La Femme du boulanger
FR 133m Dir: Marcel Pagnol Key Cast: Raimu
A new baker arrives in a French village and everyone likes his bread. But suddenly his wife runs off with a shepherd and the baker can't bring himself to bake anymore. The villages then do everything they can to improve the baker's situation to make sure he can make bread again.
The film is really quite funny in various ways. The villages are pretty much caricatures from the teacher, to the vicar, to the marquis (basically local rich guy) and various villagers who have fallings out about stupid things. Though they are caricatures they are good ones and the characters are actually more developed than you might think. The comedy is often a bit misogynistic but is still quite funny and it's interesting comparing it with American comedies of it's day- the French would happily be much cruder.
At the same time though there's a real tragedy to the story. The Baker, played by Raimu, is the main character in what otherwise is an ensemble film, and he manages to be both funny and tragic simultaneously. There's a long sequence where he won't believe the evidence he has that his wife has run off with another man and stubbornly tries to convince himself there's a more rational explanation. At one point he is driven to drink and has a long rant and sings a song. But all the way through you are never quite sure whether to laugh at him or cry for him because the comedy comes from such a bleak place.
Eventually the wife returns home and the baker happily accepts her and still pretends she hasn't had an affair. He then sees that the female housecat has returned after a similar adventure and has a huge rant at it which is clearly intended for his wife but he couldn't ever say it directly. This moment is superb, full of psychology and emotion whilst sort of being darkly funny at the same time.
I'm not sure I've ever seen a film which manages to blur the lines of comedy and tragedy quite so well. Sure, there are tragedies with funny moments and comedies with tragic ones but the two concepts are always separate. Here though the comedy and the tragedy is happening at exactly the same time and there really is a sense as a viewer of not knowing whether to laugh or cry. I mean this as a huge compliment rather than a criticism, to be able to blend human emotion together in this way is a huge skill.
It's so wonderful when you watch a pretty obscure film with low expectations and realise it's an utter masterpiece. Often films are called "the best film you've never seen" but few fit the moniker as well as this one.
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