Martin, an ex-Parisian well-heeled hipster passionate about Gustave Flaubert who settled into a Norman village as a baker, sees an English couple moving into a small farm nearby. Not only ...
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Director:
Dominic Dromgoole
Stars:
Gemma Arterton,
Archie Bradfield,
Giles Cooper
A rich man's daughter is held captive in an abandoned apartment by two former convicts who abducted her and hold her ransom in exchange for her father's money.
Director:
J Blakeson
Stars:
Gemma Arterton,
Eddie Marsan,
Martin Compston
Grumpy pensioner Arthur honors his recently deceased wife's passion for performing by joining the unconventional local choir to which she used to belong, a process that helps him build bridges with his estranged son, James.
Director:
Paul Andrew Williams
Stars:
Terence Stamp,
Gemma Arterton,
Christopher Eccleston
Martin, an ex-Parisian well-heeled hipster passionate about Gustave Flaubert who settled into a Norman village as a baker, sees an English couple moving into a small farm nearby. Not only are the names of the new arrivals Gemma and Charles Bovery, but their behavior also seems to be inspired by Flaubert's heroes.Written by
Toronto International Film Festival
According to director Anne Fontaine, Isabelle Huppert' convinced her to consider Gemma Arterton for the lead role. Fontaine previously rejected Arterton because she had starred in another film adaptation of a Posy Simmonds graphic novel, Tamara Drewe (2010). See more »
Goofs
Martin believes that his next neighbor is Russian, but she's really from Rouen. When he meets Madame Mercier he's so surprised by her fluent French that he asks where she learned it. "At school like everyone else" she misleadingly replies, when in fact she would've learned her native tongue as a small child from her parents. See more »
Quotes
Martin Joubert:
[on secretly observing Gemma seeing a local]
This will only end badly
Martin Joubert:
There is a moment when life imitates art
See more »
REVIEW OF "GEMMA BOVERY" By Alex Deleon: Viewed at Hollywood Press screening, May 21, 2015.
Martin Joubert, a semi-retired ex-Parisian literary Intellectual with a tremendous passion for the works of famous French novelist Gustave Flaubert, now runs a gourmet bakery in Normandy in the very village where Flaubert wrote his masterpiece Madame Bovary. During the summer an English couple takes up residence in a small farm nearby. Not only are the names of the new arrivals --Gemma and Charles Bovery -- almost identical to the characters in the book, but their everyday life seems to be following Flaubert's story uncannily, step by step, as Martin stalks Gemma's amorous trail about town more or less discretely, hoping to maybe have a little fling with her himself -- His wife, of course, taking a dim view of his excessive interest in this young beautiful bouncy English broad. Life in a spooky imitation of art? --or what! ~ In the novel the heroine ends up poisoned and dies an excruciating death, so where can all this lead...? -- Director Anne Fontaine, (born 1959 in Luxemburg) is an actress and writer who typically works on female centric pictures such as Audry Tautou starrer "Coco Before Chanel", 2009, but here she really hits her stride.
Gemma Arterton (as the tantalizing reincarnation of Emma Bovary) is built along the lines of fellow English lady Jacqueline Bissett at her most buxom (The Deep, 1977), has much of the same charm, and was a real discovery. Fabrice Luchini, one of France's best alĺ around actors, was a taunting pleasure to watch every step of the way as Joubert, the local master baker and Bovary expert, who is enthralled by the very sexy much younger new neighbor from England. He is actually as much the leering center of the picture as sexpot Gemma, but familiarity with the original novel by Flaubert is more or less assumed. Without a fairly good knowledge of French much of the humor contained in the witty dialogue will be lost on American auds. I found myself to be the only member of the full house evening audience chuckling at many points in the picture.
Nevertheless, the story itself is gripping, the cinematography gorgeous, and the erotic scenes strapping enough to make this work for higher I.Q. American audiences. I thought the ending was a little forced -- like the tacked on resolution at the end of a whodunnit murder mystery --but who cares when the rest of the picture was so delectable. The fragrance of the breads in the frequent boulangerie scenes were so appetising as to make anyone who has ever been to Paris (or Rouen!) want to get back there ASAP. Overall, a delightful way to spend an evening away from France. Alex, The morning after, still somewhat in cinematic thrall ...
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REVIEW OF "GEMMA BOVERY" By Alex Deleon: Viewed at Hollywood Press screening, May 21, 2015.
Martin Joubert, a semi-retired ex-Parisian literary Intellectual with a tremendous passion for the works of famous French novelist Gustave Flaubert, now runs a gourmet bakery in Normandy in the very village where Flaubert wrote his masterpiece Madame Bovary. During the summer an English couple takes up residence in a small farm nearby. Not only are the names of the new arrivals --Gemma and Charles Bovery -- almost identical to the characters in the book, but their everyday life seems to be following Flaubert's story uncannily, step by step, as Martin stalks Gemma's amorous trail about town more or less discretely, hoping to maybe have a little fling with her himself -- His wife, of course, taking a dim view of his excessive interest in this young beautiful bouncy English broad. Life in a spooky imitation of art? --or what! ~ In the novel the heroine ends up poisoned and dies an excruciating death, so where can all this lead...? -- Director Anne Fontaine, (born 1959 in Luxemburg) is an actress and writer who typically works on female centric pictures such as Audry Tautou starrer "Coco Before Chanel", 2009, but here she really hits her stride.
Gemma Arterton (as the tantalizing reincarnation of Emma Bovary) is built along the lines of fellow English lady Jacqueline Bissett at her most buxom (The Deep, 1977), has much of the same charm, and was a real discovery. Fabrice Luchini, one of France's best alĺ around actors, was a taunting pleasure to watch every step of the way as Joubert, the local master baker and Bovary expert, who is enthralled by the very sexy much younger new neighbor from England. He is actually as much the leering center of the picture as sexpot Gemma, but familiarity with the original novel by Flaubert is more or less assumed. Without a fairly good knowledge of French much of the humor contained in the witty dialogue will be lost on American auds. I found myself to be the only member of the full house evening audience chuckling at many points in the picture.
Nevertheless, the story itself is gripping, the cinematography gorgeous, and the erotic scenes strapping enough to make this work for higher I.Q. American audiences. I thought the ending was a little forced -- like the tacked on resolution at the end of a whodunnit murder mystery --but who cares when the rest of the picture was so delectable. The fragrance of the breads in the frequent boulangerie scenes were so appetising as to make anyone who has ever been to Paris (or Rouen!) want to get back there ASAP. Overall, a delightful way to spend an evening away from France. Alex, The morning after, still somewhat in cinematic thrall ...