Taglines: In an old house in Paris, that was covered with vines…
Madeline movie storyline. In 1956 Paris, France, a young girl named Madeline attends a boarding school run by Miss Clavel, a no-nonsense nun. She is the only orphan and wishes she had a family since her parents have died. She goes on daily walks, eats her favorite meal “Chicken Hélène” (named after the cook, Hélène, who makes it), and causes mischief for Miss Clavel.
One night, Miss Clavel feels that something is not right, so she runs up to the girls’ room and finds Madeline groaning in pain on her bed. Quickly, Miss Clavel dials the hospital, who explains to Miss Clavel that they must take out Madeline’s appendix immediately. During her stay in the hospital overnight, after the surgery, Madeline wanders down the hallways, and finds Lady Covington.
The two begin to talk, and Lady Covington reveals to Madeline that she carved her name under Madeline’s bed, Marie-Gilberte. She asks Madeline to see if it’s still there. Their conversation is interrupted by the strict Lord Covington, who orders Madeline to leave. A few days later, when Madeline is ready to go, she discovers that Lady Covington had died. She then sees a chicken in Hélène’s car, and finds out that it’s the Chicken Hélène that will be served that night.
When Madeline arrives at the school, she meets Pepito, the Spanish Ambassador’s son, who is the main target of an evil kidnapper named Leopold who wants to collect money from the Ambassador since he’s rich. That night, Madeline refuses to eat the chicken “Fred” because she made friends with him in the car.
She turns half the other girls against chicken and make them vegetarians and cluck, which results in Miss Clavel sending the girls up to bed without dinner, after a discussion with Covington about how he’s closing the school down as he has resigned from his job due to his wife’s death. The girls are hungry so they sneak down to eat. However, they get scared by Pepito, who appears dressed like a demon. When Miss Clavel and Hélène find the girls, they reluctantly decide to give them dinner.
The next day, Miss Clavel goes to Pepito’s house to offer him a toolbox and ends up talking with Leopold who is posing as Pepito’s tutor. Then, Miss Clavel takes the girls to an art gallery where Pepito himself steals Madeline’s notebook and writes “Beware” in it. The girls wonder why until Miss Clavel tells them that they have been invited to Pepito’s birthday. While there, Pepito shows the girls his menagerie and attempts to scare them by dangling a white baby mouse in their face.
It works on the other girls, but not on Madeline. Pepito tries to scare her by almost feeding it to his snake but Madeline insists he’s bluffing. Pepito calls it off and shows the girls his guillotine that he built with the tools in his new toolbox and almost executes the mouse. Madeline defends the mouse by pushing Pepito away.
She lets the remaining caged mice go in retaliation, and this causes the girls to run in horror and subsequently causes Miss Clavel to faint. Madeline starts to fight Pepito, but Miss Clavel stops her and insists they leave. On their way out, Madeline steals Pepito’s motorcycle keys. Later, in class, the girls are forced to write lines, explaining their behaviour.
Madeline is a 1998 live-action film adaptation of the book series by Ludwig Bemelmans, starring Hatty Jones as the title character, Frances McDormand as Miss Clavel, and Nigel Hawthorne as Lord Covington aka Cucuface. The film encompasses the plots of four Madeline books. It was released on July 10, 1998 by TriStar Pictures.
Madeline (1998)
Directed by: Daisy von Scherler Mayer
Starring: Frances McDormand, Nigel Hawthorne, Hatty Jones, Ben Daniels, Arturo Venegas, Stéphane Audran, Katia Caballero, Chantal Neuwirth, Kristian de la Osa
Screenplay by: Mark Levin, Jennifer Flackett
Production Design by: Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski
Cinematography by: Pierre Aïm
Film Editing by: Jeffrey Wolf
Costume Design by: Michael Clancy
Set Decoration by: Aline Bonetto
Art Direction by: Bertrand Clercq-Roques, Gerard Drolon, Rebecca Holmes
Music by: Michel Legrand
MPAA Rating: PG for momentary language.
Distributed by: TriStar Pictures
Release Date: July 10, 1998
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