runamokprods I alternated between being charmed and a bit put off by actor Daniel Auteuil's directorial debut -- a sweet (sometimes sticky sweet) re-make of Marcel Pagnol's 1940 film. The film is a bit odd tonally; alternating between occasional bathetic intense emotion (scored to opera at times no less), and being a slightly too convenient and cute comedy of manners. Some modest spoilers ahead.Auteuil plays a working-class paterfamilias with 5 daughters, including an 18 year old favorite he has seen only as a perfect angel. But now she has brought the family to shame by getting pregnant by a rich and handsome local boy, who promptly leaves to fight in WW I -- and her father turns on her and casts her out. The film seems to want to have it both ways – we're told to feel bad for the cruel banishment of the daughter, but not TOO bad, since in the end dad (now grandpa) has to prove to be a good guy at heart. Auteuil - an actor I usually really enjoy – gives a slightly hammy (if admittedly amusing) performance, bouncing a bit too far back and forth between near monster and adorable gruff old guy. Also slightly problematic; the young couple are beautiful, but there's not a ton of spark there either individually or as a duo. There are some very good scenes, and I was extremely taken by Kad Merad in a supporting role as an endearing 40ish friend/employee of the father who is hopelessly in love with the young daughter. For all the rough spots, I modestly enjoyed the film. It's just that there were hints of a terrific movie early on, so when it ended up as just a nice, old-fashioned and somewhat predictable one, there was a sense of disappointment.

Hot Potato The Well Digger's Daughter. There is something rather attractive about this simple predictable plot, but a bit more complex, quaint movie. You want to very much like it, but it's ultimately very disappointing. You try to adapt to the different morals that are claimed to be of a different time, then you realize there is nothing immoral, just no real moral core to grab on to. You seem to love the sweet quiet convent girl Patricia, and she grows on you as the movie progresses and her character develops. You begin to think by the end she is maybe the only true moral character in the lot and then very disappointingly she becomes as shallow as the rest. Say, like with Jacques, is he just played by a poor actor or is he as simple, shallow and pointless as he comes across. Then of course Pascal, the main character, appears complex, you try to read him as his character develops and progresses. You eventually realize he is a strange morality that all the plot wires do not connect. Simple, so watch it that way, if you look for more it falls apart. Ehhh!!

secondtake The Well Digger's Daughter (2011)A drama set in the early 20th Century that ends up being about traditions and love and how two different kinds of families come to understand each other. While not a Romeo and Juliet story at all, it has that basic problem when two young people from different social realms fall in love.What keeps this from becoming commonplace is the beauty of it all, including what I would call beautiful acting--heartfelt, nuanced, interesting. In a way it is the well digger, the dad played by Daniel Autueil who is the main character. He's a familiar face (if not name) to those who have seen a few French films, and he's wonderful. Though a practical man (he digs wells the old fashioned way for a living), he has a sense of dignity and honor that impresses even the rich family whose charming son has seduced the title character. We feel no violation here, just the normal confused crossed-star love issues. War intrudes, and then the dreaded report from the front, and the families still have to cope together. For reasons you'll see.Marcel Pagnol, the great mid-Century French writer whose story is the basis for this, was also a filmmaker, and you can feel a kind of homage or influence at play here, which adds yet another layer of appreciation.It's also a really funny movie, one of the dramas that is so witty and warm you laugh along with the characters like you would your friends (assuming you have funny friends). I loved the whole experience. If it ends with a feeling like, okay, all is resolved one way or another, I guess that's fine. There is no epiphany here, but rather a sweet slice of life from a provincial time we'd love to never forget.

b_kemp6933 Superficially this is chocolate-box romance. It is set in beautiful countryside in a world of constant summer. Even though it takes place over a year there is continuous warm sunshine.The story centres on the well-digger, Pascal: the daughter, Patricia, is a cipher, without personality, with no voice, and seemingly incapable of independent action. Does anyone really want to see this kind of woman in fiction or in life? Pascal is well-drawn; he is self-centred, a martinet, a hypocrite, unwilling to listen to anyone, and actually rather stupid. He is also crude- he comments on his dead wife's sexuality to his employee.At the opening of the film the daughter is described as universally liked because of her kindness. Of course she is kind. She is looking for affection and love after being sent from her home and mother at a very young age. You can imagine Pascal forcing his wife to accept this- 'in the interests of the child' of course. If the baby had been a boy... The daughter is only allowed back because circumstances force her return.How to explain her easy seduction by an unsuitable youth after one brief meeting? Obviously she is looking for love at any cost.Pascal tries to reach a deal with the youth's parents. No chance. He immediately disowns her. He casts her out (Victorian tyrant!) and only pretends to kiss her goodbye to deceive his other daughters. Yet it would have been better for everyone is she had stayed at home.Months pass. Still summer though! He destroys unread a letter from her. Then he goes to visit her. The first thing he does is to pretend to drown the baby. What a joke! This terrifies her, but she says nothing, and he shows no shame at his cruel stupidity.He soon wants to take over the baby (because it is a longed-for boy, presumably). She accepts this. She is a doormat throughout.The youth has made only one very feeble attempt to find the girl. Yet they agree to get married. Only after he has been killed in a blazing plane and found alive unharmed. What a load of rubbish.At the altar he says he doesn't want to marry. Only a joke! She believes him, but no recrimination from her for his brutal insensitivity.There are equally daft subplots, for example with the second daughter having an unaccountable passion for the daughter's castoff. This reults in an off-on-off probably-on relationship.It is well acted throughout. And it is pretty.Incidentally there is a war on, but everyone ignores it.