The Well-Digger's Daughter

A French period drama remake of 1940's La Fille du Puisatier, made by revered filmmaker Marcel Pagnol, The Well-Digger's Daughter is directed by Daniel Auteuil (who gained world recognition in the 1986 prestige-scale Jean de Florette, based on a novel by Pagnol). Auteuil also stars as Pascal, a well-digger and salt-of-the-earth type in Provence in the early 1900s. Of his six daughters, the widowed Pascal is proudest of Patricia (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey), who was briefly Paris-educated and is the rustic clan's brightest prospect. When Patricia is seduced and impregnated by an admiring Jacques (Nicolas Duvauchelle)—a dashing aviator son of a prosperous village merchant—Pascal's aged partner, Félipe (Kad Merad), offers to wed Patricia to avoid scandal, but the well-digger will settle for nothing less than rightful marriage with the high-born culprit…or be forced to exile and disown Patricia. A modern dramatist might cast the well-digger as a mean, small-minded bumpkin, but such is the unapologetic old-school Pagnol magic that the unyielding father seems as much the offended victim as the daughter (Pascal is seen as heroically adhering to a moral code). Sex, profanity, and edgy histrionics are eschewed here in favor of pastoral scenes of amber-colored fields of grain. Whether intentionally post-ironic or a sincere revisit to a more conservative and sentimental brand of drama, this tranquil tale is a winner. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a stills gallery and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a winning film.] (C. Cassady)