His recreation of 19 th century France is both realistic and romantic.Ĭhabrol and Huppert are both sympathetic to her dissatisfaction and limited options as a woman in a chauvinistic and status-conscious society yet realistic about her reckless, selfish ways and her shallow yearnings informed by the romantic ideals of the novels she devours. When he abandons her, she tries to find contentment in marriage and motherhood but is unfulfilled and takes up with a younger man (Lucas Belvaux) while getting herself in debt all over town.Įmma Bovary is one of the most famous characters in French literature and the novel is considered a masterpiece of world literature, and Chabrol, who also pens the screenplay adaptation, does justice to both. That makes her easy prey for the conniving Rodolphe Boulanger (Christophe Malavoy), a handsome, charming gentleman who preys on her loneliness and unfulfilled passions with poetic proclamations of true love and destiny. She chooses the decent and conscientious country doctor Charles Bovary (Jean-François Balmer) as her way out but her fantasies of romantic love and society life are dashed when she finds him dull, unambitious, and weak. Isabelle Huppert stars as Emma Bovary, an unmarried farmer's daughter dreaming of romance and desperate to leave her drab peasant existence for marriage and city life. It proved to be a good match of material and director, who brings out the complicated nature and motivations of one the most fascinating heroines in literature.
Madame Bovary (1991) was a rare literary adaptation and period piece for the filmmaker. Claude Chabrol, one of the founding filmmakers of the French New Wave, was known for his psychological drama and thrillers, many of them adaptations of popular or pulp novels.
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