La femme du boulanger (1938)

Director:

Marcel Pagnol

Writer:

Jean Giono (novel)

Release Date:

26 February 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

In this little Provencal village, a new baker, Aimable, settles down. His wife Aurelie is beautiful and much younger than he...

Plot Keywords:

Bread | Shepherd | Baker | Village | Mayor

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Raimu	...	Aimable Castanier
Ginette Leclerc	...	Aurélie Castanier
Fernand Charpin	...	Le marquis Castan de Venelles (as Charpin)
Robert Vattier	...	Le curé
Charles Blavette	...	Antonin
Robert Bassac	...	L'instituteur
Marcel Maupi	...	Barnabé (as Maupi)
Alida Rouffe	...	Céleste, la bonne du curé
Odette Roger	...	Miette, la femme d'Antonin
Yvette Fournier	...	Hermine
Maximilienne	...	Melle Angèle (as Maximilienne Max)
Charblay	...	Arsène, le boucher
Julien Maffre	...	Pétugue (as Maffre)
Adrien Legros	...	Barthelemy
Jean Castan	...	Esprit, un berger

Also Known As:

The Baker's Wife (USA)

Runtime:

133 min | West Germany:97 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Not Rated | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Le Castellet, Var, France

Company:

Les Films Marcel Pagnol

Trivia:

Subject of a French stamp in 1986.

Movie Connections:

Remade as La femme du boulanger (1999) (TV)

The best of Pagnol's films?

Along with Marius, La Femme du boulanger is at the top of the list of Pagnol's films, which is to say that it is among the best films ever made. (This is not just my opinion; evidently Orson Welles said the same thing.) It is a "typical" Pagnol film, in that the plot is rudimentary at best. All the interest is the characters and their dialogue. And, despite very good performances by several of the supporting characters, this film achieves greatness because of the dialogue Pagnol gave Aimable (the baker) and the way Raimu delivers it. A mixture of the most moving pathos and the funniest comedy, the Baker is one of the great characters in film. (Trust me, the chapter in Giono's novel that served as the ostensible "inspiration" for this story is negligible. The genius is all Pagnol's.) The scene that every Frenchman knows is the last one, when Aimable takes out his anger at his wife's infidelity on their cat, Pomponette, but that is an atypical moment in this movie. It is all about Aimable's suffering, at the hands of his wife but also as a result of the way the town treats him. And Raimu conveys that suffering as only the greatest actors have: with understatement.

Marius is funnier and has greater variety of character. But La Femme du boulanger shows what a great director and screenwriter can do with great actors. Movies get no better than this.