Review of The Baker's Wife

I knew nothing about this French film before I found it listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, it was rated well by critics, and I hoped it would be something worthy of its placement in the book. Basically in an idyllic Provencal village in the south of France, Aurélie (Ginette Leclerc) is the young and beautiful wife of the new baker, Aimable (Raimu). But the baker is devastated when he finds his wife has left him, she has run off during the night with a handsome young shepherd, Dominique (Charles Moulin). The baker tells the villagers that she has left suddenly to see her mother, but they are not fooled, and their efforts to console him are shunned. He goes to the Sunday mass, and is upset by what seems an unfeeling sermon by an inexperienced young Priest (Robert Vattier), after which he goes to a café and gets publicly drunk. The heartbroken baker can no longer bake bread anymore, so Marquis (Fernand Charpin), who is the local landowner, and the Schoolteacher (Robert Bassac) take the situation in hand, with the priest they arrange a public meeting to discuss solutions. The people decide to mount an exhaustive search to find the baker's wife, as they want to regain their daily bread. One of the people does a report a sighting, she is seen in a glade with the shepherd, naked. The priest and the schoolteacher are chosen for the delicate task of persuading her to return, the shepherd flees, and the priest takes her to a quiet place, which the schoolteacher returns with the good news that she has been found. The priest reads her the story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery, after this he forgives her and takes her home. The first word the baker's wife says to her husband is "Sorry", he forgives her, but he cannot resist talking about young shepherds who charm her, love her and leave her. It is a simple story of a faithless wife tempted by another man, and the local people working together to help the baker, so he will provide them with their produce, the feeling of the communal atmosphere works well, it is very old-fashioned, including its use of black-and-white, but if it was supposed to be funny, I wasn't laughing much, all in all it's a reasonable comedy drama. Worth watching!