Le boulanger de Valorgue

In 1938,Marcel Pagnol released "La Femme Du Boulanger": a baker did not want to make bread anymore because his wife had left home to live her life with a handsome shepherd.In fact ,Verneuil's "Le Boulanger de Valorgue" is a cross between "baker's wife" (one of Orson Welles' favorites ,they say) and its follow-up "la Fille du Puisatier" where a young girl was pregnant by a boy forced to go to war (WW2).There's nothing really new under the sun of Provence and I do not share the precedent user's views: it's not necessarily more watchable than Pagnol's works because there's not here a single scene that can equal Raimu blaming his (female) cat La Pomponnette.

That said "le Boulanger de Valorgue" is certainly pleasant enough with its depiction of a Provençal village ,its mayor,its spinster and its gendarmes and a birth (naturally an unwed girl) which sets the whole community at loggerheads.The story has become,like Pagnol's ,thoroughly obsolete nowadays ,but it's still much fun to watch Fernandel.

This is one of those movies which should be available, but isn't. I get it out once or twice a year to take a trip back in time. The plot isn't anything special - a farce centered around the birth of an illegitimate child to the son and daughter of the town's baker and grocer. But it's so packed with period detail and dry humor that it never fails to fascinate. The black and white photography is excellent, using the bright Provencal sun to emphasize lights and shadows, and the exterior daylight shots are razor sharp. For this alone it is more watchable than the better known Pagnol films made in the same area 20 years earlier. Fernandel blusters his way through this, clumsy both in gesture and speech, yet capable of machine-gun speed delivery when excited. He is surrounded by a galaxy of amazing bit players - the idiotic facture (Tati does it better, but this is good enough), the droning local politicians and small business owners, the town prude and the town whore, the priest and the two lovers - who serve to round out the image of the little town. As is typical of Franco-Italian collaborations of this period, the film has a side trip across the border, introducing another set of Italian bit players; who gesticulate, balladize, and in general leave Fernandel in a state of complete confusion. Also fascinating is the period rolling stock - the steam train to Italy, and various trucks and buses. Finally, a music score by Nino Rota (of Godfather fame), which is varied but not intrusive. In sum, it's like opening a French time capsule, full of amazing sights and sounds.