Our rare archival print is in French without English subtitles. However, Renoir is faithful to Flaubert's story of a woman who craves passion in provincial life. British critic Tom Milne wrote in Sight & Sound: "Renoir was intermittently attempting to...suggest that people exist in a milieu rather than against a setting....In 1934, with Madame Bovary...he perfected this technique....The whole feeling and meaning of the novel is intact....The dichotomy between the beauty of the countryside and the bleak desert which Emma's boredom makes of it is beautifully conveyed." Among the film's contemporary admirers was Bertolt Brecht. Renoir himself hints at why, when he notes, "I insisted on the absolute realism of the location, of the background action, and I insisted, on the contrary, on the absolute composed character of the foreground. I insisted that my actors act as if they were in the theater, in good theater, of course....Valentine Tessier (is) an absolutely staggering, touching Madame Bovary....My brother, who was so at ease and moving in his part (as Charles Bovary), and also the unforgettable Max Dearly....A man who played midget fairies is a man who can play the pharmacist Homais..."