Theoretically any first-rate director should be able to tackle any genre and emerge with a worthwhile product and there are those - like Howard Hawks - whose careers illustrate this but on the other hand a producer toying with the idea of remaking say, The Lower Depths or Crime and Punishment would not automatically think of approaching Francis Veber just as John Ford would not be the automatic choice for a lavish musical. Guys like Veber and Ford have established a style/genre that they do as well and/or better than anyone else and so it was that Marcel Pagnol was a logical choice to bring the Provencal stories of Alphonse Daudet to the screen. As it turned out this was to be Pagnol's cinematic swansong though he lived another twenty years and as swansongs go it is as good as any and better than most. Pagnol settled on three stories - not unlike Max Ophuls in Le Plaisir - which illustrate the range of Daudet and certainly allow us to sample his unique flavour whether it be tipsy monks creating a new form of absolution along with the wine, a mill running on empty or a priest facing devilish temptation. We may regret that Pagnol was unable to bow out with something of his own but we also applaud a distinguished swansong.
Review of Letters from My Windmill
