La Fille du puisatier (1940)
Directed by Marcel Pagnol

Film Review

In La Fille du puisatier, writer-director Marcel Pagnol revisits many of the themes he explored in his previous films - the father-daughter relationship, the shame of an unwanted pregnancy, family rupture and reconciliation - and delivers a melodrama of exceptional charm and poignancy.  Pagnol's restrained mise-en-scène and extensive use of natural locations (unusual for this period) evoke the bucolic simplicity and slow pace of Provençal life in the 1930s, more vividly than any other films of this era.  Once again, Pagnol is well-served by a superlative cast that is headed by two iconic performers who had appeared in several of his earlier films: Raimu, arguably the finest French screen actor of his day, and Fernandel, who was emerging as one of France's most popular comic actors.  This was to be Raimu's final collaboration with Pagnol before his untimely death in 1946; Fernandel would make one more film with the director, Topaze (1951), before finding international fame with his interpretation of Don Camillo.

La Fille du puisatier may not be Marcel Pagnol's greatest film  - indeed a less generous reviewer would write it off as a bland rehash of the director's previous Angèle (1934) - but it does assume some historical significance by dint of the fact that it documents France's capitulation to Nazi Germany more or less as it was happening.  Work on the film began in May 1940 but was suspended in June at the height of the debacle.  Filming resumed in August after France's surrender and the establishment of the Vichy government.  The only member of the original cast who was unavailable for the remount was Betty Daussmond, who was replaced by Line Noro (in the role of Madame Mazel).  In the interim, Fernandel had been away on military service (an escapade which merits a film in its own right).  Pagnol made a few tweaks to his script, the most significant being a scene in which the main characters listen to a radio broadcast by Maréchal Pétain, the recently installed head of the Vichy government.  This scene, which perfectly captures the sentiment of the defeated French nation, was excised from prints when the film was released immediately after the war but was subsequent reinstated.

Whilst it is a little overlong and somewhat marred by an unnecessary happy ending, La Fille du puisatier is an engaging piece that exemplifies both Pagnol's skill as a writer and his acute understanding of human nature.  The characters are all well-drawn and authentically played by a remarkable ensemble of actors.  In a performance that virtually matches the one he gave in Pagnol's La Femme du boulanger (1938), Raimu brings genuine emotion and an arresting intensity to his portrayal of a man who is torn between his pride and his love for the daughter who shames him.  As the kind-hearted stooge, Fernandel fits so well into the landscape of Pagnol's films that is hard to imagine him in any other setting - this is the kind of role he played best and the one in which he gives greatest value.  Although Raimu takes the emotional focus for pretty well most of the film, he does occasionally release us from his spell, allowing his co-stars Charpin and Josette Day to come to the fore with a few moments of delicately played poignancy.

Seventy years on, a remake of this film is now in production, directed by Daniel Auteuil, who had previously starred in Claude Berri's remake of another Marcel Pagnol film, Manon des sources.  This will be Auteuil's first work as a director and he will star in the film alongside Kad Merad and Mélanie Laurent.  The film is scheduled to be released in April 2011.  Whether it succeeds in evoking the timeless magic of Pagnol's Provence remains to be seen.

Film Synopsis

France, 1939.  Pascal Amoretti and his assistant Felipe earn an honest living by digging wells in their picturesque region of Provence.  Felipe is love with Patricia, the eldest of his employer's six daughters, but she is unaware of his feelings towards her.  In fact, Patricia has already lost her heart to an officer pilot in the French army, Jacques Mazel, the son of a wealthy shopkeeper.  One day, Amoretti allows Felipe to take his daughter to an air show in his new motorcar.  At the show, Patricia runs into Jacques and allows him to take her off to his bachelor's pad, leaving a distraught Felipe to get drunk.  Patricia refuses to be seduced by her beau but allows him to take her home on his motorcycle, since Felipe is in no fit state to drive.  During this journey, Patricia can no longer resist her lover's powers of seduction.  The two agree to meet the next day but as soon as he gets back home Jacques learns that he must immediately return to his squadron.  His mother refuses to give Patricia the letter apologising for his absence and so the well-digger's daughter naturally assumes she has been rejected.  Some months later, Patricia finds she is pregnant with Jacques' child.  When Amoretti breaks this news to the Mazels, they refuse to believe his story.  Dishonoured, the well-digger sends his daughter away to stay with an aunt for the duration of the pregnancy.  In the meantime, Felipe has been called up for military service, but during his leave he manages to patch things up between Amoretti and his daughter.  News is then received that Jacques has gone missing during a flying mission and is feared dead...