#1 - The Well-Digger's Daughter
La Fille du Puisatier is actually a remake of a 1940 film. This version is directed and stars Daniel Auteuil, who is extremely famous in France and virtually unknown in America.
Auteuil is the titular Well-Digger, who has five daughters. The oldest one, Patricia, just turned 18, and since this is France in 1940 her romantic encounter with a handsome rich young officer inevitably results in pregnancy. The rest of the film is really about her father trying to cope with this while satisfying his view of the honor of his family, a situation further confused by the officer's disappearance behind enemy lines. In other words, this entire plot could have been made moot by birth control.
If you are trying to develop an appreciation for French cinema I'm not sure that this is a good place to start. It may be an art-house film in America, but that's only because it is in French. I suspect that in France this is a very mainstream film, and the plot reflects that. It's more like a high end Jodi Picoult adaptation. Aside from Auteuil and a supporting turn by Kad Merad the acting isn't anything particularly impressive. Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey is gorgeous as Patricia, but really the most beautiful thing in this movie is the south of France, which is bathed in a nostalgic sunlit glow in virtually every scene. Short of shooting the entire thing during the golden hour I'm not sure how they could make the landscape any prettier. This movie looks like what poets are thinking of when they write about the sun-dappled fields of provincial France.
Overall, this is enjoyable but nothing special. However, it is the first film I've seen this year, so that means it is automatically #1 on my "How much fun I had in the theater" list for 2013. This is an idea I'm stealing from Howard Taylor over at Schlock Mercenary.
How Much Fun I Had in the Theater, 2013
Rank. Order - Name. Date; Theater.
Auteuil is the titular Well-Digger, who has five daughters. The oldest one, Patricia, just turned 18, and since this is France in 1940 her romantic encounter with a handsome rich young officer inevitably results in pregnancy. The rest of the film is really about her father trying to cope with this while satisfying his view of the honor of his family, a situation further confused by the officer's disappearance behind enemy lines. In other words, this entire plot could have been made moot by birth control.
If you are trying to develop an appreciation for French cinema I'm not sure that this is a good place to start. It may be an art-house film in America, but that's only because it is in French. I suspect that in France this is a very mainstream film, and the plot reflects that. It's more like a high end Jodi Picoult adaptation. Aside from Auteuil and a supporting turn by Kad Merad the acting isn't anything particularly impressive. Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey is gorgeous as Patricia, but really the most beautiful thing in this movie is the south of France, which is bathed in a nostalgic sunlit glow in virtually every scene. Short of shooting the entire thing during the golden hour I'm not sure how they could make the landscape any prettier. This movie looks like what poets are thinking of when they write about the sun-dappled fields of provincial France.
Overall, this is enjoyable but nothing special. However, it is the first film I've seen this year, so that means it is automatically #1 on my "How much fun I had in the theater" list for 2013. This is an idea I'm stealing from Howard Taylor over at Schlock Mercenary.
How Much Fun I Had in the Theater, 2013
Rank. Order - Name. Date; Theater.
- #1 - The Well-Digger's Daughter. Sunday, January 6; Cleveland Cinematheque.