Madame Claude

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It's a mixed blessing, but Claude Chabrol's 1991 adaptation of Madame Bovary can at least claim a proper French pedigree in its fidelity to Flaubert's literary classic. It's certainly more faithful than Madame herself, played here with icy determination by Isabelle Huppert. Frustrated, repressed, and desperate for any opportunity to break free of her numbing marital bondage, the wife of Dr. Bovary finds her chance in the affections of Rodolphe Boulanger (Christophe Malavoy), but she is too shallow and too selfish to sense his lack of commitment. And as Flaubert's tale unfolds (along with Chabrol's dryly accurate interpretation), Emma Bovary finds herself caught in a snare of her own design. This tragedy of self-absorption--a universal study of indulgence, ignominy, and fatal discontent--should prove potent for anyone who feels the oppression of an unhappy marriage, but it's also a compelling study of boredom as an internal phenomenon. Huppert conveys exasperation, passion, and self-destruction in equal measure, yet she barely alters her passive, blank expression; her performance is too cold to ignite the resonant themes of Flaubert's novel. All in all, one wonders if Chabrol--seemingly uneasy with costume drama--is being too respectful of Flaubert at the cost of his own directorial mastery. This is a prestigious and worthwhile adaptation, but like one of Dr. Bovary's patients, it's been bled to the point of paleness and fainting. The result is a literate film that's "good for you," even though it may not be entirely good. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Every sin demands a prize!.......2007-06-30

Madame Bovary is one of the most priceless examples of the Romantic literature that stands out among a group of related works in other countries. As a matter of fact, you may include Anna Karenina in Russia, Effie Briest in Germany and Tess in England.

The common denominator has to do with the lack of satisfaction, the ceaseless search of new experiences, far beyond the hover of social conventionalisms, boredom and the febrile circumstance of breaking the chains of the tradition, it's far to be an apology to adultery, it's the final result of the Romantic view of the feminine universe, where the women just began to realize the importance of them as human being and not simply as an object for sexual enjoyment.

So, this adaptation made by Claude Chabrol, takes into account this scream of desperation, loneliness, boredom and hopeless about the dreams and unsatisfied desires of simple woman, curious but endowed of a strong character who realizes her vision of the world is beyond the approach of her weak husband.

She will decide - regardless the social conventionalisms - to follow her bliss and her pursuit for happiness, no matter the consequences she had to pay after the scandal is reveled. But that fatal decision has its prize, and soon the ambition, caprices will demand its counterpart, that slow but irreversibly will lead her to a tragic final.

But what I mostly enjoyed of the movie was the way Chabrol carved in relief these little sins of the social environment, whose moral corruption and ethic decay bright with nasty intensity.

Isabelle Huppert, shows us once more why she was the perfect actress to perform this role, the camerawork and the theatrical feature of the play may be appreciated in its horrid intensity and superb realism.

Don't miss this classic film, frequently included among the most representative ones any time. In fact, the prestigious "Facets" included this one among the best 600 foreign films ever made, and that means by itself a remarkable opinion.

Go for this one and enjoy it over and over. It's a masterpiece.

The Ice Princess ,the choppy script and the "loveless" lovers.......2007-01-17

Not knowing the original source material by Flaubert allowed me to view this 1991 adaptation for the presented movie itself.In a nutshell,the script was extremely choppy and clunky( like a figure skater who proceeds from jump to jump with no connecting movement),the "passion" of Bovary and her "lovers" was positively passionLESS(where did these people learn to kiss???),and Isabelle Huppert's interpretation of the title character made Scarlett O'Hara seem more like Mother Theresa of Calcutta!The only character that summoned any sympathy from me was Dr.Bovary who was hopelessly devoted to his icy,selfish,narcissistic wife.
I watched this film because the current Golden Globe nominated movie LITTLE CHILDREN starring Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson is based out of the novel MADAME BOVARY and is far more interesting with it's tight and seemless script,flawless acting and direction.Having seen LITTLE CHILDREN,MADAME BOVARY seemed simply dull,lifeless and especially lacking in passion.I have never seen such awful and ridiculous "love scenes" than the ones in this film.For a French film that was to be somewhat scandalous, there most certainly was no Ooo-La-La!
Pretty costumes were the only things that remotely made this period piece watchable.

Madame Bovary DVD.......2007-01-03

A must-see movie to learn the about perils of greed. Excellent protrayal by Isabelle Hupert. Best if you know French

One of the best.............2006-04-25

This is one of my top favourite adaptions of this life changing story.

They stuck well to the book and the "feel" of Emma, the locales and the motivations. It seems a lot of adapations don't do that.

Huppert I thought was perfect to play Emma. She had just the right self-centered, clueless passion.

Egad! - a French Merchant Ivory movie...only worse!.......2004-10-24

The French have made many magnificent historical films, for example Ridicule, Colonel Chabert & Queen Margot. But this one is really awful. The acting is stagy. The script is choppy. Huppert, although in her late 30s here, looks at least 50. She's supposed to be a naive young impulsive country doctor's wife. But Huppert is not young, she's not country & she is definitely not naive. She's just very boring.

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Madame Claude
Starring: Roland Bertin , Ed Bishop , Valérie Bonnier , Gerard Buhr , and Evelyne Dress
Director: Just Jaeckin
Manufacturer: Televista
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ASIN: B0007XFZTQ
Release Date: 2007-09-18

Description

An erotic masterpiece from JUST JAECKIN, the director of EMMANUELLE and THE STORY OF O. A daring film based on the stunning best-selling memoirs of the real Madame Claude. Starring Francoise Fabian and Klaus Kinski. By day they were the highest-paid models in Paris. At night they practiced the oldest profession in the world and they all worked for Madame Claude. These elegant, classy and beautiful women are culled from all walks of life and trained to satisfy the most influential political and financial leaders in the world...no matter how outrageous their desires.

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Freaks Lite
"There are two kinds of freaks, ladies and gentleman...those created by God and those created by man."
Tod Browning, Where Are You?
A "Freaks" remake without freaks?
Exploitation - Sideshow fans rejoice!

She Freak
Starring: William Bagdad , Irving Berlin (II) , David Boudrot , Claire Brennen , and Lynn Courtney
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ASIN: 6305836957
Release Date: 2000-05-09

Description

In this creepy carny-noir, horror lurks behind the cheerful facade of a traveling carnival. Fed up slinging hash at a roadside dinner, slinky Jade Cochran (Claire Brennen) takes a job with a passing show and soon sinks her ambitious hooks into Steven St. John, owner of the sideshow exhibit, and marries him. In the meantime, she has an affair with Blackie, the Ferris wheel stud, and makes life miserable for Shorty, the sideshow midget. But when Blackie kills her hubby and Jade inherits the sideshow, Shorty and his fellow "oddities" seek revenge...An affectionate reworking of the classic "Freaks" from producer David F. Friedman (who plays the sideshow barker), "She Freak" also features another bizarre makeup creation by Harry Thomas, who designed some of Hollywood's looniest monsters (Frankenstein's Daughter, House on Bare Mountain).

Customer Reviews:

Freaks Lite.......2007-06-21

This reinterpretation of Tod Browning's wonderfully transgressive "Freaks" is not one of David F. Friedman's better films, although it is his personal favorite for reasons obvious to anyone familiar with his career. Something Weird mutants expecting gore-n-gals are barking up the wrong tree here, as "She-Freak" is strictly a general release picture, and quite tame even by those standards (Dave explains why in his commentary). The closest thing to skin is a fully clothed striptease by Lynn Courtney, and the only gore is a screwdriver through the hand bit on the illustrious Bill Bagdhad (Astro-Zombies).

You've seen "Freaks", right? Then you know the story...just substitute a waitress for the acrobat and a sideshow owner for Hans. Unlike "Freaks", "She Freak" is vibrant and colorful, and the shots taken from the California State Fair are some of the most impressive carnival footage yours truly has ever seen. In fact, they've been sold as stock to many other producers over the years. With the exception of a lone midget, there are no real human oddities in the film. Friedman was constrained by a California state prohibition on the exhibition of 'freaks' for profit, so rather than pack up and film somewhere else, he decided to have Harry Thomas create some monsters for him. Even those faux deformities only appear at the very end.

As I said, not one of Dave's better films, and sadly, not one of his better commentaries either. Mister Friedman has set the standard for the audio commentary medium, always entertaining and full of stories, but here he seems less lucid, and makes a surprising number of factual errors. Even so, the history of the American carnival business and the primer on carney talk make this worth a listen, even if you've heard the same bits about Lee Raymond and Byron Mabe before.

SWV transfered "She Freak" from the original negative, and does it ever look amazing compared to the older VHS versions with faded colors and an improper aspect ratio. Proof positive of the wonders of DVD...long unavailable, word-of-mouth exploitation films are only a mouse click away, and presented in such amazing condition that those of us raised on murky looking video cassettes are just aghast. The only bonus features beside the commentary are a trailer and an eight minute reel of carnival footage from the 1930s with the Hilton sisters (Freaks, Chained for Life), pinheads, talkers, sword swallowers, the whole bit. Not a bad purchase, but not the first purchase if you haven't seen the original Freaks, or the Blood Trilogy, yet.

"There are two kinds of freaks, ladies and gentleman...those created by God and those created by man.".......2005-12-08

After watching Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks (1974) the night before, I actually enjoyed myself somewhat last night with this film, titled She Freak (1967)...I'm not saying She Freak was a great movie (it wasn't), but it was a short sight better than that other flick, which really wouldn't have been a difficult task to accomplish, so in essence, I'm really not saying a lot (what else is new?). Written and produced by David F. Friedman (The Defilers, The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill, The Acid Eaters), a name instantaneously familiar to fans of sleaze cinema, and directed by actor/director/producer Byron Mabe (A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine, The Head Lady, Space-Thing), the film features Claire Brennen (The Touchables, The Domino Principle) as Jade Cochran, a country girl of humble origin who, desperate to better her lot in life, flew too close to the sun on gossamer wings made of feathered dreams and wax ambitions...also appearing is Lee Raymond, who would later direct a couple of pictures for Friedman including Love Thy Neighbor and His Wife (1970) and The Adult Version of Jekyll & Hide (1972), Lynn Courtney, and Bill `Squeal like a pig for me' McKinney, making his silver screen debut here. Most probably remember Mr. McKinney as the wild eyed, funky toothed mountain man who loved Ned Beatty just a little too much in the film Deliverance (1972).

The film starts off with shots of a carnival, accompanied by some fairly groovy, non-descript instrumental music. Ahhhh, nothing like watching carny folk ply their respective trades, all of them seeming to involve the ripping off the rubes...this goes on for a good five and a half minutes before we cut to a rural, greasy spoon, i.e. a diner, and we meet Jade Cochran, who works as a waitress, and her slightly sleazy boss, who'd I swear is played by actor Claude Earl Jones, but he's not listed in the credits. Anyway, Jade's obviously displeased with her lot in life, believing anything would be better than `wasting time in a filth pit', including signing on in some fashion with the recently arrived traveling carnival. This decision elicits a story about a pig (I wasn't sure if he was talking about an ex-employee or a real life farm animal), along with the following temperamental tirade from her employer...

`You gonna run off and join that lousy carnival, hunh? Too good to work for me, hunh? What the hell you gonna do in the carnival, Jade? You gonna dance the hootchie cooch? Show the farm boys what you got? You know where your going girl? Your going down, all the way down!'

Jade splits and joins up with the carnival, as...a waitress, serving and cleaning up after the carnies (she even gets to wear the same uniform she did while working at the diner). She makes friends with a stripper named Pat `Moon' Mullins (Courtney), cozies up to Ferris wheel man Blackie Fleming (Raymond), eventually setting her gold digging sights on the well to do freak show operator Steve St, John (McKinney), despite her disdain for freaks in general. The two marry, while Jade maintains a relationship with Blackie which eventually spawns a violent confrontation that ends in Jade, who's turned into a real a-hole, inheriting the freak show. Jade's recent good fortune is short lived as the freaks seek gruesome justice for their former boss, benefactor, and friend.

I was somewhat disappointed in this film mainly because it featured so little sleaze (no nekkidness), something producer Friedman known for in his other films. There also seemed a real absence of actual freaks throughout the film...there was a sword swallower, a snake handler, and even a sneaky midget (or little person, if you prefer), but this hardly met my expectations given a good hunk of the film dealt with the freak show aspect. The advertising on the DVD case relates this was sort of a homage to Tod Browning's controversial 1932 film Freaks, but I'd hardly call this a homage...a more apt description would be rip off, as the plot structure is almost identical, lacking any of the worthwhile character structure, poignant touches, or memorable visual imagery featured in that earlier film. The story here is so minimal, bolstered up by endless filler sequences of carnival in operation, packing up to move, or setting up once it reached a new location. These were sometimes interesting to look at, but after a while they only served to illuminate how little actual story there was...at the very least, during these extended filler sequences, one can switch to Friedman's commentary track, which is fairly interesting and fun. The acting was so-so, the worst being, in my opinion, Claire Brennen with her phony, southern drawl. She was somewhat attractive (nice rack), but her face had a sort of mannish quality that made me wonder at times if she was a transvestite. Throughout the movie there were a number of characters that used the term `with it' in some context or other...apparently carnie folk are a lot more hip than I would have thought. I wasn't quite sure what they actually meant when they used this term, but it did remind me of a line from The Simpson's animated show where Grandpa Simpson describes to Homer how he lost his `hipness'... `I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary to me, and it'll happen to you, too.'

The picture quality, presented in fullscreen, on this Something Weird Video DVD looks very clean and sharp, and the Dolby Digital mono audio comes through very well. As far as extras go, there's a theatrical trailer, an entertaining commentary track featuring writer and producer David F. Friedman, a film short featuring some freaks (8:29), mainly a couple female Siamese twins, and a lengthy gallery of David F. Friedman exploitation art, materials used to promote his various cinematic ventures. All in all this is a great presentation of a flimsy exploitation film, with lots of excellent, colorful, kitschy shots of a carnival circa the late 1960s, if that sort of thing interests you. There are a few different DVD releases of this film floating around, so if your interested in purchasing this film, it would be wise to make sure you're getting the version you want.

Cookieman108

By the way, I saw Friedman is currently producing a remake of this film, one supposedly slated for a 2005 release, but the production appears to have stalled...

Tod Browning, Where Are You?.......2005-01-19

Exploitation meister David Friedman was an expert at churning out low-budget skin-flicks and drive-in masterpieces. "She Freak" has been restored in clear detail and colors and you can see for yourself that Friedman blatantly ripped off Tod Browning's 1931 masterpiece, "Freaks." The movie starts out with promise, giving us glimpses of a real-life carnival, circa l967. But after awhile, it becomes boring. There's no skin shown, no soft-core sex, no violence and no suspense. There's even a scene taken literally from the ending of "Freaks" in which the devious heroine is transformed into a monster--bad make-up and all.

A "Freaks" remake without freaks?.......2000-08-10

David F. Friedman, former collaborateur of H.G. Lewis, produced this low budget horror film as an hommage to the travelling carnivals of the US. He took the storyline of "Freaks", the Tod Browning classic, and transformed it into a rather tame film with lots of carnival atmosphere, a little bit of horror and a little bit of skin. So don't expect too much. At that time (1966) real freaks were not available so Friedman used actors in makeup - a major disappointment! This film is a nice little oddity. But definitly not for the gore-hounds...

Exploitation - Sideshow fans rejoice!.......2000-06-20

"She-Freak" is an ultra-low budget remake of Tod Brownings classic "Freaks," only contemporized and in color. This is truly a bad film, and fans of bad b-movies will get a kick out of it. The transfer of the DVD looks great, and the newsreel footage of real freaks is an added bonus. There's also commentary by Exploitation King David Friedman. Would have earned 5 stars if they had included a few trailers to some other films in the "Something Weird" catalog.

Madame Claude 2 (Uncut European Edition) FRENCH ONLY [Import, All-region] (Dvd)

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Madame Claude 2 (Uncut European Edition) FRENCH ONLY [Import, All-region] (Dvd)

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Madame Claude

ASIN: B000N49QUS

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Every sin demands a prize!
The Ice Princess ,the choppy script and the "loveless" lovers
Madame Bovary DVD
One of the best......
Egad! - a French Merchant Ivory movie...only worse!

Madame Bovary [Region 2]
Starring: Isabelle Huppert , Jean-François Balmer , Christophe Malavoy , Jean Yanne , and Lucas Belvaux
Director: Claude Chabrol
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000056PL6

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Customer Reviews:

Every sin demands a prize!.......2007-06-30

The Ice Princess ,the choppy script and the "loveless" lovers.......2007-01-17

Madame Bovary DVD.......2007-01-03

A must-see movie to learn the about perils of greed. Excellent protrayal by Isabelle Hupert. Best if you know French

One of the best.............2006-04-25

Egad! - a French Merchant Ivory movie...only worse!.......2004-10-24

Average customer rating:

Every sin demands a prize!
The Ice Princess ,the choppy script and the "loveless" lovers
Madame Bovary DVD
One of the best......
Egad! - a French Merchant Ivory movie...only worse!

Madame Bovary [Region 2]
Starring: Isabelle Huppert , Jean-François Balmer , Christophe Malavoy , Jean Yanne , and Lucas Belvaux
Director: Claude Chabrol
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000063BLT

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Every sin demands a prize!.......2007-06-30

The Ice Princess ,the choppy script and the "loveless" lovers.......2007-01-17

Madame Bovary DVD.......2007-01-03

A must-see movie to learn the about perils of greed. Excellent protrayal by Isabelle Hupert. Best if you know French

One of the best.............2006-04-25

Egad! - a French Merchant Ivory movie...only worse!.......2004-10-24

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She Freak
Starring: William Bagdad , Claire Brennan , Lynn Courtney , Madame Lee , and Bill McKinney
Director: B. Ron Elliott
Manufacturer: Cheezy Flicks Ent
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000AYELMY
Release Date: 2005-10-25

Description

Claire Brennen stars as a discontent waitress working in a small-town greasy diner, and looking for something more. When the circus comes to town, she finds herself attracted to it's excitement - and secures a job with the traveling show as a food service worker. As the circus moves on, and she with it, life seems to be going well - new friends, steady work, a romance or two, and eventually a new husband - but she discovers that she despises the freaks and human oddities of the side shows, and uses her marriage to the Circus' owner to take control of the carnival. Now she must strike a balance between profit and patience, as the carnies and side show freaks set out to exact revenge.

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