Madame Bovary (B or 3/4 stars)
'Madame Bovary' is one of the iconic stories in all of literature, and it gets MGM's lavish motion picture treatment here in 1949, directed by the always stylish Vincente Minnelli. Bookending the film is James Mason who appears as author Gustave Flaubert, defending his scandalous, inflammatory novel before a fiery French jury. By bookending the film with Mason, the tragedy of Emma Bovary (beautiful Jennifer Jones) is told as a product of Flaubert's own imagination, rather than a real life account (which makes the scandal easier to swallow for 1949 audiences). The brunt of the narrative here concerns Emma Bovary's many attempts to escape the apparent humdrum boredom of her bourgeois existence by marrying a perfectly acceptable doctor, Charles Bovary (a great Van Heflin).
At first she 'seems' happy. She feels loved, appreciated, & even has a baby girl {uh oh #1, she wanted a boy}. But soon enough, she finds life with the physician even more boring, unfulfilling, & tiresome than her previous experiences. So what does she do? She starts seeing a plethora of wealthy lovers (including Louis Jourdan); all of whom prove to be disappointing to her in the end. The shame of it all is: they all love her, but it doesn't matter to her. She wants beauty. She wants $$. She wants opulence. And she wants social status -- she wants it allllll. But no one can ever provide enough for her to be content. And so, SPOILER ALERT, unable to tolerate a lifetime of disappointments & dead-end affairs, Mme. Bovary eventually swallows arsenic to a painful demise, END SPOILER.
'Madame Bovary' is a fine motion picture. It's also a very sad motion picture. Some of my favorite films ARE sad. I love re-visiting them either despite or because of their inherent sadness. I find beauty & richness in the heartache. That said, something about this story doesn't hit me as hard as some of those others. It's not a cathartic sad. So because of that, I can't give this film an 'A' or deem it a masterpiece, even when considering how well directed, adorned, & acted it is.
Director Minnelli does a beautiful job with this production. The black-&-white cinematography is gorgeous. The best sequence to highlight said cinematography is in the centerpiece Waltz sequence where Emma Bovary wears a stunning dress, dances to her heart's content, & dazzles the room ... dazzling all except her agitated, drunk husband. The camerawork is dizzying, yet glorious. Also immaculate is the art direction. Though filmed in Hollywood, you believe that you're looking at 19th c. France. Also superb are Walter Plunkett's costumes; of course, they are. And Miklos Rozsa's music score amplifies every emotion to the hilt. All the actors are good here, but special attention must be awarded to Jennifer Jones in the titular role.
This isn't Jones' best performance, nor the richest interpretation you'll likely ever see of Mme. Bovary ... but it is still excellent. When we 1st meet Emma, we like her. We see her upbringing, we feel for her. Then, as time wears on, we grow to absolutely loathe her. And then, in her final moments, even while knowing what a vile, vain, selfish woman she is, I felt pity/empathy for her doomed vulnerability. I really appreciated both the little nuances as well as the grand neuroses she displayed as Emma Bovary. And so, while I didn't love this movie, I appreciate a great deal about it. Though it received okay reviews & was nominated for an Academy Award, it wasn't a box office hit and, I think that fact alone has made it fall into a bit of obscurity. It shouldn't be so obscure.
At first she 'seems' happy. She feels loved, appreciated, & even has a baby girl {uh oh #1, she wanted a boy}. But soon enough, she finds life with the physician even more boring, unfulfilling, & tiresome than her previous experiences. So what does she do? She starts seeing a plethora of wealthy lovers (including Louis Jourdan); all of whom prove to be disappointing to her in the end. The shame of it all is: they all love her, but it doesn't matter to her. She wants beauty. She wants $$. She wants opulence. And she wants social status -- she wants it allllll. But no one can ever provide enough for her to be content. And so, SPOILER ALERT, unable to tolerate a lifetime of disappointments & dead-end affairs, Mme. Bovary eventually swallows arsenic to a painful demise, END SPOILER.
'Madame Bovary' is a fine motion picture. It's also a very sad motion picture. Some of my favorite films ARE sad. I love re-visiting them either despite or because of their inherent sadness. I find beauty & richness in the heartache. That said, something about this story doesn't hit me as hard as some of those others. It's not a cathartic sad. So because of that, I can't give this film an 'A' or deem it a masterpiece, even when considering how well directed, adorned, & acted it is.
Director Minnelli does a beautiful job with this production. The black-&-white cinematography is gorgeous. The best sequence to highlight said cinematography is in the centerpiece Waltz sequence where Emma Bovary wears a stunning dress, dances to her heart's content, & dazzles the room ... dazzling all except her agitated, drunk husband. The camerawork is dizzying, yet glorious. Also immaculate is the art direction. Though filmed in Hollywood, you believe that you're looking at 19th c. France. Also superb are Walter Plunkett's costumes; of course, they are. And Miklos Rozsa's music score amplifies every emotion to the hilt. All the actors are good here, but special attention must be awarded to Jennifer Jones in the titular role.
This isn't Jones' best performance, nor the richest interpretation you'll likely ever see of Mme. Bovary ... but it is still excellent. When we 1st meet Emma, we like her. We see her upbringing, we feel for her. Then, as time wears on, we grow to absolutely loathe her. And then, in her final moments, even while knowing what a vile, vain, selfish woman she is, I felt pity/empathy for her doomed vulnerability. I really appreciated both the little nuances as well as the grand neuroses she displayed as Emma Bovary. And so, while I didn't love this movie, I appreciate a great deal about it. Though it received okay reviews & was nominated for an Academy Award, it wasn't a box office hit and, I think that fact alone has made it fall into a bit of obscurity. It shouldn't be so obscure.