I'm not sure why a movie about a young confused woman who doesn't know what she wants and thus begins to cheat on her husband with several people is compelling. Also, I disagree with the trailer... she's 'trapped' by the covenant she made, not by 'convention'. If she didn't want to be bound to one person she shouldn't have gotten married in the first place.
sharewell.. you say that because you are not considering the time period. Back then, marriage was for economics, not love. Women did not work, and therefore, they married men for support. Men married for sons to carry on the name/fortune.
She is "trapped" by the norms of the times.
If you know the story then you know that she married him seeking an escape from her old life. SHE chose this, it wasn't arranged, and there wasn't a dowry. She made the choice.
And if you think just because in that period there were very real social devices that strongly encouraged marriage, that emotion and love weren't involved, then you're being ridiculous. People are people, and have always been people, no matter what time period it is.
I find that the majority of people who love the book are bitter feminists. Basically, the same people who can easily rationalize away the most reprehensible of female behavior. It also appeals to female hypergamy. Emma is most definitely not a heroine, just a tragically selfish and stupid woman who destroys the lives of everyone she comes into contact with. The book was mind-numbingly depressing.
shareYes, those "bitter feminists" again, except the majority of the people I know who love the book are lovers of great literature (most of them aren't even women). I guess it depends on who you hang out with and what you read. The book is mind-blowingly brilliant, and THAT'S why I keep going back to it.
Emma Bovary is an anti-heroine (not a heroine), and not a creation that plays to the taste of someone who requires noble, role-model heroes and moral landscapes to find something readable. Emma is a character that has a psychological edge that cuts multiple ways - that's what upset people in 1856, and I guess she's still problematic today.
You do realize, don't you, that Emma is not MEANT to be a heroine? Flaubert was satirizing her, not praising her. If you don't see it, read up on the book and its author, and it's very clear. He was a realist making fun of romantics like Emma.
shareI never said that Flaubert had written her as a heroine. I am well aware of the satirical nature of the book. I was commenting on the feminist fans of the book. Madame Bovary is a highly regarded "heroic tragedy" among feminist readers. Feminism is a mental disease, so no surprises there.
shareCome on, orignlsinz, you seem to have more intelligence than that. Do you think that because people love the movie Taxi Driver it means they are psychopathic loners who do target practice in their hotel rooms? I think you have mistaken the book for a love story, which it is not. It is a very sharp social satire. I love the book because it is a masterpiece that was not only carefully written but way ahead of its time. Real Housewives in a different setting. Your "bitter feminist" accusation might be covering the fact that you are hopelessly romantic.
shareIf you read the book you can see that Emma grew up without a mother in a monastery reading trashy romantic literature and thought life is supposed to be like a romance novel. And when she saw her life is not gonna be a romance novel she always wanted and thought it should be like that is when her downfall starts.
She is so bored with life. Her husband is a dull bore from day one. When she asked him for any intriguing topic of conversation he brought up some mystery in the chamber pot. I would have been restless too... I understand why she was so restless and always searching for a way out, or at least some temporary excitement.
shareI'm not sure why a movie about a young confused woman who doesn't know what she wants and thus begins to cheat on her husband with several people is compelling. Also, I disagree with the trailer... she's 'trapped' by the covenant she made, not by 'convention'. If she didn't want to be bound to one person she shouldn't have gotten married in the first place.
What a delightfully well-articulated, and completely pretentious response. I don't need knowledge of France in the 1800s to help me wrap my head around an immature girl with wanderlust. Understanding adultery doesn't require a thorough cultural understanding of a past era. Period.
sharePeople may mock education these days as being pointless in a post-industrial economy, but we are DYING culturally and intellectually, and it's heart breaking. The saddest part of it is that people no longer even realize how sadly uneducated they are, offering inane opinions and judgments on things they're not even remotely prepared to understand.
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I was never so happy to see a protagonist die. Darwinism in film can also be satisfying.
Emma is a horribly selfish character that also makes for a pathetic antihero. The author successfully made his biting, satirical point, but I will never read the French classic based on this film. It was enough unpleasantness to last me a long time.
"Don't get chumpatized!" - The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
Two things. One, this film is a piss-poor rendering of the tale. Two, one of the things that qualifies the novel as a masterpiece is that it's almost like a Rorschach test, in that one can interpret the characters and events in very different ways, and the story plays out equally well from many perspectives. I think the producers of this film looked at it from the simplistic "sexually rebellious woman" interpretation.
sharethemattyd - I agree with you there. Especially your Rorschach test comment. Madame Bovary is still awaiting a really creative version that conveys how revolutionary the novel was when it first came out.
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