Gemma Arterton and Fabrice Luchini in “Gemma Bovery”
Out in the rural French countryside, everything is meant to move in slow rhythms. Passive and erudite Martin Joubert (played by Fabrice Luchini) has abided by that bargain. And then this ravishing young beauty, Gemma Bovery (played by Gemma Arterton) steps into his world. Gemma and her husband, Charlie (played by Jason Flemyng) have moved into the little modest house just across the street. Martin can quietly observe all he wants. But he wants much more and, in the spirit of a good Alfred Hitchcock film, he will insinuate himself into the most intimate details of Gemma’s life.
The world of Martin Joubert is fairly pleasant. He has all the books he can read. He runs a successful bakery in town with his wife, Valérie (played by Isabelle Candelier). The dynamic between the middle-aged couple is fun to watch. Clearly, Valérie must keep an eye on her daydreaming husband. But Martin is unusually determined this time around. With each new encounter with Gemma, he becomes that much more attached to her. The opportunities to see her when she visits the bakery alone are priceless for Martin. We see in Gemma a delightful young woman but we also accept her as very private. For Martin, he can’t help but see endless comparisons between Gemma Bovery and Emma Bovary, the Madame Bovary, one of the most tragic characters in literature.
Thanks to director Anne Fontaine, this film does well with balancing dramatic tension and touches of humor. The screenplay, written by Pascal Bonitzer and Fontaine, is adapted from the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds. It remains faithful to the Simmonds work and adds another layer of menace to the bumbling obsessive Martin. And that is also certainly thanks to the caliber of acting from Fabrice Luchini. His performance makes me want to seek out more of his work. Poor Gemma is something of a goner under Martin’s scrutiny as he reveals to us a less than innocent and quiet young woman.
“Gemma Bovery” proves to be a wonderful slow-boil thriller. I couldn’t help but already know about the “Gemma Bovery,” by Posy Simmonds, originally published as a serial in The Guardian in 2000, when I viewed this 2014 film. But there is no reference made to comics here aside from the fact that the story, with all its nuances, provides the backbone for an intriguing tale on screen. This is a great example of how graphic novels are simply another great way to tell a story and you may find the next film you love to have originated from the comics medium.
Be sure to check out the work of Posy Simmonds right here. You can find the Gemma Bovery graphic novel here.
Review: ‘Invisible Ink: My Mother’s Love Affair With A Famous Cartoonist’ by Bill Griffith
Searching through the past: the true story of Barbara Griffith emerges
As if drawn with invisible ink, there are mountains of comics from yesteryear that, even if popular in their day, will never be read again. But once upon a time, cartoonists were bona fide celebrities. Today, of course, everything has splintered off. But we still have some of the good stuff that harkens back to a golden age. We have Bill Griffith’s legendary comic strip, Zippy the Pinhead. Mr. Griffith is an expert on comics many times over and a masterful storyteller. He takes all that and gives us his first long-form graphic story, “Invisible Ink: My Mother’s Love Affair With A Famous Cartoonist.”
Cartoonist Bill Griffith channels Cartoonist Lawrence Lariar
Griffith navigates us through the often murky world of pop culture’s past and puts it into unique context. The past easily holds onto its secrets all too often because no one bothers to ever try to pry them open. This is a book about prying open the past and revealing the most intriguing secrets, family secrets. Much in the spirit of Griffith’s surreal Zippy the Pinhead, the mundane here collides with the supposedly more colorful world of mass media. Add to that, a decidedly offbeat look at the world. I swear, I found Zippy creeping up when you least expected it. For instance, there’s a scene in a diner between Bill and his uncle, Al, and Al says, “You know what’s coming back?” Bill asks, “Salisbury steak?” “No,” Al says, “morse code!”
The K & W Cafeteria in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Check out the page above that I just made reference to with the morse code comment. Ah, such a thing of beauty! A perfect example of the Bill Griffith sensibility and I’m sort of just picking a page at random. It speaks to the very best spirit of underground comix which Bill Griffith came from. It articulates a worldview of someone finely tuned in to his feelings and observations. It is a very relatable view since we all feel we’re tuned in to the world around us. The idea is to create an expression of what one sees that touches on all the details of the moment and evokes a stream-of-consciousness. We see Griffith reacting to a quaint world of yesteryear still alive in the here and now. It’s a world where you can expect to order three different kinds of macaroni & cheese. Of course, the actual K&W Cafeteria doesn’t think of itself as out-of-date. It offers free Wi-Fi, after all. But, from Griffith’s perspective, it is a strange world to marvel over and that’s what we’re looking for!
You can imagine that Bill Griffith’s mother might have pretended she was writing with invisible ink in order to be as revealing as she was in her journals and related work. Whatever the case, we hear her loud in clear in this exploration of her inner life. Griffith synthesizes various artifacts to find a greater truth. When you go hunting for answers like this, you’re liable to get lost in your own issues with your parents. Griffith is no different in this regard. He is just like any of us trying to deal with the past and that is an excellent hook for readers. What makes this story extraordinary is that Bill Griffith has definitely met his match with his mother who gives his storytelling skills a run for their money. If truth is stranger than fiction, then this must be one hell of an example of that. It boggled the mind of Bill Griffith, one of the great mind-bogglers in comics.
“Invisible Ink: My Mother’s Love Affair With A Famous Cartoonist” is a 208-page black & white hardcover published by Fantagraphics Books. For more details, and to order, visit our friends at Fantagraphics Books right here.
Share this:
Like this:
2 Comments
Filed under Bill Griffith, Comics, Comix, Fantagraphics Books, Graphic Novel Reviews, graphic novels, Underground Comics, Zippy the Pinhead
Tagged as Bill Griffith, Books, comic books, Comic Strips, comics, Comix, Entertainment, Fantagraphics, graphic novels, Media, Newspapers, Pop Culture, Publishing, Social Commentary, Underground Comics, Zippy the Pinhead