Minelli’s Madame Bovary is inclined to the spirit of Flaubert’s novel rather than its narrative. Emma’s wedding dinner, however, is true to the original, emphasizing Emma’s dismay and the guests’ vulgarity, buffoonery, drinking, and ribald innuendos. What ought to be a happy affair turns topsy-turvy.
The wedding dinner foreshadows Emma’s disastrous relationship with Charles Bovary. In her dreams, Emma “preferred to have a midnight wedding with torches,” but the reality is otherwise. It’s an afternoon gathering in a farmyard under the shade of the cart shed, where the meal is served picnic-style. The forty-three guests carouse for “sixteen hours at the table, began again the next day, and to some extent on the days following.” Often very drunk, they devour “four sirloins, six chicken fricassees, stewed veal, three legs of mutton, and in the middle a fine roast suckling pig, flanked by four chitterlings with sorrel,” decanters of brandy and sweet cider.
The wedding cake symbolizes the Rouault family’s bad taste. It is a large Savoy cake decorated to resemble a temple on several levels, using “candied angelica, almonds, raisins, and quarters of oranges; and finally, on the upper platform a green field with rocks set in lakes of jam, nutshell boats, and a small Cupid balancing himself in a chocolate swing whose two uprights ended in real roses for balls at the top.” Emma never recovers from it. Neither does her marriage.
Featured Image: The Happy Couple surrounded by well-wishers.
See Vincente Minnelli. Madame Bovary (1949). Screenplay by Robert Ardrey based on Gustave Flaubert’s novel (1856); Gustave Flaubert. Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners. Translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling. London: Vizetelly & Co., London 1886; Madame Bovary (1978).
Other Film Adaptations:
Madame Bovary (2014): Featuring Mia Wasikowska as Emma.
Madame Bovary (2000): A TV movie version featuring Frances O’Connor as Emma.
Madame Bovary (1991): Claude Chabrol’s version featuring Isabelle Huppert as Emma.
Madame Bovary (1978): Daniel D’Anza’s version featuring Carla Gravina as Emma.
Madame Bovary (1975): A BBC production of the 1964 version featuring Francesca Annis as Emma.
Die nackte Bovary (1969): Featuring Edwige Fenech as Emma.
Madame Bovary (1964): A BBC mini-series featuring Nyree Dawn Porter as Emma.
Madame Bovary (1949): Featuring Jennifer Jones as Emma.
Madame Bovary (1937): Featuring Pola Negri as Emma.
Madame Bovary (1934): Jean Renoir’s version featuring Valentine Tessier as Emma.