Marcel Pagnol

The Baker’s Wife

The Baker’s Wife

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.

Film Info

  • France
  • 1938
  • 134 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • French
  • Spine #986

Special Features

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New selected-scene audio commentary featuring Marcel Pagnol scholar Brett Bowles
  • Introduction by Pagnol from 1967
  • Excerpt from a 1966 interview with Pagnol for the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps
  • Short French news program from 1976 revisiting the village of Le Castellet, where the film was shot
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau

New cover by Manuel Fior

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New selected-scene audio commentary featuring Marcel Pagnol scholar Brett Bowles
  • Introduction by Pagnol from 1967
  • Excerpt from a 1966 interview with Pagnol for the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps
  • Short French news program from 1976 revisiting the village of Le Castellet, where the film was shot
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau

New cover by Manuel Fior

The Baker’s Wife
Cast
Raimu
Aimable Castagnier
Robert Vattier
Priest
Charpin
Le marquis Castan de Venelles
Ginette Leclerc
Aurélie Castagnier
Robert Vattier
Priest
Charles Blavette
Antonin
Robert Bassac
Schoolteacher
Maupi
Barnabé
Alida Rouffe
Céleste
Odette Roger
Miette
Yvette Fournier
Hermine
Maximilienne Max
Mlle Angèle
Paul Dullac
Casimir
Charles Moulin
Shepherd
Édouard Delmont
Maillefer
Credits
Director
Marcel Pagnol
Screenplay by
Marcel Pagnol
Based upon a novel by
Jean Giono
Executive producer
Charles Pons
Cinematographer
Georges Benoît
Editor
Suzanne de Troeye
Music
Vincent Scotto

Current

A Genius of French Cinema Delivers a Career-Defining Performance
A Genius of French Cinema Delivers a Career-Defining Performance

Raimu is at his subtle best in one of the most moving scenes in The Baker’s Wife, a moment in which the actor channels the collective despair of France’s working class.

The Baker’s Wife: Bread, Love, and a Trophy Wife
The Baker’s Wife: Bread, Love, and a Trophy Wife

In his first major film to capture the Provençal setting that would come to define his work, Marcel Pagnol brilliantly combined comedy and emotion, theater and cinema.

By Ginette Vincendeau