Director
Rodney Bennett

Cast
Emma Bovary: Francesca Annis
Charles Bovary: Tom Conti
Monsieur Rouault: Richard Beale
Rodolphe: Denis Lill
Leon Dupuis: Brian Stirner

Francesca Annis and Tom Conti star in this acclaimed adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's classic tale of a free-spirited provincial housewife, whose life in 19th-century France has left her bored and unfulfilled. Trapped in a loveless marriage, she embarks on a series of assignations and affairs in search of passion and excitement.

Sweet and spoiled, Emma Bovary is doted on by her husband Charles, but he becomes frustrated that he cannot fulfil her. To alleviate her boredom, she undertakes ever more lavish shopping sprees, spending well over her means, which results in a series of unpayable promissory notes. However, the excitement of material goods soon palls and she seeks extra-marital thrills in the form of several affairs, noteably the heartless libertine, Rodolphe. As she becomes more and more reckless and self-destructive, her house of cards becomes increasingly precarious, and her downfall is assured.

Haunting, bittersweet and entirely relevant to our materialistic 21st-century culture, so frequently dissatisfied with our lot, this is a superb adaptation of a true classic, which sensually captures Emma's suffocating surroundings, her delighted thrill-seeking and her eventual, undignified, disgrace.