Stuck in a Norman village where he runs a bakery with his wife, Martin finds his life turned upside down by the arrival of an English couple: Charles and Gemma Bovery. Drawn to his beautiful new neighbor, he finds his passion for the almost eponymous novel by Flaubert revived. He starts to observe her life, convinced she is also headed towards a tragic and romantic destiny …

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The encounter between the phlegmatic intellectual (Fabrice Luchini) and the sensuous Bond girl (Gemma Arterton) offers up an extraordinary spectacle from that start, one that is both touching and funny. In the wake of her beautiful melodrama Adore, which was shot in Australia, Anne Fontaine returns home for this adaptation of the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, a modern, off-the-wall variation of Flaubert’s classic, Madame Bovary. But despite its undeniable charm, Gemma Bovery remains a mere curiosity, due to its superficial treatment of the source material.