Marcel Camus is famous for his "Orfeo negro" which deservedly won the "Palme d' Or" in the Cannes Festival 1959.Since,he was never able to capitalize on the success of his exotic musical and he tried new tacks :after another exotic story "l'Oiseau de Paradis" ,he tackled the nightclubs world in "Vivre la Nuit" and the comedy with "Le Mur de l'Atlantique " which happened to be Bourvil's last part.
"La Porteuse de Pain" was one of those countless interminable melodramas which were serialized in newspapers :"les Deux Orphelines" which would become DW Griffith's "orphans in the storm" and "les Mystères de Paris" (probably the best of the lot) were,along "la Porteuse de Pain" ,the most famous ones.
"La Porteuse de Pain" was the story of poor pitiful Jeanne Fortier ,a good woman ,unfairly accused of theft ,sent to jail,her unfortunate children left alone .... She escaped but she had to hide and she became a "Porteuse de Pain" (= bread carrier) and she was finally cleared of the charge after many adventures.
Marcel Camus did a good job and the six episodes of the miniseries are very entertaining;Martine Sarcey seems to carry all the world's misfortunes on her shoulder;supporting cast includes French luminaries as Bernard Giraudeau and the late Jacques Villeret .
The last line of this naive novel was "I 've been suffering a lot,but now it's paradise! Ah! God is good!"Oddly ,Camus ends his miniseries with ominous news of an impending WW1 as French traditional "Le Temps des Cerises" is heard.
