, having decided to commit suicide, the woman dies in terrible agony by swallowing arsenic.
This is how Gustave Flaubert ended his novel. Madame Bovary is dead, but what has become of Charles? Soon, unable to bear the grief that fell on him, he also passed away. Bertha was left an orphan.
I was finally able to post the long-promised review of the five adaptations of the novel. Everything is as always: the pictures are arranged in order from the worst to the best. But I must immediately warn you: I did not like any of these films enough to leave it in my home collection. So "the best film adaptation" is only a comparative characteristic. In fact, they are all boring, just some are made soundly, and some are goofy.
1933 film directed by Jean Renoir
To begin with, we will determine the time of action and the age of the characters. The main events of the novel begin with the move of the Bovary couple to Yonville and end with the death of Emma. These two events are separated by five years. Flaubert does not have an exact date, but the details make it possible to approximately determine the time of the move: Madame Bovary in Yonville likes to read the magazine Ilustration, founded in 1843, and during the agricultural exhibition, the reigning king is mentioned. It can only be Louis Philippe, who ruled from 1830 to 1848 (the Second Republic began). As a result, we get that Madame Bovary settled in Yonville between 1843 and 1848.
At the time of the doctoral family's move to Yonville, Emma Bovary and Léon Dupuis are 20 years old, Charles Bovary is approximately 26 years old, Rodolphe Boulanger is 33 years old and Justin is 9 years old. At the time of Emma's death, everyone, respectively, is five years older.
The film itself is absolutely nothing, I don’t even know how to characterize it as a whole, so I’ll go straight to the details.
The action of the picture is slightly shifted in time relative to the original source - Charles and Emma meet in 1839, and the main events begin in 1841. The costumes are fantasy, from the "curtains".
Oddly enough, in no film was a really attractive actress invited to play the role of Emma. Absolutely all the performers have an appearance that is not only controversial, but also unsuitable for the image of Madame Bovary. And the strangest thing in this role is Valentine Tessier. The actress is 41 years old, she has a hefty schnopak, a swollen oval of her face, a tired look, a plump figure (and the dressers saved on corsets) and red hair. With such initial data, it is simply ridiculous to portray an eighteen-year-old girl driving men crazy with a truly "brunette" temperament and a combination of strikingly white skin with black hair and eyes. And when Madame Bovary lies in bed with Leon, smoking a cigarette, the actress has such a vibe that the only association that comes to mind is a cynical tired whore with a client. For all her shortcomings, Madame Bovary was definitely not a whore.
With Charles Bovary, performed by Pierre Renoir, everything is even more fun: (No, of course, I understand that “Kazimir Almazov is a name, a poster, a box office” and a significant part of the audience will rush to the cinema for the opportunity to gawk at the son of that same Renoir, and a family contract is very profitable in material terms (film director Jean Renoir and Pierre Renoir are brothers), but the actor is 48 years old - it’s just right for him to play daddy Rouault, and not a young doctor! they are trying to make him almost an old man.It seems that the filmmakers have not read the book.
But Elena Munson, who plays the doctor's first wife, is unexpectedly ten years younger than her heroine (she is 35). However, her role is episodic, her face is not shown large, and the quality of the film leaves much to be desired, so in this case the age of the actress is not particularly important: she is thin, ugly, and you can’t see the rest. By the way, this is the only film adaptation in which the first Madame Bovary was shown in the frame.
Here is the age of the actor Fernand Fabre completely coincides with the age of Rodolphe - he was 34 at the time of his acquaintance with Emma. The first lover of the heroine in this production is very specific: a kind of pretentious whip with the manners of a card sharper. When I read the book, I imagined Boulanger quite differently. But I have to admit that just such a person could strike to death "a creature with the imagination of a woodpecker." So this Rodolphe turned out to be closer to the book image than my fantasies. Yes, perhaps, this is the best Rodolphe of all.
Leon here has black hair, although he is not bad-looking, and much older than he should be (Daniel Lecourtois is 31 years old). However, in comparison with the performers of the main roles - this is a trifle.
The viscount - the main erotic dream of Madame Bovary - has turned into a bald, bearded old man.
The role of Justin is completely passing, and his boyfriend is about 20 years old.
1949 film, directed by Vincente Minnelli
The main outline of the work was preserved, but the characters changed almost everything, the motivation of the characters, too. This is the only option in which I feel sorry for at least someone other than little Bertha: here Charles Bovary deserves a certain respect and even sympathy.
Costumes in the style of "Hollywood Chic" have nothing to do with history or logic. Particularly impressive is the mink coat that Emma carries around, although the original source clearly states that the temperature in Normandy does not drop below zero.
Jennifer Jones is another actress who is haunted by the fact that she didn't play Scarlett. It doesn't matter that the country is different, it doesn't matter that the time is different, that the character is different and the proposed circumstances are also different - we will still copy Vivien Leigh's facial expressions and gestures. The actress is 30 years old (in my opinion, five years of difference with the heroine is still too much, but at least twenty is already good), she has dark hair and dark eyes, but her appearance is somehow rude, unsympathetic.
Charles Bovary, at almost forty (Van Heflin is 39, and he looks forty-odd) has not yet been married, and Emma becomes his first wife. He is a very decent and noble person. That's probably why the writer saved his life.
Rodolphe is played by the handsome Louis Jourdan - a miracle how good! - he is only 28 years old, but the actor looks a little older, just 35 years old.
Leon is fair-haired and light-eyed, but he looks about 40 years old. I was very surprised to learn that Alf Chellin is only 29 here.
The role of the viscount was combined with the role of Rodolphe, but Justin was chosen well - Larry Sims is only 15.
2000 film, directed by Tim Fyvell
This film has two (besides boredom, but I already mentioned that) huge flaws: gag and sex. It’s pointless to talk about the incomprehensible why the inserted gag - I’ll have to retell half the film, I’d rather tell you why the “bed” scenes didn’t please me.
It would seem that the material fully justifies the use of intimate scenes: this is not a "Jane Eyre" with Victorian morality, this is a story about the love affairs of a passionate French woman. But this is where the ambush lurks: sexual experiences are the same expressive means as all others, and therefore the director who includes sexual scenes in a non-specialized film must be aware of why he is doing this and what he wants to express with their help. And when a sexy piece has the character of an inserted musical number, and its exclusion from the video sequence does not change anything in the perception of the picture, the expressive means loses its meaning, because it gives nothing to either the mind or the heart. Simulating sexual intercourse is a trifling matter, but to beat it and make it an indispensable detail of the narrative is not an easy task. However, the director had some progress in this direction: he tried to play sex in the carriage and even used interesting finds for this, but by that time the film crew had already completely discredited themselves, clearly demonstrating that the audience was taken for idiots - when Madame Bovary for the first time she appears on the screen naked, traces of a swimsuit are clearly visible on her body ... This hack put an end to all the efforts of dressers and decorators to create the appearance of the 19th century (and the costumes, by the way, are quite high-quality here). After such crap, any attempts to give a blunt hookup a highly artistic look are doomed to failure.
However, this picture also has certain advantages besides the costumes: its creators, at least, read Flaubert's novel. At least they tried to bring the actors in line with the original source. True, this did not save Emma: she is ugly, eerily similar to the slave Izaura, old (Frances O'Connor is 33 years old), with wrinkles around her eyes and withered breasts.
But Charles Bovary looks pretty fresh, although Hugh Bonneville is 37 years old. They covered the lower part of his face with a curly beard, he is plump, as it should be according to the book, he looks at his wife and daughter good-naturedly and with great love. Yes, that could very well be Dr. Bovary.
Charles' first wife died of consumption before he met Emma.
Greg Wise outwardly quite fits the role of Rodolphe: interesting, dark-haired, even he is exactly as old as he needs, but, alas, in terms of acting qualities, he, alas, does not pull on this role - there is absolutely no Boulanger in his performance, even his facial expression practically does not change .
Hugh Dancy, who plays Leon, is 25 years old, he is blond, pretty and has something of a puppy in his face. This is the best Leon ever, almost by the book.
The viscount here is simply wonderful: tall, slender, portly, with a fiery look and aristocratic manners. He is played by professional dancer Adam Cooper. What a delight to watch him waltz with Madame Bovary. In my opinion, this is the best scene in the whole movie!
Justin is played by Joe Roberts, a 16-year-old boy. However, the roller is again passing.
Mistress Maya, directed by Ketan Mehta
Oddly enough, the filmmakers, taking the letter of the novel quite freely, managed to preserve the spirit of the work. Even the age-old Indian attachment to musical numbers in this case played a positive role.
India. Judging by the costumes - the very beginning of the 80s. Forty-year-old married doctor Charu Daz comes on a call to a huge, once luxurious, but now neglected and gradually collapsing palace. Maya, who received a European education, lives there with her old father.
The doctor became interested in Maya's unusual behavior, and soon fell in love. Just in time, the doctor's wife died, and he married Maya.
The girl turned out to be schizophrenic. She constantly needed new sharp impressions. For their sake, Maya first contacted the wealthy neighbor Rudra,
and then with a young guy from a neighboring city - Lalit.
There are no analogues of the viscount in this production, but there is a theme of the first love of a teenager for a neighbor's gorgeous wife, missed in other adaptations.
The ending was remade into a mystical fairy tale. By the way, I was very surprised that a naked woman was shown in the film: it seemed to me that this was not accepted in India. Yes, unlike the 2000 version, the intimate scene is quite appropriate here.
1991 film directed by Claude Chabrol
This is the closest version to the original source with excellent actors, albeit thoughtlessly chosen.
The costumes are mixed: some are quite historical, and some are fantasy.
Isabelle Huppert is 38 years old, she is old for the role of Emma, red-haired and bright-eyed. The appearance of the actress allows you to make at least a beauty, even a monster, the director chose to disfigure her - Emma walks with shadows under her eyes, highlighted eyebrows and eyelashes, with the exception of a few moments when the actress's eyes are tinted and Madame Bovary instantly becomes pretty.
Charles Bovary is played by Jean-Francois Balmet. He is a very subtle actor and plays beautifully, but he is 45 years old. That says it all.
Christophe Malavois is almost forty. He has a specific, slightly amorphous appearance, reminiscent of Anatoly Vasilyev in the film "Crew". This type does not fit with the image of Rodolphe at all.
Luc Belvaux is thirty, and looks a little shabby for Léon Dupuis.
For the role of Viscount, Claude Chabrol took his son Thomas. As a result, the erotic dream took the form of a shabby bespectacled man.
The role of Justin is played by thirty-year-old Yves Verhoeven. Needless to say, this character has almost nothing to do with the novel.
Charles, Emma, Rodolphe, Justin
Despite the miscasting, this is still the most intelligent and sound adaptation of Madame Bovary.
"Madam Bovary", or "Madame Bovary"(fr. Madame Bovary) is a novel by Gustave Flaubert, first published in 1856. Considered one of the masterpieces of world literature.
The main character of the novel is Emma Bovary, the doctor's wife, living beyond her means and having extramarital affairs in the hope of getting rid of the emptiness and routine of provincial life. Although the plot of the novel is quite simple and even banal, the true value of the novel lies in the details and forms of presentation of the plot. Flaubert as a writer was known for his desire to bring each work to the ideal, always trying to find the right words.
Publication history, ratings
The novel was published in the Parisian literary magazine Revue de Paris from October 1 to December 15, 1856. After the publication of the novel, the author (as well as two other publishers of the novel) was accused of insulting morality and, together with the editor of the magazine, was brought to trial in January 1857. The scandalous fame of the work made it popular, and the acquittal of February 7, 1857 made it possible to publish the novel as a separate book that followed in the same year. It is now considered not only one of the key works of realism, but also one of the works that had the greatest influence on literature in general. The novel contains features of literary naturalism. Flaubert's skepticism towards man manifested itself in the absence of positive characters typical of a traditional novel. Careful drawing of the characters also led to a very long exposition of the novel, which makes it possible to better understand the character of the main character and, accordingly, the motivation for her actions (as opposed to voluntarism in the actions of the heroes of sentimentalist and romantic literature). Rigid determinism in the actions of the characters became a mandatory feature of the French novel in the first half of the 19th century.
Flaubert dissecting Madame Bovary. 1869 caricature
The thoroughness of the depiction of characters, the mercilessly accurate drawing of details (the novel accurately and naturalistically shows death from arsenic poisoning, the efforts to prepare the corpse for burial, when dirty liquid pours out of the mouth of the deceased Emma, etc.) were noted by critics as a feature of the writer's manner Flaubert. This was reflected in the cartoon, where Flaubert is depicted in the apron of an anatomist, exposing the body of Emma Bovary.
According to a 2007 poll of contemporary popular authors, Madame Bovary is one of the two greatest novels of all time (immediately after Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina). Turgenev at one time spoke of this novel as the best work "in the entire literary world."
According to literary critic Alexei Mashevsky, there are no positive characters in the novel: there is no hero who could be perceived by the reader as a hero. We can say that the "death of a hero", which was heralded by the novel of the same name by Richard Aldington, came back in the 19th century - in Madame Bovary.
Plot
Emma and Charles wedding
I spent five days on one page...
In another letter, he actually complains:
I struggle with every offer, but it just doesn't add up. What a heavy oar is my pen!
Already in the process of work, Flaubert continued to collect material. He himself read the novels that Emma Bovary liked to read, studied the symptoms and effects of arsenic poisoning. It is widely known that he himself felt bad, describing the scene of the poisoning of the heroine. So he remembered it.
