Madame

Madame Sans-Gêne is a 1961 romantic comedy co-produced by France, Italy and Spain, directed by Christian-Jaque. The film adapts the 1893 play of the same name by Victorien Sardou and Émile Moreau, with the screenplay credited to Christian-Jaque, Ennio de Concini and Jean Ferry.

Sophia Loren headlines a cast of French and Italian performers that includes Robert Hossein, Julien Bertheau, Gianrico Tedeschi and Marina Berti. Shot in Eastmancolor and Technirama, the film was distributed in the United States by Embassy Pictures. The Sardou and Moreau play had already enjoyed a long afterlife: it inspired an earlier silent screen version starring Gloria Swanson as well as Umberto Giordano's opera Madame Sans-Gêne, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1915.