DFT 101: HARVEST
Saturday, March 31, 2012 |4:00 PM
(France/1937—directed by Marcel Pagnol)
Legendary French actor Fernandel is an itinerant tinker who decides to “sell” his mistress – a down-on-her-luck cabaret singer played by Orane Demazis – to a wild, hermit-like hunter, the sole resident of his now-abandoned town. The tale of how this unlikely couple find themselves at one with the land – planting wheat, establishing a home, creating a child – is the core of one of the most lyrically poetic dramas in the history of the French cinema. Director Marcel Pagnol (The Baker’s Wife) refused to compromise his vision of rebirth and renewal in order to please the censors, and as a result Harvest (Regain) was originally banned in New York, though only briefly. The censorship may be hard to fathom in 2012, yet Harvest’s embrace of all of nature – with its longings and deep stirrings – is as potent as ever. In the end, Pagnol’s magnificent parable may have best been described by fan and chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse as being about “the thrill of growing one’s own food, the redemptive possibilities of living off the land.” In French with English subtitles. (105 min.)
“As refreshing now as when it jolted its first American audiences by the extraordinary purity of its love story.” –The New Yorker
Saturday, March 31 at 4:00 PM