The Well Digger's Daughter
2011 ‘La Fille du puisatier’ Directed by Daniel Auteuil
Synopsis
It's the beginning of the WWII. South of France. Patricia, 18, is the oldest daughter of a well-digger, Pascal, who considers her a princess because of her moral qualities. She's kind, devoted. One day, she briefly meets a young man, Jacques, the son of Mazel, owner of the shop where her father buy his material. He's handsome and teasing. Her father's friend, Felipe, would love to marry her, and he invites her to an aviation show. She accepts his invitation only because she knows Jacques is a pilot and will be there. Soon, she'll carry his child, and he'll be gone, and the family will have to deal with this out-of-wedlock pregnancy...
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Popular reviews
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The December Project: Film #101
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
Continuing to work as one of France’s most respected actors now into his seventh decade, Daniel Auteuil takes the directorial reins of The Well Digger’s Daughter, making his behind-the-camera debut with this unashamedly traditional wartime tale of a father torn between the honour of his family name and his love for the daughter who finds herself unexpectedly with child. Earnest, simplistic class drama follows when the child’s father is revealed as the heroic soldier son of a well-to-do family; Auteuil, co-writing as well as portraying the titular well digger, avoids excess obsession with the plot’s darker thematic questions, keeping proceedings primarily light and witty. His own…
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Set in pre-WWII Provence, this French film follows a gruff, widowed well-digger and his five daughters, especially the eldest, Patricia (a remarkable Astrid Bergès-Frisbey), who returned home from her city convent school transformed into someone not quite content with their simple, hardscrabble home and rural village life. A chance encounter with the brash, entitled local merchant's son sets up a chain of events that threaten their small family's happiness.
Danny Auteuil is both the well-digger father and the director. He doesn't allow the film to wander too much--it's both tightly edited and filled with some rising tension and drama. At times, the film falls into a bit of sentimentality, plus it suffers from a storyline that may feel outdated to…
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Acclaimed actor Daniel Auteuil tries his hand at directing with this remake of a 1940 hit directed by the writer of the source novel Marcel Pagnol, and makes a good job of it.
The tale is simple and quite old fashioned with its heavy morality concerning what is now an almost common place occurrence in out-of-wedlock teenage pregnancy but considering the time it is set and the bucolic backdrop of Provence, it fits in nicely. It is this quaint but archaic attitude of narrow minded paternal outrage which modern, younger audiences will find hard to take seriously and relate to, but the performances are so pitch perfect that they are easy to accept within the context of this gentle yarn.…
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It's a typical film of the time it's portraying. Honor was above anything else, and one misstep can put a whole family out of balance. It's a fair and good story, with a very safe and sound core. Most of all, it's stunningly beautiful to look at. The panning of the fields, the woods, the houses and the people.. wonderfully shot!
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Set in pre-WWII Provence, this French film follows a gruff, widowed well-digger and his five daughters, especially the eldest, Patricia (a remarkable Astrid Bergès-Frisbey), who returned home from her city convent school transformed into someone not quite content with their simple, hardscrabble home and rural village life. A chance encounter with the brash, entitled local merchant's son sets up a chain of events that threaten their small family's happiness.
Danny Auteuil is both the well-digger father and the director. He doesn't allow the film to wander too much--it's both tightly edited and filled with some rising tension and drama. At times, the film falls into a bit of sentimentality, plus it suffers from a storyline that may feel outdated to…
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Largely ridiculous, except for Daniel Auteuil's performance. (Which was also largely ridiculous, but in an entertaining way.)
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Daniel Auteuil is a terrific French actor; you may remember he played the father in Michael Haneke's CACHE. Well, he made his directorial debut about this quaint story of a father who adores his oldest daughter, until she gets pregnant by a rich shopkeeper's son out of wedlock, and then he goes off to war and is believed dead. It's a story of family and redemption and love. And it's, well, again, quaint. But it's not as great as it could have been. You want a perfect fairytale-like French film? Just see AMELIE instead.
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The December Project: Film #101
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
Continuing to work as one of France’s most respected actors now into his seventh decade, Daniel Auteuil takes the directorial reins of The Well Digger’s Daughter, making his behind-the-camera debut with this unashamedly traditional wartime tale of a father torn between the honour of his family name and his love for the daughter who finds herself unexpectedly with child. Earnest, simplistic class drama follows when the child’s father is revealed as the heroic soldier son of a well-to-do family; Auteuil, co-writing as well as portraying the titular well digger, avoids excess obsession with the plot’s darker thematic questions, keeping proceedings primarily light and witty. His own…
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The Well-Digger's Daughter is a fine drama from French actor Daniel Auteuil. For his directorial debut, the star has chosen to remake a classic morality play from master dramatist Marcel Pagnol. Astrid Bergè-Frisbey is radiant and compelling as the 18-year-old girl whose first blush with love brings unforeseen consequences. Set in the French countryside as war rages across Europe and Africa, the movie embraces its old-fashioned origins yet still feels vibrant and relevant, proving good stories about honest human endeavors will always endure, no matter the changing times.
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Does start seeming like an attempt to capture the past glory of JEAN DE FLORETTE & MANON OF THE SPRING, but as it goes on it develops some fascinating idiosyncrasies. Its commitment to old-fashioned cinema is resolute, with the simple sentimentality of its story never deviating into corniness thanks to the dignified and very formal register everything occurs in. (It's the French equivalent of English upper-stiffed-lipness.)
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More the Fanny Trilogy (near as I can tell; I've only seen Marius) than Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring. Which is to say it's not a tragedy, and its charms are its laidback wisdom. The Well-Digger's Daughter herself is kind of boring, though.
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Acclaimed actor Daniel Auteuil tries his hand at directing with this remake of a 1940 hit directed by the writer of the source novel Marcel Pagnol, and makes a good job of it.
The tale is simple and quite old fashioned with its heavy morality concerning what is now an almost common place occurrence in out-of-wedlock teenage pregnancy but considering the time it is set and the bucolic backdrop of Provence, it fits in nicely. It is this quaint but archaic attitude of narrow minded paternal outrage which modern, younger audiences will find hard to take seriously and relate to, but the performances are so pitch perfect that they are easy to accept within the context of this gentle yarn.…