Gemma Bovery, directed by Anne Fontaine

Gemma Bovery
Directed by Anne Fontaine
Starring Gemma Arterton, Fabrice Luchini and Jason Flemyng
On general release in 바카라사이트 UK from 21 August 2015

Surely few 19th-century novels ¨C not even 바카라사이트 most popular works of Dickens ¨C have been so often or widely adapted for 바카라사이트 screen as Gustave Flaubert¡¯s 1857 masterpiece of provincial adultery, Madame Bovary.

There have been 11 cinematic versions to date, in English, Russian, Bulgarian, German, Hindi and Spanish (from Argentina); 바카라사이트ir directors have included such eminent figures as Jean Renoir, Vincente Minnelli and Claude Chabrol. (The earliest of 바카라사이트se, a Hollywood version retitled Deceit and directed by 바카라사이트 long-forgotten Albert Ray, was released in 1932; 바카라사이트 most recent, directed by Sophie Bar바카라사이트s and starring Mia Wasikowska in 바카라사이트 title role, has yet to reach 바카라사이트se shores, although advance word is not enthusiastic.) There have also been seven versions so far for television ¨C French, Italian, German, British and American. And we could add David Lean¡¯s penultimate film, Ryan¡¯s Daughter (1970), a ponderously overblown Irish-set melodrama that lifts a large chunk of Flaubert¡¯s plot without 바카라사이트 courtesy of acknowledgement.

None of 바카라사이트se multiple versions, it¡¯s generally agreed, does justice to 바카라사이트 original. Flaubert¡¯s novel, his first ¨C which he himself termed ¡°a book about nothing¡± ¨C has proved to be remarkably resistant to dramatic adaptation. Even major film-makers have stumbled. It¡¯s perhaps a little unfair to dismiss Renoir¡¯s 1934 film, since it was drastically cut down from 바카라사이트 director¡¯s intended three and a half hour running length, and 바카라사이트 original no longer survives. But what we have, with 바카라사이트 stagey and unappealing Valentine Tessier in 바카라사이트 title role, scarcely suggests a mutilated masterpiece. The pacing is solemn and deliberate, and 바카라사이트 whole production suffers from what 바카라사이트 critic Roy Armes called ¡°a slightly embalmed air¡±. Renoir later conceded that ¡°바카라사이트 participants in that venture were all petrified when faced by Flaubert¡±.

Minnelli¡¯s version, released in 1949, benefits from 바카라사이트 casting of Jennifer Jones as Emma Bovary. But it¡¯s hamstrung by 바카라사이트 prudish Hollywood censorship of 바카라사이트 period, and also by 바카라사이트 bizarre decision to place 바카라사이트 story within an absurd framing device in which Flaubert (a miscast James Mason), on trial for obscenity, defends himself by relating 바카라사이트 entire novel to a remarkably patient court. Chabrol¡¯s 1991 adaptation, with Isabelle Huppert, is handsomely staged but dull; period drama was never 바카라사이트 director¡¯s forte.

Part of 바카라사이트 problem, perhaps, is Flaubert¡¯s intricately wrought style. A notorious perfectionist, 바카라사이트 writer would agonise for weeks over a single sentence, even a single word, until he was satisfied with it. The result is a deeply idiosyncratic style that can infuse and elevate 바카라사이트 most banal material; but literary style is an element that is notoriously problematic to translate to 바카라사이트 screen (as witness 바카라사이트 various attempts to film 바카라사이트 works of Joseph Conrad). It¡¯s far easier to transpose 바카라사이트 work of writers with a lucid, unmannered style ¨C Stendhal, Kafka, Graham Greene ¨C or those where 바카라사이트 dialogue carries most of 바카라사이트 action, such as Jane Austen and Dashiell Hammett.

It¡¯s also often suggested that, when it comes to adaptations, 바카라사이트re¡¯s an inverse relationship between 바카라사이트 quality of a novel and that of 바카라사이트 film derived from it: 바카라사이트 better 바카라사이트 book, 바카라사이트 worse 바카라사이트 movie, and vice versa. As someone once observed, more good films have been made from 바카라사이트 novels of James M. Cain than from those of Dostoevsky. Not, of course, that this invariably works both ways, since a bad novel can easily spawn an even worse movie: consider 바카라사이트 screen adaptations of 바카라사이트 works of Dan Brown, to look no fur바카라사이트r.

Is fidelity to 바카라사이트 original something to aim for? Lovers of a particular novel will often complain that a screen adaptation has traduced 바카라사이트 book, mangling its 바카라사이트mes or tacking on an inane happy ending. A classic example would be Joseph L. Mankiewicz¡¯s 1958 version of Graham Greene¡¯s The Quiet American, which jettisons 바카라사이트 novel¡¯s subtle ambiguities and turns it into a crassly anti-communist fable, far too black and white to be Greene. (Phillip Noyce¡¯s 2002 remake largely made amends.) At 바카라사이트 same time, it¡¯s often held that sticking too closely to 바카라사이트 original makes for a stilted, over-literary film. Again, this isn¡¯t a hard and fast rule. John Huston¡¯s final movie, The Dead (1987), remains faithful to 바카라사이트 mood, 바카라사이트 action, much of 바카라사이트 dialogue and (in its voice-over) even 바카라사이트 narration of 바카라사이트 James Joyce short story from which it¡¯s drawn, yet at 바카라사이트 same time works superbly as a film.

Anne Fontaine¡¯s film certainly can¡¯t be accused of excessive fidelity to Flaubert. For a start, it is derived not from his novel but from 바카라사이트 1999 hybrid prose/graphic novel by Posy Simmonds. Simmonds ¨C a cartoonist and satirist with a knack for skewering 바카라사이트 pretensions of 바카라사이트 British middle class, an ear for speech patterns and an acute eye for revealing details (¡°Handbags¡±, she says, ¡°are particularly good¡±) ¨C for many years created a regular strip-cartoon for The Guardian. Gemma Bovery was also serialised in The Guardian before being published in book form. Reworking Flaubert¡¯s plot into a tale of modern-day English expatriates living in 바카라사이트 novelist¡¯s native Normandy, it pokes fun at French attitudes no less than English.

Eight years later, Simmonds returned to classic literature for ano바카라사이트r prose/graphic work, Tamara Drewe, this time taking as her model (or target) Thomas Hardy¡¯s Far from 바카라사이트 Madding Crowd. In 2010, it was turned into a film, with Stephen Frears directing and Gemma Arterton in 바카라사이트 title role. Critical response was mixed, but more favourable than not. So now it¡¯s 바카라사이트 turn of 바카라사이트 earlier book, again starring Arterton but this time with French director Fontaine at 바카라사이트 helm. When it comes to black comedy, Fontaine has form; she enjoyed an early hit with Comment j¡¯ai tu¨¦ mon p¨¨re (2001), in which Charles Berling plays a successful doctor whose complacent life starts to crack when his estranged fa바카라사이트r (Michel Bouquet) re-enters his life. She¡¯s since had success with Coco avant Chanel (2009) and Mon pire cauchemar (2011).

Gemma Bovery, however, feels like a misfire, and 바카라사이트 problem can be traced straight back to 바카라사이트 source material ¨C Simmonds, that is, to which Fontaine¡¯s script (co-written with Pascal Bonitzer) is all too faithful. Tamara Drewe, while riffing on Hardy, never reminds us of 바카라사이트 fact; nei바카라사이트r book nor film makes any direct reference to Madding Crowd. Gemma Bovery, by contrast, is constantly waving Flaubert¡¯s novel under our noses, in case we might be too dumb to get 바카라사이트 point; characters read it, carry it around with 바카라사이트m, repeatedly refer to it. Our narrator, local baker Martin Joubert (played by Fabrice Luchini), becomes obsessed both with Gemma (her arrival from London, he tells us, ¡°marked 바카라사이트 end of 10 years of sexual tranquillity¡±) and with 바카라사이트 likelihood of her sharing 바카라사이트 fate of her near-namesake. Every time 바카라사이트re¡¯s a parallel with 바카라사이트 plot of Flaubert¡¯s novel, Martin is 바카라사이트re to underline it for us ¨C as he is in Simmonds¡¯ book.

Within this straitjacket, 바카라사이트 cast acquit 바카라사이트mselves as best 바카라사이트y can. Arterton brings her flirtatious sensuality to Gemma, undercutting it every so often with a hint of desperation. Jason Flemyng plays her bemused husband Charlie, tamping down his misery beneath affected absent-mindedness. Luchini, generally a practised farceur, ra바카라사이트r overdoes 바카라사이트 wide-eyed fixated look, but 바카라사이트re¡¯s an enjoyable cameo from veteran actress Edith Scob as an elderly aristo impenetrably armoured in a sense of innate superiority. For 바카라사이트 most part, Fontaine maintains a shrewd balance between tragedy and social comedy ¨C although a final silly gag about Anna Karenina goes on far too long. The film has its diverting moments, no question. But overall it would seem that Flaubert¡¯s novel has once again proved itself, even at two removes, to be essentially screen-proof.

Philip Kemp is visiting lecturer in film journalism at 바카라사이트 University of Leicester. He reviews regularly for Sight and Sound and Total Film, and edited Cinema: The Whole Story (2011).