''Gemma Bovery'' is a 2014 French comedy-drama film based on Posy Simmonds' 1999

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

of the same name. Directed by

Anne Fontaine Anne Fontaine (born Anne-Fontaine Sibertin-Blanc; 15 July 1959) is a Luxembourger film director, screenwriter, and former actress. She lives and works in France. Life and career Born Anne-Fontaine Sibertin-Blanc in Luxembourg, sister of actor ...

, the film stars

Gemma Arterton Gemma Christina Arterton (born 2 February 1986) is an English actress and producer. After her stage debut in Shakespeare's ''Love's Labour's Lost'' at the Globe Theatre (2007), Arterton made her feature film debut in the comedy '' St Trinian's'' ...

Jason Flemyng Jason Iain Flemyng''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 25 September 1966) is an English actor. He is known for roles in British films such as ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' (1998) ...

Mel Raido Mel Raido (born 1977) is a Jamaican-born English actor. Raido moved to London at three years old. After taking elocution lessons, he started to become hooked by the acting bug at school and studied at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.< ...

and

Fabrice Luchini Fabrice Luchini (; born Robert Luchini; 1 November 1951) is a French stage and film actor. He has appeared in films such as '' Potiche'', ''The Women on the 6th Floor'', and '' In the House''. For his role in the 2015 film '' Courted'' he won t ...

. The film premiered at the 2014 Festival du Film Francophone d'Angoulême on 24 August 2014, and showed in the Special Presentations section at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

on 6 September 2014.

Plot

Martin (

), an ex-Parisian with a deep appreciation for

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...

, has settled in a village in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

as a baker. He sees a British couple moving into an old property across the road. Their names, Gemma (

) and Charles Bovery (

), echo those of the leading characters in Flaubert's 1856 masterpiece ''

Madame Bovary ''Madame Bovary'' (; ), originally published as ''Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners'' ( ), is a novel by French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856. The eponymous character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emp ...

''. Martin engages with the young couple and observes that Gemma's behaviour replicates that of her namesake, including romantic and sexual liaisons that suggest she is headed for a tragic finale like that of the novel. He intervenes but cannot alter the inevitable.

Cast

as Martin Joubert *

as Gemma Bovery *

as Charlie Bovery, Gemma's new husband *

as Patrick, Gemma's ex-boyfriend and a charming food critic *

Isabelle Candelier Isabelle Candelier (born 12 June 1963) is a French film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ...

as Valérie Joubert *

Niels Schneider Niels Schneider (; born 18 June 1987) is a Franco-Canadian actor who has appeared in more than thirty films since 2007. Born in Paris, naturalized Canadian, Schneider moved to Montreal at the age of 9 to start his career doing voice-over jobs. ...

as Hervé de Bressigny *

Elsa Zylberstein Elsa Zylberstein (born Elsa Florence Zylbersztejn, 16 October 1968) is a French film, TV, and stage actress. After studying drama, Zylberstein began her film career in 1989, and has appeared in more than 60 films. She won the César Award for Be ...

as Wizzy *

Pip Torrens Philip D'Oyly "Pip" Torrens (born 2 June 1960) is an English actor. Known for playing urbane, authoritative figures, Torrens portrayed courtier Tommy Lascelles in the Netflix drama ''The Crown'', aristocrat Lord Massen in the HBO series ''Th ...

as Rankin *

Kacey Mottet Klein Kacey Mottet Klein (born 20 October 1998) is a Swiss actor. Life and career Kacey Mottet Klein was born in Lausanne to an American father and a Swiss mother. He made his screen debut in 2008, in Ursula Meier's ''Home'', for which he won the Swi ...

as Julien Joubert *

Édith Scob Édith Scob (21 October 1937 – 26 June 2019) was a French film and theatre actress, best known for her role as the daughter with a disfigured face in '' Eyes Without a Face'' (1960). Early life and family Scob was born Édith Helena Vladimirov ...

as Madame de Bressigny * Pascale Arbillot as The new neighbor

Production

Pre-production

confirmed in early 2013 that she would direct the film with Philippe Carcassonne and Faye Ward producing it.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

took place in the summer and autumn of 2013 in France.

Reception

, the film holds a 54% approval rating on review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 90 reviews, with an average score of 5.99/10. The site's consensus reads, "''Gemma Bovery''s bursts of charm -- among them Gemma Arterton's winsome performance in the title role -- are often enough to compensate for its lack of focus.". At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 58, based on 27 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gemma Bovery 2014 films 2010s French-language films 2010s English-language films 2014 comedy-drama films British comedy-drama films French comedy-drama films Films based on British comics Films based on comic strips Films based on British novels Films directed by Anne Fontaine Films set in France Films shot in France Gaumont Film Company films Live-action films based on comics English-language French films Films scored by Bruno Coulais 2010s British films 2010s French films