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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 entire 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. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack • 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 1967 revisiting the village of Le Castellet, where the film was shot • New English subtitle translation • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau

Description

In the 1930s, Marcel Pagnol, a leading light of the Paris theater, set out for new horizons as a filmmaker in his native Provence. His early masterpieces Marius, Fanny, and César mix theatrical stagecraft with realistic location photography to create an epic love story from the fabric of everyday life. Gruff, sentimental César (music-hall star Raimu) owns a waterfront bar in the old port of Marseille, where his son, Marius (Pierre Fresnay), wipes down tables and dreams of a life at sea. The prosperous, middle-aged sailmaker Panisse (Fernand Charpin), wanting to wed Marius s sweetheart, Fanny (Orane Demazis), sets up a generation-spanning romantic triangle, the story of which unfolds in a series of fateful twists in the films of The Marseille Trilogy, which first earned Pagnol his place in cinema history. If Pagnol is not the greatest auteur of the sound film, critic André Bazin wrote, he is in any case something akin to its genius. THREE-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES -New 4K digital restorations of all three films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks -New introduction by filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier -New interview with Nicolas Pagnol, writer-director Marcel Pagnol s grandson -Segments of Marcel Pagnol: Morceaux de choisis, a 1973 documentary series on Pagnol s life and work -Short documentary on the Marseille harbor by Pagnol -Archival interviews with actors Orane Demazis, Pierre Fresnay, and Robert Vattier -Pagnol s Poetic Realism, a new video essay by scholar Brett Bowles -French television clip about the restoration of the trilogy -Theatrical rerelease trailer -New English subtitle translations -PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson and excerpts from Pagnol s memoirs

Description

In the 1930s, Marcel Pagnol, a leading light of the Paris theater, set out for new horizons as a filmmaker in his native Provence. His early masterpieces Marius, Fanny, and César mix theatrical stagecraft with realistic location photography to create an epic love story from the fabric of everyday life. Gruff, sentimental César (music-hall star Raimu) owns a waterfront bar in the old port of Marseille, where his son, Marius (Pierre Fresnay), wipes down tables and dreams of a life at sea. The prosperous, middle-aged sailmaker Panisse (Fernand Charpin), wanting to wed Marius s sweetheart, Fanny (Orane Demazis), sets up a generation-spanning romantic triangle, the story of which unfolds in a series of fateful twists in the films of The Marseille Trilogy, which first earned Pagnol his place in cinema history. If Pagnol is not the greatest auteur of the sound film, critic André Bazin wrote, he is in any case something akin to its genius. THREE-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES -New 4K digital restorations of all three films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks -New introduction by filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier -New interview with Nicolas Pagnol, writer-director Marcel Pagnol s grandson -Segments of Marcel Pagnol: Morceaux de choisis, a 1973 documentary series on Pagnol s life and work -Short documentary on the Marseille harbor by Pagnol -Archival interviews with actors Orane Demazis, Pierre Fresnay, and Robert Vattier -Pagnol s Poetic Realism, a new video essay by scholar Brett Bowles -French television clip about the restoration of the trilogy -Theatrical rerelease trailer -New English subtitle translations -PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson and excerpts from Pagnol s memoirs

Description

In the 1930s, Marcel Pagnol, a leading light of the Paris theater, set out for new horizons as a filmmaker in his native Provence. His early masterpieces Marius, Fanny, and César mix theatrical stagecraft with realistic location photography to create an epic love story from the fabric of everyday life. Gruff, sentimental César (music-hall star Raimu) owns a waterfront bar in the old port of Marseille, where his son, Marius (Pierre Fresnay), wipes down tables and dreams of a life at sea. The prosperous, middle-aged sailmaker Panisse (Fernand Charpin), wanting to wed Marius s sweetheart, Fanny (Orane Demazis), sets up a generation-spanning romantic triangle, the story of which unfolds in a series of fateful twists in the films of The Marseille Trilogy, which first earned Pagnol his place in cinema history. If Pagnol is not the greatest auteur of the sound film, critic André Bazin wrote, he is in any case something akin to its genius. THREE-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES -New 4K digital restorations of all three films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks -New introduction by filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier -New interview with Nicolas Pagnol, writer-director Marcel Pagnol s grandson -Segments of Marcel Pagnol: Morceaux de choisis, a 1973 documentary series on Pagnol s life and work -Short documentary on the Marseille harbor by Pagnol -Archival interviews with actors Orane Demazis, Pierre Fresnay, and Robert Vattier -Pagnol s Poetic Realism, a new video essay by scholar Brett Bowles -French television clip about the restoration of the trilogy -Theatrical rerelease trailer -New English subtitle translations -PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson and excerpts from Pagnol s memoirs