Le Boulanger de Valorgue (1953)
Directed by Henri Verneuil

Film Review

Of the nine films that Fernandel made with director Henri Verneuil, Le Boulanger de Valorgue is arguably the best made and the most satisfying.  There are shades of Marcel Pagnol in the film's whimsical yet strikingly naturalistic depiction of village life in the South of France.  The plot and its setting remind us of Pagnol's Angèle (1934), the film that gave Fernandel one of his first significant dramatic roles.  Yet the tone is lighter, the situations more overtly comical.  Whilst the film does not downplay the social stigma associated with childbirth outside wedlock, it takes a more light-hearted approach, allowing Fernandel to play to his strengths as a comic performer.

Although Henri Verneuil is perhaps best remembered for his slick policiers of '60s and '70s, notably Le Clan des Siciliens (1969) and Peur sur la ville (1975), he was a remarkably versatile director, as capable of delivering a boisterous comedy such as Les Lions sont lâchés (1961) as a poignant melodrama like Des gens sans importance (1955).  Le Boulanger de Valorgue combines social realism and comedy to great effect and is easily one of Verneuil's most engaging films.  Photographed in a way that vividly captures the stark beauty of the rural location and populated with believable, well-drawn characters rather than the familiar stereotypes, this film has a realist edge and auteur sensibility that you would not expect to find in a mainstream French comedy of this era.

Hernri Verneuil was one of a handful of directors who was able to get the best out of Fernandel, as this and their later collaboration La Vache et le prisonnier (1959) amply demonstrate.   In a part that fits him like a well-worn glove, the great comic actor has no need to indulge in the excesses for which he is known but instead plays the baker of Valorgue as a real character, with real feelings and real failings.  Fernandel  is hilarious in the sequence when his character goes off to Italy and finds he can only communicate with the locals through hand gestures, but equally he gives a heartrending turn when his character opens his heart to his future daughter-in-law and shows an unexpected compassionate side to his nature.  Rarely is a great comedian also a great actor, but this film leaves us in little doubt that Fernandel was a formidable acting talent, a performer who could make you cry and laugh with extraordinary ease, often in the same scene.

Film Synopsis

Valorgue, a quaint little town in the south of France, used to be such an idyllic spot.  Now it is caught up in the most frenzied of civil wars, with half of the town siding with the good-natured baker, Félicien Hébrard, and the other half with the grocer, the cantankerous old widow Zanetti.  It all began a year ago, when the baker's son, Justin, was pursuing a secret love affair with Zanetti's daughter, Françoise.  Who could have foreseen that so few stolen kisses would result in so much acrimony?   After her boyfriend has departed for his military service in Algeria, Françoise goes off to Italy, and returns ten months later with a baby.  Zanetti is so incensed by this turn of events that she seizes the infant and unceremoniously drops it into Félicien's unsuspecting lap.

Try as he might, the baker is unable to convince his sharp-tongued enemy that his son had anything to do with the baby.  Justin is far too respectable and level-headed a lad to put himself in the family way!  Zanetti knows otherwise and before another word is uttered she and the baker are at war.  The postmaster, Monsieur Aussel, takes the side of the grocer and immediately launches a fierce campaign against the baker, insisting he has brought shame and dishonour on two respectable women.  Félicien responds by refusing to sell bread to anyone supporting Aussel's programme of vilification.  With the town now divided into two camps, the Félicienists and the Zanettists, law and order soon begins to break down.

A lorry loaded with flour is prevented from reaching the baker, and before long there is a thriving black market in bread.  Things go from bad to worse when the enterprising postman Évariste sets about trying to make bread in the communal oven.  As anarchy breaks out, Félicien is driven to go after Françoise, who has by now fled to Italy with her baby.  On his return he is shocked to discover that Évariste has taken over his bakery.  There is only one person who can settle the dispute and restore order to the town - the baker's son, Justin.  The confession that is forced out of the lad when he returns on leave is not likely to please Félicien...