117. La Femme Du Boulanger (The Baker's Wife) (1938)

Directed by Marcel Pagnol

Synopsis

The very nice baker has a very good looking wife. There is a very good looking shepherd, wife runs away with him, Baker wants her back. She returns and is forgiven.

Review

Well, I watched this film out of order, I actually watched it when I should be watching Le Roman D'Un Tricheur. Well, it's all French to me. Anyway, I am writing this review on the 16th of March and I'll save it for later anyway.

This is a deeply affecting film, the French are able to do extremely kind comedy coupled with very deep emotion and this is a perfect example of that. It is set in a little village in France, which really could have been a little village anywhere, it has people with the most unique and lovable characters and half of the enjoyment of the film comes simply from their interaction.

The story of the Baker himself is a beautiful love story tainted by betrayal, and here there is one of the best portrayals of a good man betrayed in the history of cinema, it is truly a pity that this is practically impossible to get in the English speaking market, in fact I watched a french copy and had some Spanish subtitles to help me along. It is a truly beautiful film which made me sniffle a bit in the touching a beautiful ending. You can't get it anywhere except eMule and there you can get it only in French, and the only subtitles that you can download on the internet are in Spanish... good luck!

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Born February 28, 1895 in Aubagne, Bouches-du-Rhône département, in southern France near Marseille, the son of school teacher Joseph Pagnol and seamstress Augustine Lansot, Marcel Pagnol grew up in Marseille with his younger brothers Paul, René, and younger sister Germaine.
He learned how to read at a young age to his father's amazement but his mother did not allow him to touch a book until he was six "for fear of cerebral explosion". During this time he spent many summers with his family in a house in the hills near Aubagne.

At the age of 15 he wrote his first play and followed in his father's footsteps and became an English teacher for secondary schools. However, he quit being an English teacher when he went to Paris. Instead, he devoted his life to playwriting, which led to his first play, Merchants of Glory, in 1924. In 1929 he wrote Marius for the Paris Theatre. Marius would also be later turned into a film in 1929, Pagnol's first film.

In 1916 he married Simone Coline in Marseille, to the displeasure of his father Joseph.

In 1945 he married Jacqueline Bouvier.

Marcel Pagnol was elected a member of the Académie Française in 1946. He was the first film maker ever to receive this honour.

He died in Paris on April 18, 1974.

His novel L'Eau des collines was adapted from his two films Jean de Florette and Manon des sources. These films were remade to international acclaim in the 1980s by Claude Berri. His novels La gloire de mon père and Le château de ma mère were made into acclaimed movies by Yves Robert.

Unfortunately it was made into a Musical, and it's horrible, most unfortunately it's the only thing related to the film that's on youtube... this is the sheperd singing, and this scene doesn't happen in the film: