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.
