One of the joys of my cinema-going life is the growing number of female directors (many of them actors, almost all writers) in French cinema. Whilst some - Marian Vernoux, Agnes Jaoui, Nicole Garcia, Danielle Thompson, Valerie Lemercier, etc, have yet to notch up a dozen titles, others such as Tonie Marshall and Anne Fontaine have long surpassed this and there is a temptation to say that Fontaine especially is perhaps a tad too prolific. This take on Flaubert is her fifteenth At Bat (a sixteenth is in Post Production even as we speak) and there are those who claim to detect signs of fatigue. With actors of the calibre of Isabelle Calendier on display merely in support I'm not prepared to write this one off. Like Louis Jouvet Fabrice Luchini is primarily a man of the theatre but like Jouvet he is such a consummate actor that he enhances any film he agrees to appear in merely by signing the contract and so it is here. More than worth a look.
Review of Gemma Bovery
