Apart from a few concessions to the conventional mores of our times, as noted by another reviewer, this movie is astonishingly faithful to Balzac's austere and moving book: the story, the actors, the atmosphere are those I had in my imagination while reading the book.
Some reviewers have focused on the avarice of Félix Grandet; in the book, Félix is definitely a miser, but first of all a ruthless business operator who, inter alia, manages to squeeze the Parisian creditors of his late brother in a masterly manner.
My interest focuses on Eugenie. She is a strong character; not being rebellious she is unbending to the will of her father. She has been born and raised in the austerity of Provincial life, and her cousin Charles has been the only ray of sunlight in her trite existence. And there is a special complicity between the three women, Eugénie, her mother and the servant, in the face of the tyrannical master of the house, a complicity which makes life bearable.
When Charles is unmasked as an egregious liar about the promises he had made to Eugenie, her dream is shattered and she knows this is irredeemable ; she then has a gesture of true grandeur!
One can interpret this movie - and the book - as a faithful rendition of the condition of women in the early XIXth century, subservient in body and possessions but independent in their soul. Many of Balzac's writings in "La Comédie humaine" are an exploration of the feminine mind, and in this Balzac is a very modern writer.
Some reviewers have focused on the avarice of Félix Grandet; in the book, Félix is definitely a miser, but first of all a ruthless business operator who, inter alia, manages to squeeze the Parisian creditors of his late brother in a masterly manner.
My interest focuses on Eugenie. She is a strong character; not being rebellious she is unbending to the will of her father. She has been born and raised in the austerity of Provincial life, and her cousin Charles has been the only ray of sunlight in her trite existence. And there is a special complicity between the three women, Eugénie, her mother and the servant, in the face of the tyrannical master of the house, a complicity which makes life bearable.
When Charles is unmasked as an egregious liar about the promises he had made to Eugenie, her dream is shattered and she knows this is irredeemable ; she then has a gesture of true grandeur!
One can interpret this movie - and the book - as a faithful rendition of the condition of women in the early XIXth century, subservient in body and possessions but independent in their soul. Many of Balzac's writings in "La Comédie humaine" are an exploration of the feminine mind, and in this Balzac is a very modern writer.