Madame Bovary
1949 · Movie · 106 min · ★ 6.8 · 65% critics
Set in 19th-century France, the story follows a provincial doctor’s wife who feels trapped and tries to reinvent her life through affairs and lavish spending. Her pursuit of excitement and escape steadily spirals into serious consequences that affect everyone around her.
Based on Madame Bovary
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Streaming on HBO Max and YouTube TV — or rent from $3.99.
2 hours to watch.
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Details
- Years
- 1949
- Release date
- 1949-08-25
- Language
- English
- Runtime
- 106 min
- Critic score
- 65/100
- TMDB rating
- 6.8/10 (59 votes)
About
You’ll like this if you enjoy dark, stylish costume dramas with heavy emotional consequences and glamorous social settings; Not for you if you need a highly sympathetic heroine, or prefer a lighter romance tone—try Camille or Dangerous Beauty instead.
Pros: lavish period drama; strong lead performance; dark, gripping tone | Cons: hard to love character; mixed pacing; sanitized under constraints
Themes
- lover
- trial
- adulteress
Awards & recognition
- Academy Award — Best Art Direction, Black and White · 1950 · nominated
Cast & crew
Jennifer Jones
as Emma Bovary
James Mason
as Gustave Flaubert
Van Heflin
as Charles Bovary
Louis Jourdan
as Rodolphe Boulanger
Alf Kjellin
as Leon Dupuis
Gene Lockhart
as J. Homais
Frank Allenby
as Lheureux
Gladys Cooper
as Madame Dupuis
John Abbott
as Mayor Tuvache
Harry Morgan
as Hyppolite
Directed by Vincente Minnelli