Madame Bovary (1934 film)

Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary
Directed by	Jean Renoir
Screenplay by	Jean Renoir
Based on	Madame Bovary; 1857 novel; by Gustave Flaubert
Produced by	Gaston Gallimard
Starring	Max Dearly; Valentine Tessier; Pierre Renoir; Robert Le Vigan;
Cinematography	Jean Bachelet; Alphonse Gibory;
Edited by	Marguerite Renoir
Music by	Darius Milhaud
Production; company	Nouvelle Société des Films
Distributed by	Nouvelle Société des Films
Release date	12 January 1934;
Running time	101 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Madame Bovary is a 1934 French historical drama film directed by Jean Renoir, starring Max Dearly, Valentine Tessier and Pierre Renoir, and adapted from Gustave Flaubert's 1857 novel Madame Bovary.^[1]

Plot summary

Cast

Max Dearly as Homais
Valentine Tessier as Emma Bovary
Pierre Renoir as Charles Bovary
Robert Le Vigan as Lheureux
Alice Tissot as Charles Bovary's mother
Pierre Larquey as Hippolyte
Monette Dinay as Félicité
Louis Florencie as Parish Priest
Romain Bouquet as Solicitor
Christiane Dor as Madame Lefrançois
Georges Cahuzac as Rouault
Héléna Manson as Héloïse Bovary
Léon Larive as Prefect
Henri Vilbert as Dr. Canivet
Allain Dhurtal as Surgeon
Marthe Mellot as La vieille femme aux comices agricoles
André Fouché as Justin
Maryanne as Madame Homais
Edmond Beauchamp as Binet
Georges Deneubourg as Marquis de Vaubyessand
Odette Dinay as Chanteuse
Fernand Fabre as Rodolphe Boulanger
Daniel Lecourtois as Leon
René Blech as Coachman
Robert Moor as Doorman
Paulette Élambert as Berthe Bovary

Critical reception

On the film's original release, Variety wrote that in interpreting the novel for film, "Renoir has done an exceptionally commendable job. Regardless of its snail-like pace, the production, combines a straight simple narrative with a fine sense of background authenticity and dramatic understanding." The reviewer doubted however, that box office appeal would extend much beyond readers of the book, "despite the better than average quality of the film."^[2]

References

^ Donaldson-Evans p.193
^ "Variety (November 1934)". New York, NY: Variety Publishing Company. December 3, 1934 – via Internet Archive.

Bibliography

Donaldson-Evans, Mary. Madame Bovary at the Movies: Adaptation, Ideology, Context. Rodopi, 2009.
Goble, Alan. The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter, 1999.