Madame Bovary

“Whatever it is that French women have ... Madame Bovary had more of it!”

Emma Bovary (Jennifer Jones) is a country doctor's wife in 19th-century France, raised on romantic novels and bored by the provincial life her marriage to Charles (Van Heflin) has given her. She looks for a more exciting life in other men and in money spent on things the household cannot afford. Minnelli frames the story around Flaubert (James Mason) defending his novel in court, and stages the ball sequence as one long, spinning waltz.