117. La femme du boulanger/The Baker's Wife (1938)

Running Time: 127 minutes
Directed By: Marcel Pagnol
Written By: Marcel Pagnol, from the novel Jean le Bleu by Jean Giono
Main Cast: Raimu, Ginette Leclerc, Fernand Charpin, Robert Vattier, Charles Blavette

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

The single most hard to find film of the entire "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" book, has finally come into my grasp and into my field of vision and I have to say, while it was very hard to find, I think it's going to be a lot easier to forget. Of course, I'm talking about "The Baker's Wife".

Aimable Castanier (Raimu) is the new baker in a small village. The previous baker ended up hanging himself in the basement of the bakery, because he was a miserable drunk and so, the villagers are happy to have what seems like a very competent and friendly new bread maker in town. We also establish early on, that despite the quiet nature of the village from the outside, within the village their actually exists many feuds between the inhabitants. For example, one man doesn't like another because his large trees produce shade on his property, taking sunlight away from his prized, giant spinach plants. The baker is a married man and the villagers pretty much agree that the baker's wife is a very attractive woman. Her name is Aurelie (Leclerc) and when the Marquis comes to the bakery and brings his strong, handsome shepherd, Aurelie is stricken with lust. In fact, she's so stricken that the following morning, she ends up running off with the shepherd. In her absence, the bakery nearly burns down, because she wasn't there to wake Aimable at the right time, causing all the bread to burn. When Aimable realizes that Aurelie is gone, he denies it at first, refusing to believe that she ran off and rationalizing it by telling himself she's only gone to her mother's, for a visit. Later, he drowns his sorrows in a bottle and slowly starts to come to the realization that his wife has left him. Not getting any of their daily bread, the townspeople forget their petty feuds, band together and make it their mission to bring the baker's wife back to him, so that they can get back their bread.

Right away I question THE BOOK'S true intentions for including this movie, as they're sure to note that Raimu was one of Orson Welles' favorite actors. Now, did we include "The Baker's Wife" because it's truly a "must see" film, or did we include it because it's Raimu's best film and because Raimu was one of Welles' favorites? I really don't know, but what I do know is that "The Baker's Wife" certainly isn't one of the 1001 most must see pictures that has ever been made. Let me tell you that, kind of like "Me and My Gal", there wasn't a lot of substance to work with in this one. However, unlike "Me and My Gal", the director doesn't, in my opinion, make very good use of his time and the picture ends up running about thirty - forty minutes too long and I was left being bored for a big chunk in the middle. You've got a very distinct beginning, middle and end, and while the ends of the whole are fine, it's the middle where I'm left trying to salvage my connection to this picture. The beginning, which establishes the characters, their feuds, introduces the baker to the town and sees the departure of the wife, is a fine beginning and a set-up for what could certainly be a very acceptable picture, at the very least. Then, the middle, where Aimable spends what seems like a gargantuan amount of time stewing over the loss of his wife, sees the townspeople trying to console him and trying to think of ways to help him. Then, the end, which is also perfectly acceptable.

It all just seems so silly: a group of villagers trying to get the baker's wife back, because they simply can't live without him baking bread. I mean, the whole plot, sort of, hinges on bread! Okay, okay, so maybe there's a lot more to it than that. In fact, I was getting the sense of some very serous religious undertones in there and I'm thinking that there was a LOT of symbolism that I just wasn't picking up on. You had a lot of references to the town curate, the Lord's prayer (daily bread) and other such things. In fact, you may even be able to compare the baker's wife to God, like a priest losing his faith. When Aurelie wasn't there, Aimable couldn't go on making the bread, he'd lost the one he worshiped and therefore was left with no motivation. I don't know and I don't really want to get into a whole theorizing thing, because as I watched it, none of these symbols or undertones were prevalent enough to pick up on and it wasn't until afterwards that they kind of struck me. I watched the film for what it was, which was a baker who wasn't baking and the wife who stepped out on him and THAT wasn't good enough of a picture to be included amongst the 1001 best.

RATING: 5/10  I'll call it right down the middle, because for all my negativity, it wasn't THAT bad. Usually with average films, it's hard for me to focus on one side or the other and I end up having to either rant about the negative side or the positive side, but not both. Also, for the interested, this spot should've been "L'Atalante", but it's on a "short wait" from Netflix, so I skipped it...for now.

MOVIES WATCHED: 667
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 334

April 26, 2013  1:46pm