The Baker's Wife
1938
Directed by Marcel Pagnol
I really need to take it easy with the French language. I am currently trying to read a Diderot book in French for my book blog because it is less money that way and I am really cheap. This movie was in French and didn't have subtitles. I mean, Jesus, I am not that good!
From what I could understand, this film is about a baker who refuses to make bread after his wife leaves. In typical comic fashion, the town gets together to try to get the wife back so they have bread. This film is really rare so in all likelihood, you will never see it. I had to call my brother and get it by shady means. In fact, I used the word "shady" so much that my brother thought I was talking about drugs and got very confused.
Anyway, it is hard to enjoy a film when you barely know what they are saying. This is a shame because the premise is very interesting. The acting was really good, even the people with the smallest parts were talented. I still enjoyed though. I think you can get Spanish subtitles off the internet if that is your thing.
RATING: ***--
Interesting Facts:
Mentioned in Catcher in the Rye.
The wife's part was originally meant for Joan Crawford but she declined.
My French has really come in handy for these 1001 projects...
One random scene:
Why is this one SO difficult to get hold of?
ReplyDeleteI managed to find a copy - with English subtitles - on sale on iOffer (Ebay's slightly shady brother-in-law), and then imported from the USA..
But I got it, and T'RAAAA that's film No. 1000 in my 'Psycho' cover edition.
I..... enjoyed it. But not as much as I had hoped or expected to.
A tad over long.. a slight trimming of about 30 mins would have helped.. but as ever, which 30 mins do you lose? Which subtlety, which bit of character development hits the cutting room floor?
If you, or any other reader, enjoyed this, may I recommend, made within a year or two, also by Pagnol, the Fanny Trilogy, sometimes known as Marseilles trilogy, AKA Caesar. In my opinion, better.
Ray
Haha I have never heard of iOffer before. Sometimes I think that the list makers picked movies just because they are hard to find; maybe it makes them feel like they are smarter than us.
ReplyDeleteWell, I probably do it a Libel to infer any doddgynes to it, but I feel that most of it's sale items.. well they 'feel' as if they are copies of designer handbags etc.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite easy to find.. just google iOffer, and you should find it. It has pay pal facilities.. but they don't offer Ebay's customer service. If someone takes your money and runs.. you are on your own. That said, there are sellers on there with 3, 4 years+ selling background with 99% feedback. I have bought several of the tricky ones from there at round about the $5 mark.. all imported from the USA, and no problems.
Ray
Lol thanks for the tip!
DeleteTotally love this movie. I did find English subtitles and while the are not the best, it is way better than nothing. One of the movies I take out for a re-watch from time to time.
ReplyDeleteI watched the first half of this, then had to go and do some household jobs. Whilst hanging out the laundry I realised that it was all about religion. The baker is the naive believer who refuses to accept the obvious evidence in the face of the continued stability he wants to be true. Etc and so on. I then came back and watched the second half like it was a completely differently movie.
ReplyDeleteExcept, the final scene was more like it was supposed to have been taken at face value and everything I've been reading about it afterwards makes no reference to this subtext. Evidently I imagined the whole premise.
BTW, I downloaded a copy with a little difficulty and separately downloaded a set of English subtitles, all of which I can let you have if you like? There were places where there were clearly more words being spoken than written on the screen, and there were a handful of other bits where the subtitles simply read "This scene wasn't included on my VHS reference copy......", but more or less all OK.
I would like that! I would like to watch it again with your imagined premise in mind!
Delete