Wow! Such a good movie.

Sadly Over-hyped

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I alternated between being charmed and a bit put off by actor Daniel Auteuil's directorial debut -- a sweet (sometimes sticky sweet) re-make of Marcel Pagnol's 1940 film. The film is a bit odd tonally; alternating between occasional bathetic intense emotion (scored to opera at times no less), and being a slightly too convenient and cute comedy of manners. Some modest spoilers ahead.Auteuil plays a working-class paterfamilias with 5 daughters, including an 18 year old favorite he has seen only as a perfect angel. But now she has brought the family to shame by getting pregnant by a rich and handsome local boy, who promptly leaves to fight in WW I -- and her father turns on her and casts her out. The film seems to want to have it both ways – we're told to feel bad for the cruel banishment of the daughter, but not TOO bad, since in the end dad (now grandpa) has to prove to be a good guy at heart. Auteuil - an actor I usually really enjoy – gives a slightly hammy (if admittedly amusing) performance, bouncing a bit too far back and forth between near monster and adorable gruff old guy. Also slightly problematic; the young couple are beautiful, but there's not a ton of spark there either individually or as a duo. There are some very good scenes, and I was extremely taken by Kad Merad in a supporting role as an endearing 40ish friend/employee of the father who is hopelessly in love with the young daughter. For all the rough spots, I modestly enjoyed the film. It's just that there were hints of a terrific movie early on, so when it ended up as just a nice, old-fashioned and somewhat predictable one, there was a sense of disappointment.

Marcel Pagnol was a wonderful French writer, director and playwright. His stories are indeed classics and have been filmed, re-filmed and even re-filmed again. So, it's not at all surprising that Daniel Auteuil has decided to take a stab at Pagnol's classic stories--not just starring in them but writing the new screenplays and directing them. I say that's not surprising because not only are these wonderful stories, but Auteuil also has previously been in a couple other Pagnol stories--"Jean de Florette" and "Manon Des Sources". His four new films consist of this film, "The Well-Digger's Daughter" as well as the wonderful trilogy consisting of "Marius", "Fanny" and "Cesar"--which just recently debuted and which are not yet available here in the States. I cannot wait to see these three most recent movies."The Well-Digger's Daughter" is a story with many similarities to the Fanny Trilogy Auteuil made following this film. All are set in Provence, concern ordinary folks and are about the complications that arise from an unplanned pregnancy.The story begins with the daughter, Patricia (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) meeting a handsome young man, Jacques (Nicolas Duvauchelle) when she's on her way to bring her father, Pascal (Daniel Auteuil), his lunch. The audience KNOWS based on their meeting that the two are destined to be a number. However, there are some complications---such as Felipe (Kad Merad) wanting to marry Patricia. But, of course, much more serious complications arise--and I don't really want to get to them here--just see the film.I love films about ordinary people--and Pagnol's are about as ordinary as you can find! Some may not be quite so captivated by these folks-- they aren't exactly rich, cultured or the Hollywood types. But, I am pretty ordinary as are 99% of movie viewers! So why not enjoy the lives and loves of folks we can relate to?! Plus, the story is so nicely written, lovingly directed and enjoyable that I strongly recommend you give it a try.By the way, Pascal's grandson, who he treats as if it's HIS kid is actually Zachary Auteuil--the actor/director's real life son!

Remaking a Pagnol film is asking for trouble. Film snobs will dismiss the remake without giving it a chance, though 60 years ago those same film snobs probably dismissed Pagnol as a film director, finding him hopelessly inferior to Renoir or ... Afficionados of Raimu, an unquestionably great actor - when he had a good role - will say that no one can do what he did. And they would be right; no one can out-Raimu Raimu. A force of nature, because Raimu at his best was a force of nature, cannot be imitated or equaled. But a role can be done a different way, even if the words are the same, just as different great actors can succeed at Hamlet or King Lear. And yes, I speak of Shakespeare. Theater/literature snobs can guffaw, but who cares? Let them go about their business.And I will go about mine, which is to talk about this movie, which is remarkably moving. Moving in part because Pagnol's script was a masterpiece, yes, but also because this is a very well-done realization of it.The first thing that struck me about this movie was the color, when you see the scenery. Pagnol, for whatever reason, really didn't do a lot with scenery in his black and white movies. This movie shows what that deprived us of. It is done in the best tradition of the color versions of Jean de Florette, Manon des sources, La gloire de mon père, and Le château de ma mère. The countryside around Salon de Provence comes alive, and is beautiful.I was also struck by the use of music, which again is not a high point in Pagnol's version. The Italian song, so wonderfully recorded by Caruso, is used in very moving ways here. Auteuil has a better sense of how to use music in a film than Pagnol did, at least with this script.But the heart of this movie is Pagnol's text, and this cast, a great one, does it beautifully. True, at times, as I marveled at the genius of Pagnol's text, I wondered if that meant these actors were acting it, rather than becoming the characters. That may be true in some cases, though not for Kad Merad, who becomes Philippet every bit as much as Fernandel did. I can hear Raimu reciting the lines Daniel Auteuil speaks, and beautifully, perhaps because they are so different, certainly because Raimu delivered them in a way that engraved them in my memory. But Auteuil makes them very moving as well. He is not a force of nature as Raimu was, but his Pascal is also a real character.What I realized, over and over again watching this movie, is that the script was indeed written by a playwright, and Auteuil respects that. We still have fully-developed scenes, as movies used to have when they were still imitating theater. And, as a result, with this great script and these great actors, we have deeply moving moments, such as when Pascal says goodbye to his daughter, sending her off to raise her bastard child elsewhere. Or, even more deeply moving, when the parents of the father of her child, having just lost their son in the war, come to see the child, the last remnant of their now lost son. Every line of that scene is deeply moving: Pascal's pride in his grandson, the parents' grief and longing for their son. (I didn't care for the mother's final admission that she burned her son's letter rather than deliver it to Patricia; that was better done in the previous version.)A film script is like a play: it can be done in more than one way, if it's worth doing - as this script most certainly is. It will not wipe away memories of Pagnol's 1940s version, nor should it. You don't have to forget Olivier's Hamlet to love Jacobi's, or Branaugh's, or ... I suspect the very film snobs who dismiss Pagnol's own work will cause this film not to enjoy the success it deserves, but that would be a real crime. This is, in fact, a wonderful realization of Pagnol's very beautiful, very wonderful script.---------------------------------I watched this movie again this evening, and really have nothing to add to what I wrote before, other than to say that it is a beautiful realization of Pagnol's script. Auteuil, Merad, and Darroussin are three of modern French film's finest actors, and they all give first-rate performances here. The often wonderful dialogue is delivered as in a great movie or play, lovingly and beautifully. Watch this. It's a deeply moving and wonderful movie.

Writer-director Marcel Pagnol set the bar pretty high in terms of film-making, not least when he made La Fille du puisatier in 1940 with some heavy hitters in the shape of Raimu, Fernandel and Charpin as respectively the eponymous well-digger, his friend and colleague Felipe, and Monsiour Mazel, the father of Jacques, who leaves the eponymous daughter pregnant and goes to war. Luckily Danile Auteuil is lion-hearted and makes a great fist of his affectionate remake plying the Raimu role himself with Kad Merad as the friend and Jean-Pierre Darrousin as Monsiour Mazel plus, for good measure, Sabine Azema as Madame Mazel. This is a film with charm to spare and wonderful shots of Province that tell us immediately why so many English people move there whilst inspiring others to follow suit. It's a film for all the family which chooses to avoid weightier issues - for example 'honor' marriages which, in the present day lead often to Asian girls choosing death or having death chosen for them by parents obsessed with honor - and concentrate on wholesome entertainment. Highly recommended.