Madame Bovary (1933)

Madame Bovary is a French romantic film drama first released in 1933, directed by Jean Renoir.  The film is based on a novel by Gustave Flaubert and stars Valentine Tessier, Pierre Renoir, Robert Le Vigan, Alice Tissot and Pierre Larquey.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


A country girl Emma Rouault marries a recently bereaved doctor, Charles Bovary, but her love for him does not endure.  Whilst Bovary is happy to remain an ordinary provincial doctor, Emma yearns for better things.  After her husband botches up a foot operation she loses all respect for him and starts having an affair with a wealthy philanderer, Rodolphe.  She plans to elope with her new lover, but he abandons her.  Worse, she has unwittingly allowed her unscrupulous dressmaker to run up an account that she can never pay off...

Although not as well known and as celebrated as Jean Renoir’s subsequent films, Madame Bovary occupies an important part in the director’s film-making career.  It is certainly am ambitious film for Renoir to attempt at this stage in his career and his film is faithful to Flaubert’s novel in content and spirit (although the film was far less controversial than the novel when it was first published).

Much of Renoir’s technique is visible in embryonic form in this film, certainly his camera work.  His device of filming scenes from a distance, often through an open doorway, is particularly well used here, creating the impression that the viewer is standing on the set, spying on intimate conversations.

Valentine Tessier is certainly a strong contender for the best screen Madame Bovary of all time.  She captures both the tragic vulnerability and her wayward flightiness with conviction and sympathy.  Her captivating  performance is easily the film’s strongest point.  As a result, the film’s famous tragic denouement is intensely moving, without the clumsy sentimentality or grossness which has marred other film adaptations of the story.

Charles Bovary is played by Renoir’s own famous actor brother, Pierre Renoir.  His rapport with Valentine Tessier is near-perfect.  With his stout oafish appearance, his Doctor Bovary is an obvious foil for his wife’s contempt and frustration.  Yet we never doubt his devotion to Madame Bovary and the film’s ending is all the more tragic for that.

For the story to work, the audience must be able to sympathise equally with both Madame Bovary and her husband.  Jean Renoir’s version achieves that and, despite some noticeable flaws elsewhere (some clumsy editing and wooden acting), this remains one of the most satisfying adaptations of Flaubert’s timeless novel.

© James Travers 2000

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