# Cousin Bette (1998)

### reviewed by
Seth Bookey

    Cousin Bette
    (UK / USA 1998)
    Seen on 20 June 1998 for $8.75 by myself at Village East Cinemas

*Cousin Bette*, to date, has been reviewed by only two other rec.arts.movies.reviews critics. One, a Marxist, loved it, and the other, a Balzac purist, hated it. Both are right. *Cousin Bette* is the cinematization of one of Balzac's last novels. The Marxist notes the evils portrayed by Balzac are accurate--the haute bourgeoisie elevated to nobility by Napoleon want to live well no matter who gets hurt, no matter how much they have to borrow from others to attain the rich lifestyles they think are necessary to pass into high society. The purist duly notes the gutting of the novel for the sake of the film. I will comment on this later.

I am somewhere in the middle. As a film, *Cousin Bette* is quite entertaining, in darkly humorous way. In the film, Bette, the "plain" cousin, promises her dying cousin Adeline (Geraldine Chaplin) that she will "take care of" Adeline's family. In the short deathbed conversation, it all becomes clear--Bette was the slighted, plain cousin. Bette notes she was sacrificed at Adeline's alter, leaving her a bitter spinster who lives in a shoddy part of Paris, working as a seamstress backstage at a musical burlesque theatre.

Adeline's family--the Hulots--comprise her philandering husband Hector (Hugh Laurie), her ingenue daughter Hortense (Kelly MacDonald), sensible, level-headed son Victorin (Toby Stevens), his wife and baby, and a lot of superfluous servants.

Bette Fischer is played by Jessica Lange--a lovely woman made plain here with dark makeup and drab olive and black clothing and dark braided hair. Bette has been excluded from the life she wants--a home, a family, love. She is 40, but in Paris 1846, she might as well be 80, considering her bitterness. Bette's rage for the time is understandable--today she'd be considered a stalker or a borderline schizophrenic. When Bette cannot have what she considers rightfully hers, her rage is volcanic, as it is in the novel.

Bette forms a friendship with actress/singer Jenny Cadine (Elisabeth Shue); they are both originally peasant women from Lorraine-about as far from Paris you can get, in some ways. Bette also befriends and saves the life of her upstairs neighbor--Count Wenceslas Steinbach (Aden Young)--a Polish noblemen and sculptor. She provides funding and scheduling for his work, hoping gratitude will turn into love. It doesn't. In fact, her young cousin Adeline deliberately "steals" the count from Bette, causing Bette to manipulate situations that bring about the emotional, financial, and physical downfall of her "beloved family."

For all the dark revenge-minded plotting, there is a lot of humor here. Bob Hoskins is hilarious as the lecherous parfumerier Crevel, as is Laurie as Hector. Both are in pursuit of the beautiful Jenny. Macdonald is perfect as the spoiled Hortense, and Young is good as the much loved rapscallion goldbrick Wenceslas.

While the best parts of the book are sacrificed at the alter of modern motion picture viewing brevity, the soul and wit of Balzac survive. It is a shame that Valerie Marneffe is never seen. In the book, she is Bette's partner in crime, who convinces at least four men that they each are the father of her unborn child (which did not even exist) while extorting money from each of them. Adeline is a major figure in the book; killed here for some cinematic expediency. But the full dissipate nature of the nouveau riche is felt here. Living lavishly while plunging into life-threatening debt is made abundantly clear. Marxists everywhere would nod their heads while watching the beautiful trapping brough forth.

However, director Des McAnuff, who is primarily a theatre director, brings some truly wonderful cinematic moments here. What would have taken many chapters to explain in the novel, he does here with a well-timed glance (like when Hortense asks Bette if she ever loved any one, and Bette tells her while looking at Hector; Hector married Adeline instead of her, and only we see this bitter glance). When Bette discovers Wenceslas is "two timing" her, her rage is only quenched by plunging her head in a basin of water. This is straight out of the novel and very well done. One of the best scenes in the movie is Bette's arrival at the young couple's wedding; she sees them through screens set up around the outdoor party. She is partitioned to be an outsider, and only catches glimpses of the life she so desires from the outside. Bette always plays her part and is never discovered. Her cutting remarks are often only felt by us; she does what is expected of a "spinster." Ending the film with the 1848 Revolution that toppled the "Citizen King" Louis Philippe, while not in he book as I recall it, helps drive the disaster home, and ties it into the more lucrative *Les Miserables*.

*Cousin Bette* is lively and entertaining , and along with a fluid camera, this atmosphere is abetted by a lively classical soundtrack and some original songs as well. This version might not be as correct and full as the 1972 six-hour miniseries, but it's a worthy version that truly captures Balzac's wit and commentary. That figures from Balzac's wider "Comedie Humaine" are mentioned--Nucingen, Marneffe, Birotteau--shows some loving reverence to the author a fan like myself is happy to notice. It is one of two Balzac adaptations out there now--Passion in the Desert being the other. If 1998-99 is the Balzac revival year, I happily apply for more.

Written by Lynn Siefert and Susan Tarr; cinematography by Andrzej Sekula; original music by Simon Boswell; production design by Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski; costume Design by Gabriella Pescucci; film editing by Tariq Anwar.

Copyright (c) 1998, Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021 sethbook@panix.com; http://www.panix.com/~sethbook

More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html

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