Bovary - Adaptations

Adaptations

An opera Madame Bovary was produced in 1951.

Madame Bovary has been made into several films, beginning with Albert Ray's 1932 version. It has also been the subject of multiple television miniseries and made-for-TV movies. The most notable of these adaptations was the 1949 film produced by MGM. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, it starred Jennifer Jones in the title role, co-starring James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, and Gene Lockhart. It was adapted by Giles Cooper for the BBC in 1964, with the same script being used for a new production in 1975. A 2000 miniseries adaptation by Heidi Thomas was made for the BBC, starring Frances O'Connor, Hugh Bonneville and Hugh Dancy.

Edwige Fenech starred in a version in 1969, directed by Hans Schott-Schobinger.

David Lean's film Ryan's Daughter (1970) was a loose adaptation of the story, relocating it to Ireland during the time of the Easter Rebellion. The script had begun life as a straight adaptation of Bovary, but Lean convinced writer Robert Bolt to re-work it into another setting.

Claude Chabrol made his version starring Isabelle Huppert in 1991. In Chabrol's remake, critics claimed the direction was sumptuous, that the period piece was a "pertinent tragic drama."

Indian director Ketan Mehta adapted the novel into a 1992 Hindi film Maya Memsaab.

Madame Blueberry is an 1998 film in the Veggietales animated series. It is a loose parody of Madame Bovary, in which Madame Blueberry, an anthropomorphic blueberry, gathers material possessions in a vain attempt to find happiness.

Academy Award nominated film Little Children features the novel as part of a book club discussion, and shares a few elements of the main idea.

Naomi Ragen loosely based her 2007 novel The Saturday Wife on Madame Bovary.

Posy Simmonds graphic novel Gemma Bovery reworked the story into a satirical tale of English expatriates in France.

Vale Abraão (1993) (Abraham's Vale) by Manoel de Oliveira is a close interpretation set in Portugal, even referencing and discussing Flaubert's novel several times.

Madame Bovary has been adapted into a piece of musical theatre, entitled The Bovary Tale. Composer: Anne Freier. Librettist: Laura Steel. The first performance was at the Gatehouse Theatre in Highgate Village in September 2009.

"Madame Ovary" is the name of a character in DC Comics' The Adventures of the Outsiders #33-35. Madame Ovary's name was really Dr. Ovarin, and she was created by Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis.