Madame Bovary (2000) (TV)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Tim Fywell

Writers:

Gustave Flaubert (novel)
Heidi Thomas (screenplay)

Release Date:

6 February 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

A young woman in her late teens, a reader of novels and with high hopes of romance and passion, marries a widowed country doctor...

Plot Keywords:

Self Destructiveness | Adulteress | Female Nudity | 19th Century | Suicide

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Frances O'Connor	...	Emma Bovary
Hugh Bonneville	...	Charles Bovary
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Eileen Atkins	...	Marie Louise
Desmond Barrit	...	Guillaumin (episode 3)
Keith Barron	...	L'heureux (episodes 2, 3)
Adam Cooper	...	Vicomte (episode 1)
Hugh Dancy	...	Leon
Marian Diamond	...	Sister Marie Paul (episode 1)
Claire Hackett	...	Madame Homais (episodes 2, 3)
Jenny Howe	...	Sister Evangeline (episode 1)
Barbara Jefford	...	Marquise (episode 1)
Stanley Lebor	...	Binet
Mary MacLeod	...	Madame Lefrancois (as Mary Macleod)
Roy Macready	...	Vincart (episode 3)
Phillip Manikum	...	Lestiboudois
Joe McGann	...	Paul
Jessica Oyelowo	...	Felicite
Trevor Peacock	...	Rouault
Joe Roberts	...	Justin (episodes 2, 3)
Willie Ross	...	Hurdy Gurdy Man (episodes 1, 3)
David Troughton	...	Homais
Thomas Wheatley	...	Dr. Canivet (episode 2)
Greg Wise	...	Rodolphe (episodes 2, 3)

Runtime:

180 min | Sweden:153 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:MA | Finland:K-13 | Singapore:M18 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Ashridge Park, Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Quotes:

Leon: My mind's exercised enough. My mind's worn out with exercising. It's like a mouse on a wheel; like a piston in an engine. It never stops.

Movie Connections:

Version of Madame Bovary (1991)

some pretty botched-up casting

I've got to admit that Madame Bovary isn't my one of my favorite literary works, but I've watched several adaptations nonetheless. This was a fairly intelligent attempt at adaptation, with a pretty good script, but it was ruined for me by some casting misjudgments and a misguided decision to use nudity and explicit sex.

It takes some doing to make a woman as misguided and blinkered as Emma Bovary truly sympathetic (one of my major problems with the book), and though Frances O'Connor is a good actress, she often comes across seeming merely like a spoiled brat. She seems even more so because the decision was made to have her speak out loud so many things that Emma only thinks in the book. But I think the negative impression I got of this Emma is less due to her, perhaps, then to the other cast. I think it was a major mistake to cast somebody so obviously manly and sympathetic in the role of her husband as Hugh Bonneville (in the book Charles was really a dork) and such lightweights as Greg Wise (who looks stupefied most of the time) and -- well, I've forgotten what is name was -- as Leon. You definitely have to question her preference from them over Charles.

The various explicit nude sex scenes really add nothing, and often lead us in the wrong direction. Is it merely a difference in sexual technique that makes Emma unsatisified by her husband, but satisfied by Rodolphe? You can look at these scenes for hours and never find out. By the way, what is this about Emma apparently liking rough sex (her first time with Rodolphe, when he makes her bleed). Where was THAT in the book??! But most of all it was a mistake, I think, because Emma focuses as much on romance as on sex, and these scenes completely miss that.

I was mainly disappointed in this try at the book. Beautifully photographed, though.