The Baker’s Wife
Directed by Marcel Pagnol • 1938 • France
Starring Raimu, Ginette Leclerc, Charpin
The warmth and wit of celebrated playwright turned cinema auteur Marcel Pagnol shine in this enchanting slice-of-life comedy. Returning to the Provençal countryside he knew intimately, Pagnol draws a vivid portrait of a close-knit village where the marital woes of a sweetly deluded baker (the inimitable Raimu, praised by no less than Orson Welles as “the greatest actor who ever lived”) snowball into a scandal that engulfs the town. Marrying the director’s abiding concern for the experiences of ordinary people with an understated but superbly judged visual style, THE BAKER’S WIFE is at once wonderfully droll and piercingly perceptive in its depiction of the complexities of human relationships.
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The Baker’s Wife
Directed by Marcel Pagnol • 1938 • France
Starring Raimu, Ginette Leclerc, CharpinThe warmth and wit of celebrated playwright turned cinema auteur Marcel Pagnol shine in this enchanting slice-of-life comedy. Returning to the Provençal countryside he knew intimately, Pagnol draws a vivid portrai...
Extras
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Marcel Pagnol on THE BAKER’S WIFE
Writer-director Marcel Pagnol recorded the following brief introduction to THE BAKER’S WIFE, in which he discusses the development and casting of the film, in 1967.
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Marcel Pagnol on “Cinéaste de notre temps”
In this segment from a 1966 interview with Marcel Pagnol for the French television series “Cinéastes de notre temps,” the writer-director discusses his theories on cinema and the making of THE BAKER’S WIFE.
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Memories of THE BAKER’S WIFE
This short local-news profile was recorded in 1976 in Le Castellet, the village where THE BAKER’S WIFE was filmed. Actors Ginette Leclerc and Charles Moulin make appearances, along with residents who remember the filming and note the changes to the town.
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THE BAKER’S WIFE Selected-Scene Commentary
In the following selected-scene commentary, scholar Brett Bowles discusses THE BAKER’S WIFE in the contexts of the social and political climate of 1930s France, French folkloric traditions, and gender roles. Bowles is the author of “Marcel Pagnol” (2012), part of the Manchester University Press s...
