La Femme du Boulanger, written by Jean Giono,
directed by Marcel Pagnol
9 out of 10
Notes and
thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E
and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
The Baker’s
Wife is a very good comedy- drama.
It is
included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list:
Albeit
simple, the story is charming.
Aimable Castanier
is the main character.
He is the
baker who wants to satisfy everyone.
His very
name means amiable in French.
And the
entire village loves his bread and his friendly manner.
Aurélie
Castanier is his wife and she is very beautiful. Physically, for in terms of
morals and loyalty, there may be a problem.
Le Marquis
Castan de Venelles arrives one day in the shop to say that he will send his Berger
to buy bread and patisserie from The Baker.
The scene
has reminded me of the classic of psychology:
-
Blink, The Power of Thinking Without
Thinking by the genius Malcolm Gladwell
There is a
theory of thin slicing and examples from many domains that point out to the
opinion that we form quickly.
La Femme du
Boulanger is very interested in the man who is accompanying the Marquis and
will come to collect bread.
Furthermore,
late in the evening, as the baker and his wife are getting ready for bed, an outré
apparition is near the house.
Before getting
to that, I must say that the woman was rather uncommunicative and cold, as her
spouse was talking to her.
Actually,
when he later talks to the locals, the Boulanger dismisses the rumors regarding
his missing wife with:
-
You know, she is not at all
interested in love! Whenever I caress or approach her she is switching
attention to something else
-
Poor Baker! She was all against
intimacy with…him!
Three men
are singing under the window of the baker’s bedroom and naïve and Aimable as he
is, he thanks them!
“en plus”
he feels obliged for the songs that, I do not see why except that he is a bit
thick, he thinks were for both him and his wife…
-
Go downstairs and my wife will give
you some pastry, because it was such a beautiful thing that you did!
So the
handsome, much younger Berger goes into the shop, while the silly baker talks
to the other two singers.
The woman
puts bread and cakes inside a sac and intentionally brushes the face of the man
with her hair, repeatedly.
Almost in a
flash, they establish that they will run away together the next morning, early
on and she is off, while her husband first burns and then refuses to bake any
more bread, while he looks desperately for her.
For a long
time, the cuckold husband refuses to believe that his spouse is anywhere but
near, first he thinks it is the garden, then the church and finally the mother,
even faced with evidence and testimony, the baker refutes it all.
When he
understands- well, I do not know if he does, but he sees the truth- he is
depressed and without any meaning left, abandons his job and the villagers who
depended on his work and gets heavily drunk.
It is not
all light comedy, but meditations on God, his ways and the mysteries of life
are uttered by various characters, from the priest of the village, to the
Marquis and other locals, that ultimately unite to try and help the Boulanger.
Amiable is
so good and Buddhist like that he still thinks about the poor wife and what
will she do in difficult circumstances, for he was always there to take care of
her and this Berger is poor, he had to steal the horse on which they run away.
Poor Femme
du Boulanger – yeah, right!!- What will happen to her when there will be
nothing to eat and no place to sleep in!!
I was so
sorry for her…I need to stop here and weep.
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