Mia Wasikowska - Madame Bovary (2015) Discussion

[–] ejayinc 12 years ago

I really don't think so. She was perfect Jane Eyre because she has a certain restraint but Emma wasn't like that. I think someone softer and less stoic would have been better. Someone like Romola Garai, Jessica Brown Findlay or even Emily Browning. I'm sure Mia will be a sensation but it's just not how I would imagine Madame Bovary.
Paul Giamatti as Homais is perfection though. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the cast.

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[–] krystlemalinis 12 years ago

I'm excited what Mia can do in this film. You're right, she was a perfect Jane, but I think she can pull this off as well.

If they cast Eddie Redmayne in this film, I would die of happiness. :) Or even Tom Hiddleston. Hahaha!

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] noandree 11 years ago

I imagined Emma a little older, but I think she can do it. I just realized this was in pre-production.

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[–] LifeVsArt 11 years ago

I just got done reading "Madame Bovary" (my third time) and I could easily picture Mia W. in this part - in fact, I think she'll be great in it. Perhaps she's a little young, but if you go by the book some of the other actresses who've done the part might have been a little older than the original - they should easily be able to deal with this - the main thing is she has the talent to really bring this complex character to the screen. I also picture Paul Giamattie as being perfect as Homais the pharmacist. There is a good amount about the book that hasn't really been covered in the earlier film versions and with Mia maybe they can get to it in this one. I would never have believed that new life could have been brought to "Jane Eyre" but Mia and the whole production pulled that one off.

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[–] alfa-16 11 years ago

I would never have believed that new life could have been brought to "Jane Eyre" but Mia and the whole production pulled that one off.

By comprehensively failing to understand the central character and delivering something else entirely. JE11 is a grotesquely inferior product to the BBC's 2006 version with Ruth Wilson, a much better, much more emotionally agile actress who took the trouble to understand what Jane was about.

Mia's Jane was timid, cowed, miserable, thwarted, unadventurous and clueless about how to chieve her independence. All completely wrong.

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[–] LifeVsArt 11 years ago

WOW! I couldn't disagree with you more. I enjoyed the 2006 version (one of the best) but the 2011 production and performance is easily my favorite. When was the last time you read the novel? I recently read it again and felt Mia W. captured it beautifully, along with the spiritual side. Still, there are different versions for different tastes. In her Golden Globe acceptance Meryl Streep called the "Jane Eyre" with Wasikowska FANTASTIC - so I guess it was to her taste.

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[–] SwingBatta 11 years ago

Funny, I thought the 2006 version was pretty lousy. Both Wilson and Stephens were miscast and their performances were over the top and the opening scene with young Jane and her cousins was downright embarrassing. Unfortunately, it's not hip to criticize that version because it's all but taken as gospel.

JE11, however, nailed it and in half the amount of running time.

"And there sure as hell ain't no vista of no views."

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[–] alfa-16 11 years ago

When the film came out I gave my views on it and the failure of the director and the lead actress to grasp what Bronte and the book was about, along with a lot of other JE fans on te JE11 and JE06 board. I have read the novel several times and all my detailed analysis was related to examples from the novel's content.

I think Mia and Fukunaga (I loved Sin Nombre) completely misunderstood the character and served up a shallow and misguided version of the book which failed to deliver on all the book's major themes - the Brontean landscape (the meeting in Hay Lane is off by from here to Venus); the core principles of Jane's quest for independence and self reliance (Mia constantly wears a thwarted 'oh if only I could break my bonds look'); showed almost no understanding of the dynamic of her relationship with Rochester (their feelings for each other were clear from their first conversation); paid no attention to the book's dense symbolic content (and replaced it with a much weaker, irrelevant symbology of its own, pheasants and feathers, Yikes); completely failed to understand the purpose of the Rivers interlude and produced ridiculous travesties of the brothers and sisters and since it practically abandoned Grace and Bertha, made no sense whatever of the reunion and marriage.

Neither Fukunaga nor Mia were at all sensitive to Jane's personal moral philosophy or understood the core of her relationships with the Reed's, with the school, with St John and ultimately with Rochester.

Apart from that it was fine.

Ruth Wilson was a better Jane with her back to camera and no dialogue than Mia was at any point in her performance. At times she seemed like a better companion for Adele than for Fassbender's Rochester.

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[–] LifeVsArt 11 years ago

I certainly dont want to put a bee in the bonnet of any particular branch of JE loyalist, but that doesn't mean that I don't think you missed the essence of what was going on with Fuginaga's JE. Still, I prefer spending my time singing the praises of a film that I greatly admire and was moved by deeply. Now, because other versions were less inspiring to me it doesn't mean I want to waste my time trashing them - I don't think it should be a competition. If someone gets something from an earlier version, that it has extra meaning for them, well, thats the way art works, it's subjective. For myself, Mia Wasikowska is the Jane Eyre that inhabits my imagination and her film is the one I return to for repeated viewing. The 2011 Jane Eyre is an exquisite film, on every level. That doesn't mean its for everyone.

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[–] alfa-16 11 years ago

Well, you'll find a lot of the period fans on imdb don't respond all that well to the 'I've maybe seen things you haven't'' approach but there's no point in starting a debate about Jane Eyre in here. We may as well wait and see what she does with an equally demanding part.

My hopes won't be high so perhaps I'll be pleasantly surprised.

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[–] LifeVsArt 11 years ago

We'll I don't consider myself a "period fan" but I've read "Madame Bovary" three times, once quite recently, and I have very high hopes for Mia in that iconic part. Hopefully, we'll both be satisfied, maybe even inspired.

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[–] SwingBatta 11 years ago

Between this, "The Double" and now "The Price of Salt," I've suddenly got a whole lot of reading to do.

"And there sure as hell ain't no vista of no views."

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[–] toxina90 11 years ago

I agree with you completely. I found Wasikowska's Jane completely misguided and contrived too. I always read these "Wasikowska was the perfect Jane" posts but never find convincing evidence to back this claim up.

At least you go into detail proving how wrong she played the character, thank you.

Jelena Jankovic

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[–] Capitolina 11 years ago

By comprehensively failing to understand the central character and delivering something else entirely. JE11 is a grotesquely inferior product to the BBC's 2006 version with Ruth Wilson, a much better, much more emotionally agile actress who took the trouble to understand what Jane was about.

Did she? Or was the writer and director who made her play Jane "more emotionally agile" to capture TV viewers, particularly those who can not stand to read a book like Jane Eyre and understand the characters as they are presented and love them as they are?

Mia's Jane was timid, cowed, miserable, thwarted, unadventurous and clueless about how to chieve her independence. All completely wrong.

And Jane is a bit like that, except for cowed... Please read the book again. The BBC version fails when it presents "being a governess" is an act of rebellion against her position, when girls like Jane went to school to be either teachers or governesses. It was expected of Jane to become a teacher or a governess.

Let me also say that being a governess was a miserable life for a girl like Jane, but she was lucky enough to not have to deal with stern, cold and permissive parents/employers, and/or mean/spoiled kids - if you have not, please read Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë.

Mia is a perfect Jane. Maybe you did not like the script because the story is not told in a linear fashion and does not show so many moments of the romance and some aspects of the novel as some other versions had, but please do not blame the director or the actors. They were excellent in their jobs.

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨
Please, forgive my English mistakes!

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[–] LifeVsArt 11 years ago

I completely agree with you - Mia was a perfect Jane Eyre, by the standards of Bronte's book, not by the standards of a melodramatic tv mini series. There is a factionalism re the various J.E. versions - there's a group of devotees to the 2006 version that are very intolerant of praise of another version -the 2011 version they seem bent on trashing, they seem to see it as a treat. It's too bad, I think it's a much better use of energy to praise what you love rather than try to tear down what someone else loves.

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[–] alfa-16 11 years ago

Mia is a terrible Jane and stop telling me to reread the book. I've given you extensive reasons on the JE11 and JE06 boards, fully supported from the text, of the parts of Jane's character which Mia missed and Ruth supplied.

There is no group who are intolerant of other versions. There is a core of 06 fans but there's no agreement on other versions and no intolerance. There is a group of JE11 fans (and there used to be a group of JE83 fans) who would rather bicker than engage in discussion, both groups which try and categorise differences of opinion as something else but I, and every other JE06 fan I know, am willing to explain what it is I don't like about Mia's performance without animus.

This is the Madame Bovary board and isn't the place for an extended debate on Jane Eyre.

Personally, I think Mia is likely to be even less suited to Emma than she was to Jane but we'll have to see.

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[–] Capitolina 11 years ago

I completely agree with you - Mia was a perfect Jane Eyre, by the standards of Bronte's book, not by the standards of a melodramatic tv mini series. There is a factionalism re the various J.E. versions - there's a group of devotees to the 2006 version that are very intolerant of praise of another version -the 2011 version they seem bent on trashing, they seem to see it as a treat. It's too bad, I think it's a much better use of energy to praise what you love rather than try to tear down what someone else loves.

This is exactly how I think, and even before the movie was released they were already writing everywhere that the movie would never be better than the series. Things they praise about the 2006 has nothing to do with the actors, but with the direction or the script, same with their complains about the 2011. Well, I much prefer Mia as Jane, and I can not wait to see her as Bovary .

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨
Please, forgive my English mistakes!

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[–] LifeVsArt 11 years ago

Yeah, it's pretty obvious what's going on. You see this on the net a good amount - people want to get others to go on THEIR threads and they troll other threads related to it some how and trash what those threads are about and then tell everyone that the good stuff is really over on such and such a thread, which happens to be where they hang out (it's kind of like high school). I've seen this on music threads too, someone who's into a particular style of music or player will go on the perceived rivals thread and berate that artist or their approach, on a regular basis - I consider this pretty darn juvenile but in the case of someone older it seems pathetic. I'm sure that they wouldn't take to fondly to me going on the Jane Eyre 2006 thread (or where ever it is they gather) and begin trashing the thing they love - not just once but as a matter of routine, but, hopefully, I've got better things to do with my time. It's fine to have different opinions, it's inevitable, but this is not an impulse that's supportive of art or anything creative - it's basically destructive. I don't buy the "I'm the ultimate authority on this subject" argument. And, yes, I agree - I'm really looking forward to Mia taking on Madame Bovary . . . and, yes, folks, I've read the book - it's one of my favorites, along with Jane Eyre.

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[–] SwingBatta 11 years ago

I looked on the message boards of the other actors involved in this project and...nothing. There's virtually zero information out there save for one vague report of "it's shooting in the summer" from some fairly recent article about Miller.

"And there sure as hell ain't no vista of no views."

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[–] alfa-16 11 years ago

What you see a good amount of, on the net, is a lack of insight into how enthusiasms may be judged by those who don't share them.

This frequently results in the spectacle of posters simultaneously engaging in the behaviour they are condemning as you and Capitolina are doing here.

I'm off now till the film comes out. I merely attempted to answer the perfectly valid question asked by half a dozen posters who can't understand what anyone sees in Mia as a leading lady and why anyone would think that she would make a good Emma Bovary.

I'm prepared to be proved wrong but my feeling is that she will fall well short and it's based on a lot of argument on other boards, supported by reference. Furthermore, it's a view shared by other senior imdb posters.

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[–] supergran 11 years ago

Pardon my intervention here, which is not, as some may fear, conspiratorial - merely the result of idly perusing others' posting histories.

I know fools rush in, and all that, but I do have to put up some sort of defence as I am, no doubt, one of the "they" that people here are talking about.

To set history straight, I was a participator on the JE11 board as long ago as 2008/9 when Ellen Page was still being touted as Jane. As a lover of the book, I was enthusiastic about a new cinematic version. In those days, there was little activity on the board - this was long before Capitolina and SwingBatta joined in the discussions (SB, you were Glacier or something like that in those days).

If you remember, Focus Features drip-fed us with short clips some months prior to the film's release in the US. We were like bees round a honeypot disecting those clips, and I voiced misgivings over the way that the proposal scene was presented. Fair enough. But I was willing to wait to see that scene in context. I had to wait a long time because it wasn't released in Britain until September 2011. I saw it twice in the cinema, the second time on my own with a notebook! I also bought the DVD and have watched it a number of times.

I endeavour to be very fair in my appraisal of the film. I make a conscious effort not to make comparisons with other versions but to use the book as my point of reference. The only time I mention other adaptations is when someone else mentions them first! I may not have always done so from the beginning, but I soon learnt! The only exception is on the JE06 board itself, but that's to be expected.

For the record, I own at least half a dozen different screen versions of Jane Eyre. I find something of interest in all of them. I also post on a number of JE boards. If I post more frequently on JE11, it's because that's where the action is! But I don't go there with the express purpose to bash anyone or anything. I'm too old for that.

Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

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[–] LifeVsArt 11 years ago

That's good to hear - I respect where you're coming from. Often when one feels passion toward a person or subject there is a connection that is a form of love (one can love a work of art) the flip side of that passion is, of course, hate. If someone loves "Jane Eyre" and is attached to a particular version, a new and different version, which is not as much to ones liking, can then become the focus of hate. Personally, I think it's unfortunate that because a young actress (a young artist)is featured in the "disfavored" version it should then make her a target for posters to go on any project she's doing and trash her - to in effect, try to dirty her reputation. If I go on a thread on one of Mia W's numerous projects and share excitement with another poster over seeing her in one particular film or another (in this case Madame Bovary) it feels rather poisonous to then have someone immediately jump in, seemingly outraged that we have positive feelings for her, and proceed to insult her talent, her face and everything else about her (it seems her crime is being a Jane Eyre for the next generation). Now, obviously, someone has every right to do this and I don't say to them "Stop! Get off of here, you can't do this". I understand this is the net and every kind of venomous activity, from mindless trolls to lesser kinds of bullying go on - but what I can do is not back away, but instead, confront what's being said - I have no problem doing this, I'm from a family of boxers and argumentative s.o.bs.- still, I've come on here to express love and appreciation for an artist's hard work (Charlotte Bronte or the film makers involved). The fact is I feel very protective of Mia W.'s reputation because I so believe in her talent and I want to see it nurtured. If I have to do the equivalent of sprinkle a circle of salt around her, I will definitely do it - that's my right, too. So, go on, anyone, with what you must do, and I will follow suit - if you send out hate, or if you send out love what is returned will be a reflection of what's given. There are numerous films or actors that aren't to my taste, but I realize others gain some kind of entertainment or emotional sustenance from them - hopefully, I try to respect this. I also see a lot of young women, young actresses, becoming the negative focus of roving gangs of internet trolls and other frustrated types - they're fledgling demons in my book - they exist in the suburbs of hell, out on the edge, not downtown hell ... not yet. Of course, I'm speaking metaphorically. I understand those who I'm addressing here are not like that, I understand they are lovers not haters, that, like me, they love "Jane Eyre". As I said, though, it's the flip side of passion. I hold nothing personal against anyone here, I don't hold grudges (as I said, my family turned argument into an art, but we still loved and respected each other). In some respects the people who deeply love books like "Jane Eyre" or "Madame Bovary" are members of a family, so, though they share the same love there inevitably will be quarrels.

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[–] jenx42 9 years ago

Have you seen this film yet? I've never seen her version of JE, but in my oppionion she was not good in this role. This adaptation actually made me never want to read the book, which is the sign of a bad film, and probably ridiculous since it's basically like blaming the book for a bad movie. But yeah, she played this role in strikingly the same way you described her JE performance.

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[–] lulupalooza 9 years ago

I hear ya. After seeing this film, I won't touch the book now. I totally get the biting satirical point, but I have no interest in subjecting myself to further frustration and disgust in greater detail. Ugh.

My understanding is that Emma is even more upsetting and awful in the book! So much so, that she's considered one of the most unlikable protagonists in literature. She even leaves her child motherless (not in the film) with the melodramatic suicide. Her kind Dr. husband, that she financially ruined, becomes a broken man and dies shortly thereafter, which forces the child into a lifetime of poverty and service. Emma destroyed everything and everybody that she was fortunate to have.

I agree that Mia was miscast. She is too plain, more handsome than pretty (in a transgender kind of way) for the role of pretty, feminine Emma as described in the novel. I really had to suspend my disbelief that powerful and handsome men immediately took to her at introduction (first sight). My husband thought it was funny, "Yeah, right." I thought it was a miscast due to the lack of interest from more appropriate actresses, since the adaptation's script is so poorly written. The dialogue is cringeworthy in parts and the story is a snooze-fest in between Emma's most offensive moments. The lack of character development is disappointing, yet I cheered when Emma dropped dead. That's messed up.

I should have bailed after the first 1/2 hour, but I'm generally hopeful that a film will redeem itself in the third act and conclusion. But, it was not to be...c'est la vie.

"Don't get chumpatized!" - The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

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[–] ph75006 9 years ago

Ruth Wilson is just mesmerizing to watch. I first saw her in the UK detective drama Luther and immediately thought she was just so interesting; she was so captivating that I think there were even rumours of a possible spin-off for her character alone. It's weird b/c I don't think she's particularly pretty but there's just something else about her that just makes the hair on my the back of my neck stand up, ya know? I adored her in Jane Eyre and she's incredible in The Affair.

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[–] LifeVsArt 11 years ago

I recently went back and read "Madame Bovary" once again (I go back to it from time to time) and it definitely gave me an appetite to see another film version of it done with this cast and director. If Mia W. does anywhere as fine a job with Bovary as she did with "Jane Eyre" I'll be quite happy. If someone didn't like her Jane they probably won't want to bother with her Emma. But I don't expect this film will be made right away as the red light has been given to film "Carol" this fall (based on "The Price of Salt") with Cate Blanchett and Wasikowska - that's another fine literary work that will definitely get priority, since it's very high profile. I'm looking forward to both films but "Carol" has got me really fired up.

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[–] LifeVsArt 9 years ago

Mia as Emma Bovary, frames from trailer.

http://trailersandteasers.com/images/madame-bovary-starring-mia-wasiko wska-laura-carmichael-ezra-miller-rhys-ifans-paul-giamatti-logan-marsh all-green-and-henry-lloyd-hughes1.jpg

http://40.media.tumblr.com/6f64635f83e93bccdb25e5882e22e2fd/tumblr_niy 9w4lU6l1rq1sico2_1280.png

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/news/mia-wasikowska-cheats-on-her-hus band-in-madame-bovary.jpg

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/La-clCmfWGo/maxresdefault.jpg

http://www.filmdivider.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/mia-wasikowska-i s-madame-bovary-500x261.jpg

http://cellurizon.de/wp-content/image/MADAME-BOVARY-Trailer.jpg

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[–] LifeVsArt 9 years ago

This is a new, excellent interview with Mia from FilmComment Magazine that's soon going to be on the stands. FilmComment is one of the best and most serious of cinema mags, and they do a superb job of asking her some in-depth questions re "Madame Bovary" and her other work in films (avoiding fluff).

http://filmcomment.com/entry/interview-mia-wasikowska the Wasikowska Way

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[–] tdltd7557 9 years ago

Really, I had quite the opposite reaction to her. I thought M.Bovary was to be a great beauty. Mia is not.

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