The sun is strong and the grass is tall as it waves in a gentle breeze: The opening shot of “The Well Digger’s Daughter” grounds us firmly in the countryside of southern France, a location we are not allowed to forget about for the rest of the movie.
Nor would we want to. This is an idealized place, a lovingly remembered countryside out of the past — if it ever existed at all.
The story comes from Marcel Pagnol, the celebrated French novelist-filmmaker who made the original version of this film in 1940.
His great setting was his childhood home of Provence, a connection he shares with Daniel Auteuil, the French actor who makes his directing debut here.
The central situation might have come from folklore: The well-digger’s daughter, Patricia (Astrid Berges-Frisbey), is quickly romanced by the well-to-do son (Nicolas Duvauchelle) of a wealthy merchant.
The lingering aftermath of their single night together is the movie’s central issue, as Patricia’s father (Daniel Auteuil), a hard-working, old-fashioned widower with five daughters, is shocked by his perfect angel’s affair of the heart.
There might not be anything especially surprising or new about the drama that follows, but there is much to savor, including the well-observed codes of honor and behavior that these foolish mortals stubbornly follow.
Auteuil is earthy and subtly humorous as the proud father, and Jean-Pierre Daroussin and Sabine Azema, both veterans of French cinema, are exactly right as the merchant and his melodramatic wife.
Even better is Kad Merad, as the well-digger’s bald, amiable co-worker, whose essential decency allows him to gracefully recover from Patricia’s polite rejection of his romantic overtures.
The Second World War comes along to touch the lives of these rural folk, yet it never overshadows the important topics of family and responsibility — the war is another dramatic complication, not the main point of all this.
Auteuil resists the urge to add edge to the tale, or to try to bring modern techniques to bear. Not a lot of hand-held camerawork here.
Instead, we get a calm, squared-off appreciation of very specific types — and a very specific, eye-filling landscape.
“The Well Digger’s Daughter” (3 stars)
Actor Daniel Auteuil directs this remake of Marcel Pagnol’s 1940 French film, a character study about codes of behavior and responsibility in rural Provence. The movie’s very old-fashioned, but well-cast and with a strong, sunny sense of place. In French, with English subtitles.
Rated: Not rated; probably PG for subject matter.
Showing: Varsity.
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