Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary is a 1991 French drama film directed by Claude Chabrol and based on the 1857 novel Madame Bovary by French author Gustave Flaubert. Set in Normandy in the 1850s, the film follows the story of Emma Bovary, an attractive young woman full of romantic notions, whose marriage to an unexciting country doctor leads her to adulterous affairs and tragedy. Plot Facing spinsterhood on her widowed father's farm Emma, with the help of her father, is successful in attracting and contracting a marriage with the local doctor, whose wife has recently died. Charles Bovary is kindly and conscientious, but lacks assertiveness and is a dull conversationalist. Following an aristocratic ball she is more dissatisfied than ever and her husband, noticing this, moves to a larger town with potentially greater diversions, where he is befriended by the apothecary. There she meets the law clerk Léon, with whom she can talk about art, literature, poetry and music. His attentions to her cause adverse comment and eventually prompt her to instead become more attentive to her husband and baby, but this leads her to become dissatisfied yet again. The parish priest is a poor listener and does not respond to her unhappiness. Léon, disappointed by her rejection, leaves to study in Paris, leaving her without congenial company.