Undescribable Perfection

Absolutely the worst movie.

A Major Disappointment

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Like Chabrol,who reportedly "made the movie Flaubert would" ,it was filmed on location in the green landscapes of Normandie and even in the cathedral of Rouen .Like my good friend Writers Reign aka Leon points out in his insightful review,women directors make more and more their presence felt in the French cinema;to think that in the early fifties,there was only ONE female artist frequently making movies ;no it was not Agnès Varda,it was Jacqueline Audry ,Ida Lupino's contemporary colleague.Unlike her male colleagues,Mrs Fontaine did not do the umpteenth version of the famous novel;nor did she try to transpose the action to our times as Vadim and others did (with mediocre results) with Choderlos De Laclos's "Les Liaisons Dangereuses".Anne Fontaine's take on "Madame Bovary" is a very palatable work ,as delectable as Lucchini's bread ;however to be fully appreciated ,it 's better to read the novel first.The movie anyways begins with Lucchini's voice-over ,reading the episode of the ball,the turning point of the novel.When you like a book ,you often think of your own movie ,and sometimes,its adaptations,be they made by Renoir or Minnelli may,in several respects,disappoint you.That's Anne Fontaine's master stroke:what we dream of,Fabrice Lucchini ,ex-"Bobo" ("Bourgeois Boheme") makes it come true:he begins to "direct " his "Bovary",before being overtaken by events ("that was the end of my sexual peace" ).Today in Normandy ,people go to the villages of Tôtes and Yerville (the movie was actually shot in Lyons La Forêt) just to see the place where SHE lived ,just like people visit Juliet's house in Verona .In spite of the names ,the real life characters are very distant relatives of those of Flaubert:the Young student is not really Rodolphe Boulanger who was a mature selfish buck (best Rodolphe: Louis Jourdan in Minnelli's version) ;just as Charles Bovery is not the lump country doctor.But why is the hero a baker by the way? a nod to Rodolphe Boulanger (=baker)?or because it introduces an "erotic" way to knead dough?Or perhaps because of the French expression "Pour Une Bouchée De Pain" (= for next to nothing)which makes sense,considering the outcome.Lucchini's baker is still twenty in his head and as time is passing him by,attempts to mythologize a banal love affair through the creation of a story-like world of bygone days ;he's ready for another one when the movie ends .Anne Fontaine has made one of the most interesting French movies of 2014;Fabrice Lucchini,cast against type,is perhaps not very credible as a baker ,but he sure is as an intellectual dreamer;Mrs Gemma Aterton is a feast for the eyes ;Jason Fleming and Niels Schneider give restrained but effective performances;Isabelle Candelier is to be praised for making the best of an unrewarding part;it's pleasant to see again Edith Scob (Georges Franju's "Les Yeux Sans Visage") in the part of a bourgeois whose only reason to live seems to be a statuette.On the other hand,Elsa Zylberstein is intrusive ,exasperating,the typical smug actress.It's a mouthwatering effort (in every sense of the word).Never since "Babette's feast" ,did I savor such a display of good food.

Gemma Bovery is a movie based on Flaubert's Madame Bovary, but modernised and very meta as Gemma Bovery seems, according to the narrator, bound to follow the same path as the novel's central character. Starring Gemma Arterton as Gemma Bovery, it's easy to see why her neighbour, the village baker and the film's narrator, becomes completely besotted with her. She's radiant and effortlessly sexy from the moment we first encounter Gemma and her husband, played by Jason Flemyng, as they arrive at their new home in a small Normandy village. Soon, she is well acquainted by the locals, especially her neighbour, as played by Fabrice Luchini, who can't seem to think about much else other than this beautiful girl who seems to have come straight out of the pages of his favourite novel. With less assured direction and an actor without the affable qualities of Luchini, his gazes upon Gemma and longing monologues may seem quite creepy, but this is a romantic who acts more than ably as an audience surrogate for the events in this small hamlet. Gemma, like the Madame Bovary of the novel, succumbs to temptation and enters into an affair with a young man studying at his parents' house nearby, which causes much concern for her neighbour, who sees parallels between her and her fictional namesake. Which may not make for high drama, but I found this movie incredibly charming and easy to fall for, much like the gorgeous and talented Arterton who, in one particular scene, does for kneading bread what Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore done for pottery in Ghost. Arterton also plays her character just right, because this isn't a woman scorned or downtrodden. She knows her own mind and has depths that are slowly revealed. In the wrong hands she may have been quite unlikable, but here, despite her mistakes, she's always endearing. As is the bucolic plenty of the Parisian countryside. It's only in the movie's final moments that it plays a sour note that seems unnecessary, whilst an obscure ending shifts the tone just too far. But this is a bit of a treat and a genuine surprise.

'Gemma Bovery' is a clever re-working of 'Madame Bovary', Flaubert's 19th century literary masterpiece about the amorous adventures of a provincial doctor's wife. This contemporary version begins with a bookish baker observing the arrival of a London couple in his Normandy town. He immediately becomes obsessed with the lovely Gemma, and starts seeing parallels to his favorite novel after he catches sight of her flirting with an aristocratic law student outside his shop. When the doughy merchant deduces the affairs of 'la belle Anglaise' are spiraling towards disaster, he attempts to save her from the sad fate of the fictional heroine, but his interference only increases the complications of her love life.Director Anne Fontaine's film is nicely balanced between comedy and drama, tending towards the latter, although the end product is closer to a fluffy confection than a heavyweight main course. Gemma Arterton's piquant performance in the lead role holds the film together, as her straying spouse remains a sympathetic character despite the infidelities. Their work is complemented by the entire cast - especially Fabrice Luchini who turns in a satisfyingly starchy portrayal of the busybody bread-maker - along with some luscious cinematography of the fertile French countryside and the mouth-watering Ms Arterton.

No idea how close this sticks to the novel, but it's clever and charming.Takes a while to settle down - yes, Thatcherism is a crude divider - but once the narrator assumes the director's role it gets interesting. He's played well, and the lead actress is jolie.The other characters aren't really bedded down, especially the husband and the former husband, so that seems superficial. But the plot winds along merrily and overall it's amusing. Music and sound are very good too.Problem for me is the climax, which is just daft. But it's followed by a funny epilogue.ps. An example of bi-lingual production. I saw a Taiwan film recently that does it better - draws you in so you don't notice you're reading subtitles. But that was an action film with minimal dialogue.