Gustave Flaubert's classic novel about Emma Bovary, a passionate woman who rebels against the conventions that stifle her as the wife of a dull country doctor, caused a furor in 1857. But for those who weren't morally outraged, the book struck a responsive chord. "Madame Bovary, c'est moi," said Flaubert, indicating that Emma's discontent crossed gender lines. Today, Emma's plight still draws us in. This new film version, from writer-director Claude Chabrol, is the ninth so far. Emma's influence even extends to Disney's Beauty and the Beast, in which the heroine, Belle, warbles, "I want much more than this provincial life."

Obviously, Chabrol also thinks of Emma as a modern woman. But the triumphant film he has fashioned isn't a tricked-up, revisionist adaptation. Starring the incomparable Isabelle Huppert, Chabrol's film stays rigorously faithful to Flaubert, unlike Vincente Minnelli's overproduced 1949 film with Jennifer Jones. Shooting near Rouen, where Flaubert lived (the location is vibrantly captured by Jean Rabier's camera), and taking the dialogue directly from the book, Chabrol respects Flaubert and the audience by allowing Madame Bovary to speak without interference to a new generation.

Excerpt of Peter Travers review located HERE