With Jennifer Jones as Emma and Van Heflin as Charles Bovary (and James Mason as Flaubert, conducting his own defense at the beginning and end of the film), Minnelli's Madame Bovary is modeled as much after prevailing Hollywood genre modes (which disallowed Flaubert's passionate social criticism) as it is after the novel. As such, it is a film full of the moments, the most memorable of which is the ball in the chateau in which Minnelli provides a whirl of excitement that mirrors Emma Bovary's volatile hunger. Minnelli describes the scene:
"For the ballroom scene, in which Emma is whirled into an atmosphere of dazzling excitement, I asked Miklos Rozsa to compose a ‘neurotic' waltz, and it had to be the exact length of the sequence.... I shot entirely to the music, so that each cut was timed precisely to the dictates of the score, including the scenes that showed Charles Bovary at the gaming tables in between the dancing. We used various kinds of camera cranes and the idea was for the whirling camera never to let go of the figures...."