Gemma Bovery Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Gemma Bovery Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 3, 2015

There has been no dearth of adaptations of Gustave Flaubert’s iconic novel Madame Bovary on both the large and small screens through the years. Madame Bovary, one of the most recent big screen adaptations, has already made it to domestic Blu-ray, and at least one of the many Madame Bovary miniseries is evidently available in Spain. But a cursory tour of the IMDb shows more than a dozen different properties bearing the Madame Bovary name (including the glossy Madame Bovary with Jennifer Jones), but that list doesn’t include some of the more whimsically revisionist entries like the 1992 Hindi outing Maya Memsaab, or the 1992 Portuguese film Vale Abraão, or even David Lean’s sumptuous Ryan's Daughter, which reportedly began life as a straight adaptation of Flaubert’s famous story of a bored woman who relies on infidelity to break up the mundane life she leads with her husband. It’s at least debatable as to whether the world really needs another Madame Bovary at this point, but Gemma Bovery isn’t so much an adaptation of Flaubert’s tale as it is a sidebar of sorts that utilizes Flaubert’s work as a starting point, one which continually informs the story but which never totally overpowers it. Gemma Bovery started life as a graphic novel by English writer Posy Simmonds, an author who (according to her own reminiscence included on this Blu-ray as an extra) had seen a pretentious woman at a streetside cafe who was surrounded by her Prada shopping bags but seemed to be drowning in a sense of ennui, and who instantly reminded Simmonds of Flaubert’s legendary (anti?) heroine. Simmonds decided to update Madame Bovary to present day Normandy, offering a slightly renamed Gemma Bovery (Gemma Arterton) who moves to the rural region with newish husband Charles (Jason Flemyng), buying a dilapidated country estate that just happens to be across the street from a home owned by local baker Martin Joubert (Fabrice Luchini), a guy who just so happens to be obsessed with Flaubert and Madame Bovary.

Joubert is in fact kind of the focal character of Gemma Bovery, for the tale is told resolutely from his point of view, and his reactions to Gemma and Charlie provide most of the drama of the piece, at least in a subtextual manner. The film begins at the end, as it were, and for those who have never read or seen Madame Bovary, it’s perhaps unavoidably spoilerish to mention that Flaubert doesn’t exactly traffic in fairy tales and happily ever afters. Charlie is in the throes of depression after Gemma’s demise, but he can’t bring himself to burn Gemma’s journals as he’s doing with a number of her other possessions. Joubert purloins one of the diaries and retreats to his home to read it, at which point the film gives way to an extended flashback, detailing the arrival of the Bovery couple and their impact on the (fictional) village of Bailleville.

Gemma Bovery ends up playing somewhat as a modern day Madame Bovary as filtered through the eyes of a voyeur. Over and over again, director Anne Fontaine (Coco Before Chanel ) frames scenes where Joubert stumbles on (or in some cases stalks) Gemma, witnessing her various dalliances (which, it must be admitted, she’s not particularly keen to keep all that hidden). This might have given this property a kind of smarmy feeling, but perhaps surprisingly, the long and longing gazes of Joubert ultimately come off as a sign of concern, if also somewhat more disturbingly as slightly obsessive.

The film culls overall arcs from Flaubert’s original, including Gemma’s unhappiness with her plebeian husband, and, later, her flings with such characters as Hervé de Bressigny (Niels Schneider), a kind of preppy kid from a well to do family, and Patrick (Mel Raido), an older guy whose own history with Gemma returns to haunt both of them. Charlie is shunted to the sidelines, ultimately appalled at his wife’s infidelity, with both Gemma and Charlie realizing too late what they’ve actually come to mean to each other. A couple of auxiliary characters add little to the actual plot and seem to be there mostly to break up repeated scenes between Joubert and Gemma.

The film does take certain liberties with the original tale, including the method of Gemma’s demise, which in this case plays off of Joubert’s occupation, if only tangentially. What’s rather interesting about Gemma Bovery is how almost strangely lighthearted it frequently is, something that certainly would not be the first descriptor most Flaubert aficionados would come up with when thinking about Madame Bovary. In fact even the tragic death of the titular character has a sly Gallic humor about it, albeit one as dark as some of the burnt bread Joubert attempts to get past the watchful eye of his wife. That very lightheartedness continues on to a whimsical coda of sorts with yet another literary allusion that may have some perspicacious readers wondering if Bailleville has a nearby train station.

Gemma Bovery Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Gemma Bovery is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Music Box Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Shot digitally with the Sony CineAlta F65, Gemma Bovery is often quite scenic when it ventures out of doors to exploit the lush scenery of Normandy, but on the whole the palette here is somewhat tamped down, with as much emphasis on the slate grays and cooler blues of a rain washed environment as on more buttery yellows in some admittedly sumptuous sunny moments. Fontaine and cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne often favor shooting into (or at least toward) light with some boosted highlights, something that can add at least the perception of softness to certain scenes (see screenshot 2). The palette is healthy and natural looking, and consistent contrast helps the film to navigate some low light situations where, for example, characters will sit around a candlelit table with seemingly no other lighting source providing illumination. Fine detail is quite excellent in close-ups, offering good looks at elements like Gemma's flyaway hair or some of the textures of Joubert's many breads.

Gemma Bovery Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Gemma Bovery features a somewhat restrained sound mix which is analogous to its somewhat tamped down visual presentation, and so the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (putatively in French, though with large swaths of English) is not exactly a riot of immersion, and instead more of a subtle offering of occasional ambient environmental sounds along with lots of dialogue and Bruno Coulais' attractive score. Effects like torrential rains or the flutter of breezes through trees offer brief moments of surround activity, but this is by and large a dialogue driven film, one which doesn't really fully (or at least consistently) exploit the side and rear channels. Fidelity is nonetheless excellent and there are no problems of any kind to report in this review.

Gemma Bovery Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• In the Footsteps of Emma: The Making of Gemma Bovery (1080p; 21:28) is an above average featurette which has a number of interesting elements, including brief looks at how the original illustrations made it into cinematic form, as well as interesting interviews with several of the cast and crew. Rather amazingly, Arterton evidently spoke very little French before shooting the film.


• Master Class with Director Anne Fontaine (1080p; 22:46) is an interesting Q&A session moderated by (get ready) Randal Kleiser.


• From Page to Screen (1080p; 3:03) is another comparison of the original illustrations and their final filmed form.


• Graphic Novel Gallery (1080p) provides 32 "slides" showing the original graphic novel.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:48)

Gemma Bovery Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Gemma Bovery is undeniably entertaining, and just as undeniably scenic, but my hunch is at least some curmudgeons (and you know who you are) are going to be asking "What's the point?" as the film unfolds. The original graphic novel at least had the innovation of its medium to help recast Flaubert's work in a new light. Here, as a film, Gemma Bovery is almost by default going to be compared (rightly or wrongly) with all the other film and television Madame Bovary enterprises which have gone before, and the comparison may not be completely favorable to this particular entry. The whole "meta" angle of Joubert is never fully realized here, and so the film plays like Flaubert seen through a spy hole of sorts. Performances are quite winning, and Fontaine perfectly captures the sometimes odd manners of a rustic Normandy village. Technical merits are generally strong, the supplementary package is very good, and with caveats noted, Gemma Bovery comes Recommended.