Regain

Movie adaptations of novels usually leave one regretting things that had to be left out. This movie is an exception. It is, in my opinion, a real IMPROVEMENT on the literary source, Jean Giono's Regain. The novel is sort of like French Pearl Buck: strong silent types working the earth, simple folk with all the admirable qualities: hard work, honesty, etc. In principle, very good, but in Giono's handling, understated to the point of tedium, since his novel is very clichéd. Pagnol, aided by some very fine performers, especially the male lead, who is remarkable in this movie, brings a series of clichés to life. I couldn't sit through The Good Earth a second time, but this I could very definitely see again with pleasure.

During the first 20 minutes of the movie, I was rather disappointed--I expected more interesting characters in a Marcel Pagnol story. However, as the film slowly unfolded, the not so interesting characters gave way to much more endearing ones. It's as if those you see in the beginning who you THINK are the leads are really just setting the stage for the REAL film to begin! The main plot involves a nice bachelor who lives in an almost totally deserted hillside town. He is lonely but has relied on himself so long he has all but given up hope on finding a mate. The only other resident, an old lady, promises to bring him someone soon. At this same time, we meet a very hapless woman who has been through hell. The two lonely people eventually meet and form an almost instant attachment that is just beautiful to watch. Seeing this kind but gruff older man fall for and cherish this lady is a joy to behold.

The village in which most of the action takes place was to be a real one; but Pagnol had to give up on his plans and had a village in ruins built ,not very far from his studios of Marseille where his team could carry on with the work in case of inclement weather.

Third adaptation of pacifist writer Giono for the screen by Pagnol , it has aged better than "Angèle": it 's even modern nay daring: although Panturle and Arsule live together ,and they are on the family way , there is never a single hint at a marriage !

This is really a renaissance ,from a dying place where only three inhabitants are still leaving -the old mom ,after cursing Virgin Mary ,leaves the village near decay to look for a wife for his son,but she dies along the way - .

It's not the umpteenth version of the return to the land : it's the will to stay on this good old earth ;leaving the land is a heartrending experience for the old blacksmith,who,because of his old age ,must come back to his son (and his petulant daughter-in-law) ,and soon will suffer an attack who leaves him paralysed .

Arsule ,the woman , will be the salvation :first a knife-grinder's companion , she's treated like a beast of burden ; Fernandel ,cast against type , is par excellence the macho :later he will "sell " her like a donkey (because she pulls his handcart ).

Arsule's metamorphosis is extraordinary when she meets Panturle ; lovingly filmed by her then-lover director ,Orane Demazis turns from a tentative unassuming unattractive gal to a beaming headstrong woman .

Not only Arsule will help her partner grow wheat ,but a future birth becomes a symbol for the revival of the village ; Arthur Honegger's music sounds like a symphony , which enhances the final scenes .

Often filmed on location in Pagnol' s dear Provence , one finds one of the director's recurrent themes:sympathy for the forgotten ones, the outcasts : the supervisor in "Merlusse ", the hunchback in " Angèle" , the heroine and Jean in "Manon Des Sources " ...

It should be pointed out that ,although Fernandel is at the top of the bill, the real star is Gabriel Gabrio as Panturle, a lifetime's role.

And to conclude ,let's note that mutual aid is prominent (the seeds which will allow the harvest) .

In the 30s, a small village in the South of France (Provence) is losing its inhabitants (and so its life) because young people prefer to go to the city to find easy jobs and escape from being farmers living in relative poverty. Only a few old people and the poacher Panturle (Gabriel Gabrio) remain. Panturle dreams of bringing the village back to life, finding a wife, founding a family and work as a farmer. One day, the village is visited by a traveling knife-grinder, Urbain Gedemus (the famous French comedian Fernandel, playing for the first time a mean character) and a young (and beautiful) woman, Arsule (played by the wonderful Orane Demazis). Gedemus treats Arsule like a slave, but Arsule accept this because she has nowhere to go and -we guess- her 'work' with Gedemus is the last thing that saves her from being a prostitute. When she meets Panturle and knows about his dreams, she escapes from Gedemus and decides to stay with him. Together, they start a new life, made of hard farming work but mostly of happiness to have each other - fulfilling the earlier dreams of Panturle. Can anything break the happiness of their new life?

Regain (which means renewed in French) is a wonderful movie by its simplicity and generosity. It glorifies modesty in life, the love for the land and honest work. As always in the work of Jean Giono (the writer of the novel on which the film is based), the story is a hymn to nature and ordinary people. The plot of the movie is reduced to its simplest form. It is the story of two people finding their right place on Earth and the right person to spend their life with. Marcel Pagnol shows that this simple story is enough to make a good movie.

The whole movie is built on the theme of a counter-stream movement. Panturle and Arsule have chosen to go counter mainstream as they decide to stay in the village while all the people leave it to escape the relatively poor living conditions of the countryside. This film can also be viewed as the reverse of the legend of Adam and Eve, i.e. Adam and Eve being evicted from the Garden of Eden whereas Panturle and Arsule reach it. Even Fernandel is employed here counter to his usual type of role. However, such considerations are not important to appreciate the movie.

This movie reminds us that Marcel Pagnol also was a Panturle in his own way. At a time when all movies (in France) were made in Paris studios by big companies, Marcel Pagnol was the first independent director of the talking movie era, founding his own studios in the south of France and controlling all the process of filmmaking (writing, producing and filming on location). For his style as a director, it has been said that he had inspired the Italian neo-realist movement. 'Regain' is one of the four novels by Jean Giono that Marcel Pagnol adapted for the cinema (the others being Jofroi, 1933; Angele, 1934; La femme du boulanger, 1938), most of these movies being classic French movies of the 30s.

Wonderful. Highly recommended 10/10.

Only a culture that attaches as much value to the art of communication as it does to imagery and form could produce directors like Renoir, Godard, Clouzot, Malle, Truffaut, etc. etc. (the list is long), who in turn rendered such towering, influential films as The Grand Illusion, Wages of Fear, Beauty and the Beast, etc. etc. (another very long list). Say what you like about the French, but the fact is, they love to listen as much as talk, and they have refined both to high art. This film's central character, a lonely hunter, is one of the least verbose Frenchmen you will ever encounter--there are few strong, silent types in France--but this simple trait (and Gabrio's effortless, natural performance) sets Panturle apart and makes him one of the most endearing protagonists in all cinema. Harvest is not a spectacular film; it functions like its protagonist, simple, sometimes foolish and comical, but always sincere and deliberate. Panturle's mind is slow, but his spirit is unstoppable, from the time he determines to set free the sad, despair-ridden Arsule and take her for his wife, through the difficult process of reinventing himself as a farmer, to his final test, which he confronts with conscience-clearing honesty and firm humility: paying off the clown Gedemus and sending him on his way. There is beauty here enough for ten films, all of which quietly revolves around Panturle and his few words. Pagnol (who named the dying mountain village after his native town) created a number of masterpieces. Harvest is the Panturle of his films: simple, unassuming, truthful, loyal, and the heart of the ouevre.

NOTE: This film is fading from memory. It is in desperate need of restoration. Anyone...?