“Madame Bovary” is a simply gorgeous movie with a stunning supporting cast. It also boasts a painfully miscast lead actress, but we’ll ignore Alice. What I won’t ignore is how the film misses the point of the original text. There’s a reason why the original novel was considered high-class smut back in its day. It’s about a woman in the 19th century trying to bone her way into the sex life she wants to lead.
It was pretty progressive to show a woman take charge of her sexuality at the time. But, I don’t get any of that in this film. What this adaptation has done is just create a forbidden romance in elegant costumes. There’s nothing scandalous about what Bovary is doing and you never get the proper sense of risk. Back in my day, when you adapted erotic literature…it stayed erotic!
The Blu-Ray comes with no special features. However, the A/V Quality continues this recent streak of Alchemy just knocking it out of the park. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track is frighteningly expansive. The 1080p transfer stands among the best dramatic presentations I’ve seen this year. If you’re a period piece fan, this is well worth having.
Release Date: 8/4/15
