Madame Bovary (1937)

Country doctor Dr. Bovary has married Emma, a beautiful, sensual woman. She is anything but happy in her marriage to a man who is kind-hearted and decent, but also terribly boring. The couple have moved to the provincial town of Yonville, where the doctor plans to open his own practice. Ambitious Emma, however, has only one goal: she is determined to go to Paris, because she believes that life is bustling there and nowhere else. Dr. Bovary has successfully treated the Marquise d’Andervillier, so the profoundly mismatched couple are invited to the patient’s château, where she and her husband are hosting a gathering. Surrounded by admirers and suitors such as Roudolphe Boulanger, the little doctor’s wife, with her insatiable longing for something greater, is in her element. The upper crust is Emma’s goal; she wants to go there and belong. And so she begins spending extravagantly, buying a luxurious dress here, precious jewelry there. Before long, Madame Bovary is heavily in debt and falls into the hands of the loan shark L’Heureux. He soon has a large number of her promissory notes in his possession, making the doctor’s wife vulnerable to blackmail. Madame Bovary also becomes increasingly receptive to the worldly, gallant Boulanger’s flattery and advances, and one day the two decide to run away together. But after speaking with his steward, the pleasure-seeking Boulanger has second thoughts and leaves without Emma. In her disappointment, Madame suffers a nervous breakdown. Things are not going smoothly in her husband’s career either: during a difficult operation, his patient nearly dies. He has to abandon, for the time being, his hope of earning a recommendation to Paris through an outstanding medical achievement. Worse still, L’Heureux now grows impatient. The merchant who lent her money demands that Madame Bovary finally pay off her promissory notes and repay what she owes him. But she is unable to do so. In despair, she turns to the lawyer Léon Dupuis, whom, after the time they have spent together, she considers a true friend. But he demands favors in return that she is unwilling to grant. Now Boulanger seems to be her last lifeline, but he has just married and is away on his honeymoon. Emma Bovary sees herself at the end of the road. With no hope of help, she makes her way back to her husband and home. Her route takes her past the town pharmacy, where she overhears the pharmacist and his wife talking, and learns that everyone in town now despises Emma Bovary and her husband. She sneaks to the pharmacist’s poison cabinet and removes a vial without being noticed. Back home, she swallows its contents. When her husband returns, his wife is dying and asks him to forgive her. All help comes too late.