the closing credit on this movie roll more than an hour ago . i still feel soiled . the only good thing about director de mcanuff version of cousin bette be jessica lange excellent turn a bette and that misunderstood and underestimated old maid hiding her lifelong rage and jealousy beneath a mask of family loyalty . in all other respect and this adaptation be execrable . screenwriter lynn siefert and susan tarr should be ban from ever pen any more literary adaptation . balzac cousin bette be a masterpiece and an eternal condemnation of the selfishness of vice and achieve through a portrayal of depravity destruction of virtue . the cinematic version be a mediocre daytime drama in petticoat . the power of the original novel derives from balzac use of fascinatingly and unforgettably and tragically human character to illuminate his pitiless moral represent that virtue and nine time out of ten and will fall to the knife in the back of vice . that moral be play out through the character . and from the pure and pious and and eternally forgiving adeline hulot and a wife willing to forgive and forget more than two decade of her adored husband infidelity and all the way down to the jewish courtesan josepha and at once a shameless gold digger and a great artist and and and at heart and a kind woman and every player in balzac grand tragedy play an irreplaceable part and illuminate an unalterable truth . and it be with the writer treatment of those character that mcanuff cousin bette first fail . the great tragedy of the novel lie in the gradual abandonment and destruction of the saintly adeline hulot . after close her eye to two decade of infidelity and she slowly fall from her position into terrible poverty and neglect one of those illumination of the destruction of virtue by vice which give the novel it power . siefert and tarr seem not to have grasp this essential point of the source material . instead of have to deal with the difficulty of a great beauty throw into the gutter and they have take the easy way out by kill her off within the first five minute of the novel . and this without even bother to pay lip service to the beauty and charm of the woman whose success be the fuel for the fire of bette vengefulness . without adeline presence and influence and bette envy be pointless . but what else could one expect from screenwriter this illiterate . next and siefert and tarr erase the most fascinating character of the original novel and that of valerie marneffe and the middle class civil servant wife who be the cause of all of the novel misfortune . valerie be a far more fascinating character than her cinematic replacement and the actress and whore jenny cadine . madame marneffe hypocrisy the truth of her whore heart disguise by the outward appearance of a virtuous wife and the complication of her avarice and passion and provide a large part of the entertainment and insight of the novel . again and siefert and tarr have avoid the difficulty of bring such a multifaceted character to life and simply by cut her out altogether . jenny cadine seem to live for nothing more than a few bouquet of flower and a pretty dress or two . not a fraction a compelling . so the character do not live up to the source material . neither do the plot and which turn balzac masterfully arrange action and reaction topsy turvy . here and there and one may see bit of the original novel struggle to break through a in bette rage when she be tell that wenceslas steinbock and whom she adore and have secretly enter into a romance with her niece hortense but those glimpse be more tragic than anything else and for expose the greatness that this movie fail miserably to approach . with a series of seemingly natural and inevitable turn of fortune and struggle to escape ruin and balzac present a wholly organic portrait of absolute devastation . siefert and tarr hope merely to titillate viewer with an exposed female buttock or breast here and there and some pretty costume and setting and and a few melodramatic situation force and laughable . balzac need no duel to depict rivalry and hatred while he need no accidental husband shooting to bring the full force of marital discord home while he need no sudden descent into madness to prove the ruinousness of deluded obsession . no one hurl dish to shatter against wall in the novel . no wife be arrest and no son have to escape from money lender promise to kill your wife and your child when debt be not pay . those soap opera device weren not necessary in the original novel and because the story itself far surpass them . but siefert and tarr need them merely to dress up an utter narrative failure . cousin bette and the movie and may indeed appeal to some viewer and those who ask for nothing but sub the young and the restless melodrama dress up in period costume . for those of u hop for a bit more than that perhaps simply a semi faithful adaptation of one of the great work of the western canon it be simply best to stay away . i certainly should have .