A poacher, wishing for fatherhood, coaxes an itinerant girl away from her simple knifegrinder companion and sets up house with her in a deserted village which they bring back to life. Reference: Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide. A darker side to Marcel Pagnol’s work drew on an older Mediterranean culture, that of the rural drama reflected in ‘Jofroi’ (1933), ‘Angele’ (1934) and ‘Regain/Harvest’ (1937). These melodramas were grounded in the same archaic patriarchal values as the trilogy, but they swapped theatricality for location shooting and have been recognised as influential on neo-realism.” Reference: Ginette Vincendeau. The companion to French cinema. BFI Publishing, 1996. =Held in our collection.
Credits: Director, writer, Marcel Pagnol ; photography, Willy ; music, Arthur Honegger.
Cast: Gabriel Gabrio, Fernandel, Orane Demazis, Edouard Delmont, Marguerite Moreno, Robert Le Vigan.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
X000213
Languages
English
French
Subject category
Foreign language films
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Black and White
Holdings
16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)