The Baker's Wife

The Baker's Wife (La Femme du boulanger, 1938) is Marcel Pagnol's comic drama from France, and it's available to watch online on iFILM. A new baker named Aimable settles into a small Provencal village — a warm, middle-aged man whose wife Aurelie is beautiful and far younger than he is.

His bread turns out wonderful, and the village rejoices. Then, that very night, Aurelie runs off with a young shepherd, and the heartbroken baker simply stops working. The oven goes cold; there is no more fresh bread. Suddenly the whole village discovers it cannot do without him: feuding neighbours, the priest and the schoolteacher, the rich man and the farmhand all set their quarrels aside and band together to track down the runaway and coax her home. Raimu carries the lead, his blend of buffoonery and quiet grief turning a simple rural anecdote into the real ache of a wronged man.

Pagnol adapted the story from an episode in Jean Giono's novel "Jean le Bleu," and it has long stood among the peaks of pre-war French cinema — Orson Welles famously called Raimu's performance the work of a genius. Reach for it if you love unhurried stories built on people and character, where laughter and sorrow walk side by side. Stream The Baker's Wife (1938) online on iFILM.