Gemma Bovery (film)

Gemma Bovery
Film poster
Directed by	Anne Fontaine
Screenplay by	Pascal Bonitzer Anne Fontaine
Based on	Gemma Bovery by Posy Simmonds
Produced by	Philippe Carcassonne Faye Ward
Starring	Gemma Arterton Jason Flemyng Mel Raido Fabrice Luchini
Cinematography	Christophe Beaucarne
Edited by	Annette Dutertre
Music by	Bruno Coulais
Production companies	Albertine Productions Ciné@ Gaumont
Distributed by	Gaumont
Release dates	24 August 2014 (2014-08-24) (Festival du Film Francophone d'Angoulême) 10 September 2014 (2014-09-10) (France)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	France
Languages	French English
Budget	$11 million
Box office	$4.6 million

Gemma Bovery is a 2014 French comedy-drama film based on Posy Simmonds' 1999 graphic novel of the same name. Directed by Anne Fontaine, the film stars Gemma Arterton, Jason Flemyng, Mel Raido and Fabrice Luchini. 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 on 6 September 2014.

Plot

Martin, an ex-Parisian with a deep appreciation for Gustave Flaubert, has settled in a village in Normandy 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. 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

Gemma Arterton, Anne Fontaine, and Isabelle Candelier promoting the film at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival.

• Fabrice Luchini as Martin Joubert
• Gemma Arterton as Gemma Bovery
• Jason Flemyng as Charlie Bovery, Gemma's new husband
• Mel Raido as Patrick, Gemma's ex-boyfriend and a charming food critic
• Isabelle Candelier as Valérie Joubert
• Niels Schneider as Hervé de Bressigny
• Elsa Zylberstein as Wizzy
• Pip Torrens as Rankin
• Kacey Mottet Klein as Julien Joubert
• Édith Scob as Madame de Bressigny
• Pascale Arbillot as The new neighbor

Production

Pre-production

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

Filming

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

Reception

As of July 2020, the film holds a 54% approval rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, 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, 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".

External links

• Gemma Bovery at IMDb
• Gemma Bovery at Box Office Mojo
• Gemma Bovery at Rotten Tomatoes
• Gemma Bovery at Metacritic