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IMDbPro

Madame Bovary

  • 19911991
  • PG-13PG-13
  • 2h 23m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
4.2K
YOUR RATING
Isabelle Huppert in Madame Bovary (1991)
Theatrical Trailer from Samuel Goldwyn
Play trailer1:30
1 Video
15 Photos
DramaRomance
In nineteenth-century France, the romantic daughter of a country squire marries a dull country doctor. To escape boredom, she throws herself into love affairs with a suave local landowner an... Read allIn nineteenth-century France, the romantic daughter of a country squire marries a dull country doctor. To escape boredom, she throws herself into love affairs with a suave local landowner and a law student, and runs up ruinous debts.In nineteenth-century France, the romantic daughter of a country squire marries a dull country doctor. To escape boredom, she throws herself into love affairs with a suave local landowner and a law student, and runs up ruinous debts.
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
4.2K
YOUR RATING
    • Claude Chabrol
    • Gustave Flaubert(novel)
    • Claude Chabrol
  • Stars
    • Isabelle Huppert
    • Jean-François Balmer
    • Christophe Malavoy
    • Claude Chabrol
    • Gustave Flaubert(novel)
    • Claude Chabrol
  • Stars
    • Isabelle Huppert
    • Jean-François Balmer
    • Christophe Malavoy
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 27User reviews
    • 44Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar

    Videos1

    Madame Bovary (1991)
    Trailer 1:30
    Watch Madame Bovary (1991)

    Photos15

    Isabelle Huppert in Madame Bovary (1991)
    Isabelle Huppert in Madame Bovary (1991)
    Isabelle Huppert and Jean-François Balmer in Madame Bovary (1991)
    Isabelle Huppert and Jean-François Balmer in Madame Bovary (1991)
    Isabelle Huppert and Christophe Malavoy in Madame Bovary (1991)
    Isabelle Huppert and Christophe Malavoy in Madame Bovary (1991)
    Isabelle Huppert and Christophe Malavoy in Madame Bovary (1991)
    Isabelle Huppert in Madame Bovary (1991)
    Jean Yanne in Madame Bovary (1991)
    Isabelle Huppert in Madame Bovary (1991)
    Isabelle Huppert and Lucas Belvaux in Madame Bovary (1991)
    Isabelle Huppert in Madame Bovary (1991)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Isabelle Huppert
    Isabelle Huppert
    • Emma Bovary
    Jean-François Balmer
    Jean-François Balmer
    • Dr Charles Bovary
    Christophe Malavoy
    Christophe Malavoy
    • Rodolphe Boulanger
    Jean Yanne
    Jean Yanne
    • M. Homais - le pharmacien
    Lucas Belvaux
    Lucas Belvaux
    • Léon Dupuis
    Christiane Minazzoli
    Christiane Minazzoli
    • La veuve Lefançois
    Jean-Louis Maury
    • Merchant Lheureux
    Florent Gibassier
    • Hippolyte
    Jean-Claude Bouillaud
    • Le père Rouault - un paysan - le père d'Emma
    Sabeline Campo
    • Felicité
    Yves Verhoeven
    • Justin
    Marie Mergey
    • La mère Bovary - la mère de Charles
    François Maistre
    François Maistre
    • Lieuvain - le conseiller de la préfecture
    Thomas Chabrol
    Thomas Chabrol
    • Le vicomte
    Phillippe Abitol
    Henry Ambert
    Jean-Marie Arnoux
    Henri Attal
    Henri Attal
    • Maltre Hareng
      • Claude Chabrol
      • Gustave Flaubert(novel)
      • Claude Chabrol
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Received a 4K restoration from Hiventy labs with support from the CNC.
    • Goofs
      During the ball, the music is "The Blue Danube" by Johan Strauss, composed in 1866. However, the action is taking place in 1837.
    • Quotes

      Le docteur Charles Bovary: [after his wife's death] Fate's the one to blame!

    • Crazy credits
      In the opening credits, "à ma mère" appears onscreen below Isabelle Huppert's name.
    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: Rush/Naked Lunch/The Prince of Tides/Fried Green Tomatoes/Madame Bovary (1991)
    • Soundtracks
      Bourrée Campagnarde
      Written by Jean-Michel Tavernier

      Performed by Maurice Coignard

    User reviews27

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    6/10
    the film Flaubert would have made from his novel
    This was Claude Chabrol's intention and it's easier to say than to do. Gustave Flaubert's novel was so rich, undulating that any adaptation in images can only be reducing and simplistic. More than the tragic story of its heroine, Flaubert's novel encompassed a word picture of Normandy (the bulk of the film was shot in the village of Lyons-La-Forêt near Rouen) and a cruel, cynical vision of the world. If the first feature is satisfying on the screen, the second one is hardly perceptible. Hence, this crucial question: is it possible to fully recreate Flaubert's novel? Chabrol's film is faithful to the main plot with the rise and fall of her heroine sometimes told by François Périer's voice-over in spite of accelerated views on certain vital episodes, notably the peasant marriage that disgusted Emma Bovary. On the other hand, the crest of the novel (the ball to the marquis) found a perfect equivalent in Chabrol's film with this shot which goes through the turning dresses creating thus a whirlpool. The glittering life Emma dreams of instead of a dull one with her mediocre husband Charles.

    Chabrol is buoyed by topnotch interpretations. Even if Isabelle Huppert is a convincing Emma Bovary, a woman whose messy dreams and follies badly conceal boredom and disgust of her condition, the other main actors steal the show with Jean-François Balmer as the perfect, narrow-minded Charles Bovary, Christophe Malavoy as unfaithful Rodolphe Boulanger and Jean Yanne as the unscrupulous chemist Homais.

    "Madame Bovary" is aesthetically a refined work with lush scenery and lavish costumes that recreate rural life in Normandy in the middle of the nineteenth Century. But Chabrol doesn't break new ground with this adaptation that required something else than an elegant directing, a brilliant cast and splendid scenery. That's why his rendering of Flaubert's work is just an honorable reading of the novel in the end. One could also add that Flaubert's book was a solid opportunity for an onslaught at provincial lower middle class. But it's only skimmed over and it's a wasted bonanza.

    Chabrol's reading of "Madame Bovary" amounts to the same result as Claude Berri's adaptation of Emile Zola's epic novel "Germinal" in 1993: honorable instead of being unforgettable, a commendable action instead of a ground-breaking creation. The author of "le Boucher" (1970) was rather on the wrong track but fortunately, he'll find his way again the following year with another woman depiction: "Betty" (1992). Georges Simenon's universe suits him much better than Flaubert's one.
    helpful•17
    3
    • dbdumonteil
    • Apr 15, 2007

    Details

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    • Release date
      • December 25, 1991 (United States)
      • France
      • MK2 Films (France)
      • French
      • Latin
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Lyons-la-Forêt, Eure, France
    • Production companies
      • MK2 Productions
      • CED Productions
      • FR3 Films Production
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 2 hours 23 minutes
      • Color

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