Da Ba Dee Da Ba Di
Madame Bovary. If you’re tangentially aware of pop culture, you’ve heard of it. It’s entirely possible, and understandable, that you’ve never engaged with it in any way. If you’re like me, you probably don’t know whether it’s a book, a play, a movie, an opera, possibly? Well, it was originally a book, something I’ve learned recently. Extremely recently. Three days before this paragraph was written, in fact. I recently brought it up in conversation with a friend - and English major - and she said, “I don’t know what that is.” As influential as it was in the early 20th century, it’s impact did not last into the modern day.
But what’s it about? Great question.
If VeggieTales is to be believed, it’s about the emptiness of capitalism.
Their version, “Madame Blueberry,” is the story of the titular Madame Blueberry, a very rich, very sad woman who lives in a tree. She’s sad because her neighbors have things that she doesn’t have. It’s unclear why she doesn’t have these things if she wants them, because she’s clearly very wealthy.
Or is she? Because, you see, from the outside her house looks very nice. Mansion-esque. But on the inside it looks like your typical suburban two-bedroom house.
It just dawned on me that that might be a metaphor.
Also, why is her house in a tree? They make a very big deal about that. I’ve never been to France, is that how rich people in France are?
Anyway, one day a Wal-Mart-esque superstore called Stuff Mart opens across the street from her. She is visited by our old friends the Scallions, the owners of the store, who sing a song telling her about all the stuff she can buy from their store. The best part is that this song contains a rap breakdown. The kind that appeared in every children’s movie from 1996 to 2004.
Following an extended shopping spree at Stuff Mart, Madame Blueberry realizes she still isn’t happy. After witnessing a heartwarming conversation between Junior Asparagus and his dad (Mike), she realizes that material possessions aren’t the key to happiness. She and her butlers (Bob and Larry) decided to return home, and see that her tree home is tipping over from the amount of Stuff in it. There’s a mad rush back to her house (This show really loves ending in a chase scene) but they are ultimately unsuccessful.
Madame Blueberry, Bob, and Larry end their day eating pie with the Onion family, celebrating Annie Onion’s birthday, happy despite their lack of Stuff.
It’s a great story, but I have the strangest feeling it’s not entirely faithful to the source material. I didn’t have time to read the book, but luckily there are no less than ten film adaptations, so I decided to watch All of them.
I wanted to, at least. Unfortunately several of them are unavailable anywhere online. Oh well. I guess I’ll only watch six movies.
Unholy Love (1932, dir. Albert Ray)
The first movie based on Madame Bovary was, in fact, not based on Madame Bovary. It takes place in New York in the 1930’s and all the character names have been changed. The title card itself says “Suggested by Gustave Flaubert’s famous novel Madame Bovary.” They were right up front with it.
The film begins with Dan, a doctor, visiting the house of a woman named Sheila, whose father is dying. He has been called by his son, Jerry, who is also present. Dan quickly determines there’s nothing he can do to help, and he keeps Sheila’s father company as he dies. Jerry then tells Dan that he and Sheila are married, and Dan is, rightfully, surprised by this.
Dan visits his friend, Mrs. Bradford (no first name is ever given), whose daughter, Jane, had been dating Jerry, and tells her that Jerry has married someone else. Jane’s mother is upset by this, but Jane takes it surprisingly well, albeit very disappointed.
After moving in, Sheila feels neglected by Jerry’s family and her neighbors, but catches the eye of a novelist named Alex Stockmar, who makes a bet with his friend that he can get Sheila to fall in love with him.
In an effort to show her around town and introduce her to the community, Dan takes Sheila to a local nightclub, where they find Jane and Stockmar and join their table. At the end of the evening, Dan, Sheila, and Jane visit Stockmar’s home, where Stockmar begins to seduce Sheila.
Eventually, Dan learns about Sheila’s affair and confronts her about it. He tells her that he has ordered Stockmar to leave town, and Sheila runs to his house to stop him.
While Sheila is having a full-on mental breakdown at Stockmar’s house, Jane arrives and eavesdrops on the conversation, hearing Sheila tell Stockmar she is going to kill herself. Sheila runs out to her car and drives away, and Jane chases after. VeggieTales got that part right.
Sheila drives her car off a cliff and the police rule it as an accident. Jane and Dan both know it was a suicide, and they vow to never tell Jerry.
Not a great movie, but I have no frame of reference. Definitely very different from what “Madame Blueberry” gave us. Hoping the next one at least involves a superstore.
Madame Bovary (1949, dir. Vincente Minnelli)
So this one starts out with the wildest framing device I’ve ever seen in a book adaptation. It opens with novelist Gustave Flaubert on trial, being sued by the Country of France for creating such a controversial character in Emma Bovary. The rest of the movie plays out, intercut with Flaubert explaining to the court why Madame Bovary is actually a morally right character. Perhaps this was an actual trial that happened. I patently refuse to look it up.
The story - the actual story - begins with self-proclaimed mediocre doctor Charles Bovary making a housecall to an elderly man with a broken leg and meeting and immediately falling in love with his daughter, Emma. The two marry and have a daughter, and two years in Emma (Madame Bovary) has become bored with her mundane life.
Emma proceeds to begin affairs with two infinitely more interesting men. Events proceed to occur and both of these relationships end poorly, and life in the Bovary household begins to fall apart. Emma commits suicide by arsenic, and Gustave Flaubert is acquitted and his book is not banned.
I think my biggest gripe here is that the story takes place in France, yet everyone’s accent is either British, Standard American, or Transatlantic. I get that that’s just how it is, but come on.
Ryan’s Daughter (1970, dir. David Lean)
So this is another one of those “loose” adaptations. This one takes place during Ireland’s Easter Rebellion, another historical event I know nothing about.
It’s also three hours and fifteen minutes long. I’m gonna be honest with you, I didn’t bother watching it. I had too many other things going on this week.
Madame Bovary (1991, dir. Claude Chabrol)
Maybe my favorite one so far. This is a French film, so everyone is speaking French, and it actually looks like the French countryside, not just Generic Uptown City.
It hits pretty much all the same story beats as the ‘49 version, but I, personally, think it’s done a whole lot better. Also, Isabelle Huppert is in it, and she’s pretty great. That’s no big secret, I’m not the first one to think this.
However, there was one antisemitic reference and one use of the N-word, so… I don’t love that!
Maya Memsaab (1993, dir. Ketan Mehta)
That’s right, there’s a Bollywood version, and it rules.
But wait, there’s a wrinkle: This one is framed as a mystery. It’s a wild swing, and I love it. The movie opens with two detectives investigating the disappearance of Maya (Our Emma Bovary analogue in this iteration) and is told through flashback.
One thing I appreciated in this one is that more time is spent on the initial courtship between Maya and Chara (Charles), which gives everything that comes after more weight.
Another strange addition: At one point Emma fakes her own murder to test whether or not Chara truly loves her. Wild.
Also, in one scene it’s mentioned that Maya is reading the novel Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert? Ever heard of it? This is an offhand reference and is never brought up again, but it begs the question: Was Maya intentionally mirroring the plot of this book she was reading?
ALSO - and I promise this is the last one - ALSO, at the end, when Maya drinks the poison, she doesn’t die, but instead, gets raptured? It’s never fully explained what happened there. Really great though.
Watching this really made me wonder why I haven’t watched more Bollywood movies. If anyone has any good Bollywood recommendations, please send them to me.
And yes, I’ve seen RRR. Of course I’ve seen RRR. If you haven’t seen RRR, stop what you’re doing and go watch it right now.
Madame Bovary (2014, dir. Sophie Barthes)
Ezra Miller’s in this one. Uh oh!
Ignoring that, this version starts in a very interesting way: It begins with Emma’s death. A wild swing, to be sure, but when the book is 150 years old I think you’re allowed to do that.
It then goes into the past, and it doesn’t start with Charles showing up at the Rouault household to set Emma’s father’s broken leg - a staple of what I’ve come to think of as the “Bovary Monomyth” - but instead it begins with her at a convent. And then, after a short montage, it cuts to their wedding. We don’t see any of their initial relationship, and it’s made very clear that, in this telling, their was never any love between them at the beginning.
Everything after that is pretty much the same, the main difference is that this very much looks like a 2010’s period drama (dark lighting, very little emotion, everyone is always whispering, etc.)
My main gripe is, once again, the accents. We’re back in France - and it looks like France - but nobody is even bothering to sound French. The American actors aren’t even doing a Vaguely British (tm) accent.
But Paul Giamatti is pretty great in it, I’ll give it that.
But the one thing I’ve noticed, in all of these, is that there’s never a scene where Madame Bovary goes on a wild shopping spree, and none of the houses are in trees. They are all planted firmly on the ground. It’s safe to say that VeggieTales was way off on this one.
Overall, I’m happy to not have to engage with this story ever again.
I’m probably going to read the book at some point.
All of this has been lead-up to me making a blueberry cheesecake (this recipe), and I gotta say, I nailed it.
I’m still struggling with graham cracker crusts. I can’t get it ground down fine enough and it doesn’t form to the sides of the pan properly. I didn’t even bother trying it this time and just had the crust be a bottom layer. That worked pretty well. One of these days I’ll get a food processor and I won’t have this issue anymore, probably.
The filling kinda cracked in the middle, but I don’t care too much about that, I have bigger problems. The recipe I used also included a topping that I didn’t make, but if I had then the crack would have been filled and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
Six hours of cooling later, I cracked open the springform pan and was met with… a perfectly formed cheesecake.
It tasted pretty great. The crust was a little dry, but it’s entirely possible that’s because it was too thick because the amount of crumbs I used was meant to cover the sides as well. Who knows? Maybe it’ll soften up after being refrigerated overnight, I’m writing this mere minutes after tasting it. (Note: It did, in fact, soften up a bit the next day. Still a little hard around the edges, though.)
Room for improvement, but not bad for a first attempt. I say it a lot here, but it always seems to be true. I’m sure another opportunity will present itself at some point.
And if it doesn’t, I’ll make one.