Product Details

• Actors: Frances O'Connor (II), Hugh Bonneville, Eileen Atkins, Trevor Peacock, Stanley Lebor
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: April 18, 2000
• Run Time: 150 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305754535
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,017 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Swiftly following the BBC's saga of a country doctor's daughter, Wives and Daughters (1999), comes their tale of a country doctor's wife. Madame Bovary is adapted from the great French novel by Gustave Flaubert and recounts the story of a young woman who longs for a more passionate life than her provincial world can ever accommodate. Unwilling to accept the confines of her marriage to the steady and conventional Charles (Hugh Bonneville), Emma Bovary (Frances O'Connor) embarks on self-deluding affairs that lead to tragedy. As selfishly amoral as Emma Bovary is, and even though her motivation is sometimes unfathomable in this version, we do feel for her plight and the story develops with cumulative power--though a ridiculous sex scene against a tree doesn't help. This is at least the 10th screen adaptation, the 1949 Hollywood take and the 1991 French version by Claude Chabrol being the most notable. The story is a predecessor of Jules et Jim (1962) and Betty Blue (1986) and inspired David Lean's great film Ryan's Daughter (1970). This version has a dark visual beauty and a powerful central performance by Frances O'Connor, but a brisker pace and sharper psychological insight might have transformed a polished entertainment into a television classic. --Gary S. Dalkin, Amazon.co.uk

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bovary Revisited, February 16, 2001

By 

Randy Buck (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Madame Bovary [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The second BBC stab at Flaubert's novel in recent memory, successful primarily for the delicately shaded performance of Frances O'Connor (who did similarly elegant work in the recent feature of MANSFIELD PARK). Handsome enough physical production, good supporting cast, but many unnecessary additions in character and plot points from the screenwriter, and considerably more English than French in feel (the estimable Eileen Atkins, in particular, makes the elder Madame Bovary seem like a refugee from E.F. Benson). Closer in spirit to the novel than the Chabrol film, with a hopelessly pragmatic Emma in Isabelle Huppert; still eclipsed by the MGM version, where Jennifer Jones' neurotic beauty seems very close to the ideal realization of the book's elusive anti-heroine. Enjoyable enough, but not on a par with the BBC's finest adaptations.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BBC's Version of Madame Bovary..., December 18, 2004

By 

Charlotte Drobnicki "jolliedd" (NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Madame Bovary [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This controversial novel by Gustave Flaubert was beautifully portrayed in this authentic to the period film. All of the actors were riveting. Frances O'Connor was a perfect Emma, and Greg Wise shined as Rodolphe Boulanger. It is a shame though, when a French provincial woman suffers the consequences of debouchery and excess. Beware of the nudity.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Where's the US version DVD?, July 28, 2010

By 

Valorie O'Connell "Tudorphile" (Hobart, Indiana USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Madame Bovary [Region 2] (DVD)

I saw this mini-series on tv and LOVED it!!! Emma is just SOOOO flawed in that she's constantly looking for romantic fullfillment outside of her marriage since her husband, although well meaning, is clueless about his wife's desires and needs (not to mention her extra curricular activities!). I only give this review 3 starts instead of 5 because I am utterly dissappointed that there is no US version DVD! HELLO???? What about those of us on the other side of the pond? We're not all illiterate and some of us do actually read classics like this and would like to have it for our collections!!