Gemma Bovery

This feature is a modern reimagining of the graphic novel, Gemma Bovery, by Posy Simmonds, with a few nods to the classic tale of Madame Bovary, written by Gustave Flaubert.

Madame Bovary was a promiscuous, disenfranchised, bored wife living in a small town with her doctor husband. Gemma has a similar trajectory. Played by English actress Gemma Arterton (James Bond: Quantum Of Solace, Clash Of The Titans), she’s married to Charles (Jason Flemyng) and lives in the French countryside near Normandy. It doesn’t take long for their already frayed relationship to unravel. 

Directed by Anne Fontaine, the film is filled with the stunning scenery of the French countryside, and idealises slow living, but for Gemma, it comes at the cost of boredom and dissatisfaction with personal relationships. The film is humorous, smart and empowering for the female characters, refreshing for French cinema. 

The baker, Martin Joubert (Fabrice Luchini), carries the witty lines, the humour, the intrigue and the narration throughout the film, all the while musing on how Charles and Gemma are just so eerily similar to the Bovary couple. It has a Chocolat edge to it, in the way that there are out-of-towners who flock to a sweet shop to engage in sinful activity.

To enjoy this film you definitely need to be of the brooding French cinema persuasion.