Frances O’Connor (Mansfield Park) plays literature’s most famous adulteress in this sensuous adaptation of Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. The scandalous classic that was tried for obscenity in French court in 1857 also stars Greg Wise (Sense and Sensibility) as Emma Bovary’s virile lover Rodolphe. Hugh Bonneville (Mansfield Park) plays Emma’s oblivious but devoted husband, Charles. Set in rural Normandy in the 1830s and ’40s, the story follows Emma’s dreamy and ultimately disastrous quest for the ecstatic experiences she finds in books. Reality in the provinces can’t possibly live up to her illusions, so she falls prey to seducers and swindlers.
Shown on PBS Masterpiece Theatre.
Starring: Frances O’Connor, Hugh Bonneville, Eileen Atkins, Greg Wise, Keith Barron, Hugh Dancy, Trevor Peacock, David Troughton, Joe McGann, Barbara Jefford, Jessica Oyelowo, Joe Roberts, Mary MacLeod, Claire Hackett, Phillip Manikum, Willie Ross, Jenny Howe, Marian Diamond, Adam Cooper, Stanley Lebor, Desmond Barrit, Thomas Wheatley and Roy Macready.
Note: Madame Bovary was filmed in the Norman countryside that Flaubert depicts so vividly in his novel. “We found one of the little towns that he certainly used as a study for his scenes of village life,” says producer Tony Redston. “We also shot in Rouen, so that Emma and Léon meet in the Rouen cathedral just as they do in the book and then have their celebrated cab ride through the same streets.” Redston notes that the costumes reflect provincial fashions of the day, as well as the Parisian mode that Emma aspired to. “And we follow Flaubert’s color symbolism,” he adds. “You will see that blue and yellow are very significant colors for Emma,” he hints.