THE BAKER'S WIFE (LA FEMME DU BOULANGER)

France, 1938, 133 minutes, Black and white.
Raimu, Ginette Leclerc.
Directed by Marcel Pagnol.

The Baker's Wife is one of those French comedies that are done so well especially in their portrait of the daily life in French villages. It is reminiscent of the classic 'Clochemerle’.

The film is a vehicle for the French music hall comedian and screen star Raimu. The film has a caption with a tribute from Orson Welles saying that he is the world's greatest actor. The film was written and directed by Marcel Pagnol who in the early thirties had written a famous trilogy of Marius, Fanny, Cesar. Raimu featured in these films. There is quite a lot of excellent observation of life in a French town in the thirties.

1. How entertaining a film? Plot, characterizations, dialogue? The film as a vehicle for Raimu?

2. The quality of the black and white photography, the capturing of the daily life of the village in all its detail?

3. The quality of the dialogue and its authenticity in representing these people and their lives? The setting of particular scenes and the observation of character? The various people, their profiles, manner? The emphasis on traditions, for example with the feuds? Drinking, gossip? Marriages, fidelity and infidelity? The place of religion and the church?

4. The character of the baker and his arrival in the town? People's esteem of him? The quality of his work? His genial and unsuspecting nature? His pleasantness to everybody and doing them favours? (And the realism at the end when it was seen that he had suppressed his real feelings?) His reaction to the shepherd serenading his wife, his waking up to find the oven on fire, his worry about his wife and going to search for her and asking various people, his continued excuses for her, his apprehension about her safety and health? His reaction to her absence and the way that people helped him? His desperation and his attempt to hang himself (how convincing?), his preparations for her return, his forgiveness? the irony of his vehemence in telling the story about the cat who had strayed? The quality of Raimu’s performance and his style? The credibility of such an innocent character and his well-meaning intentions?

5. The contrast with the younger wife, her attractiveness, her flirting, the liaison with the shepherd? The serenade, her promising to go off? Her escape on horseback and the overtones of courtly love with irony? Staying with the shepherd all day, her reaction to the shepherd’s going off? The encounter with the curate and her contention and absolution? Her tears on her return? The feelings that her husband's kindness roused in her? Her reaction to the story of the cat? Would she go away again?

6. The portrait of the shepherd, his infatuation with the baker's wife, the play at the serenading, the plan for going off? The day spent together, his fear of the priest, his running away?

7. The portrait of the men around the town, for example Cans Tontin? The discussions about the cutting down of the trees and the shade, the going out in search of the baker's wife, the drinking and the burying of feuds? How well detailed was the day of these men?

8. The portrait of the ladies of the town, the wives and the genial help to the banker, the fat wife taking over, the spinster and her curiosity and the school teacher's scaring of her into the house?

9. The Marquis and his genial help?

10. The portrait of the teacher and of the curate? In their school, in the church and the curate making the baker go to Mass? Their talk arguments? Their having to bury their differences and help the baker? The humour of the teacher carrying the priest through the water? The contribution of each to helping the baker?

11. The importance of the townspeople all gathering together to help the baker? their ironic laughing at him, but their basic sympathy?

12. The basic situation of marriage, older man and younger woman, the flirting woman, her going off? What comment did the film make about the situation, people's behaviour? How accurate was its portrait of human nature?