Auteuil remakes Pagnol
Created: July 19, 2012 Last Updated: July 19, 2012
Astrid Berg?s-Frisbey (L), Daniel Auteuil, and Marie-Anne Chazel in the romantic drama 'The Well-Digger?s Daughter,' a film about familial conflict arising after the discovery that a well-digger?s daughter is pregnant. (Courtesy of Kino Lorber Inc)
\>");Class, social convention, and World War I are powerful forces aligned against a young woman?s happiness. Yet, she may eventually find her place in a world changing faster than she realizes in lead actor-director-screen adaptor Daniel Auteuil?s respectful remake of Marcel Pagnol?s The Well-Digger?s Daughter, which opens this Friday in New York.
Pascal Amoretti digs and repairs wells. It is hard but honest work, still quite necessary in the early 20th century southern French provinces. The widower was blessed and cursed with a brood of six girls. Old Amoretti has come to rely on the eldest, Patricia, to manage his household, but she has reached marriageable age.
A match with his smitten older employee F?lipe Rambert would suit the working class patriarch nicely, but Patricia has eyes only for Jacques Mazel, the dashing young officer son of the town?s well-to-do hardware merchant.
Despite knowing the impossibility of their affair, the young woman loses her head with the military aviator the night before he ships out to the front. When Mazel is reported missing-in-action not long after, the pregnant Amoretti must face her shame alone.
Mazel?s parents certainly are not interested in acknowledging the girl, and her traditional father is at a loss, unable to see around society?s constraints.
Astrid Berg?s-Frisbey (C), and Kad Merad in the romantic drama 'The Well-Digger?s Daughter.' (Courtesy of Kino Lorber Inc)
The thing about Digger, though, is that the fallen Amoretti?s fortunes are not set in stone. People will rise to the occasion and redeem themselves. Though the village gossips would hardly put it in such terms, hers really is a story of virtue rewarded. How she gets there will be quite the trick.
Chock-full of tearful confrontations and convenient revelations, Digger could have easily descended into sentimental treacle, but first-time helmer Auteuil keeps it all concretely grounded in the characters? natural and social environments.
Already a favorite of the Pagnol estate after his career-making performances in Claude Berri?s Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring, Auteuil is reportedly already developing more Pagnol projects. As the painfully dignified and conflicted father, he sets the tone for the deeply empathetic Digger.
Likewise, Kad Merad?s Rambert is more than just a likable lug, but a profoundly understanding old soul. Astrid Berg?s-Frisbey is genuinely moving as Patricia in her scenes with Auteuil, while also developing convincing chemistry with Nicolas Devauchelle?s Mazel, who is not as caddish as he sounds. An unusually forgiving film, it pardons the transgressions of everyone, even the severe Mme. Mazel.
The old-fashionedness of Digger is truly its virtue. Perhaps, some of its rigid class-consciousness will be lost on some perpetually social-climbing Americans, but most viewers will be lulled by Jean-Fran?ois Robin?s lush pastoral cinematography and Alexandre Desplat?s nostalgic score.
A handsome period production with several worthy screen turns, The Well-Digger?s Daughter is easily recommended for Francophiles and patrons of literary dramas when it opens this Friday (July 20) in New York at the Quad Cinema.The Well-Digger?s Daughter
Director: Daniel Auteuil
Cast: Daniel Auteuil, Astrid Berg?s-Frisbey, Nicolas Duvauchelle
Running Time: 107 minutes
Language: French with English subtitles
Joe Bendel writes about independent film and lives in New York. To read his most recent articles, please visit http://jbspins.blogspot.com
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