Harvest is one of the best films that I've seen from the thirties. Though I expected it to be good, it was much more than that. I am now surprised that it is not better known today. It deserves to continue to circulate. I've seen a lot of films, lately, that illuminate the darker sides of human nature. It is uplifting to watch, instead, this film that provides, in the end, a real testament to all that is best about our species. This film is about what is glorious and real in human life.

Historical Background: Marcel Pagnol was one of France's leading filmmakers in the thirties. He was also a screenwriter and a producer, but before taking up cinema, he had built quite a reputation as a playwright. He was born February 28th, 1895 in Aubagne, France, the son of an English teacher. He developed a love of literature and drama early in life, writing his first play when he was just fifteen. As he studied for a career as an English teacher, some of his plays were performed by local theater groups near Marseilles. When he took a teaching assignment in Paris, he was surprised to discover that Parisian audiences were every bit as responsive to his work as the provincials had been. He decided to try to make a career out of writing and gradually gained high prominence, during the twenties, with such works as Topaze and Marius.

When he turned to filmmaking, Pagnol's approach derived from his long association with theater. He claimed that the advent of sound technology in cinema had obviated any claim that the industry had as an independent art form and declared that cinema was basically a means of presenting theater productions to a mass audience. Not surprisingly, therefore, Pagnol's films were mostly adaptations of plays or novels. His first film was Direct au Coeur, which he co-directed with Roger Lion. It was an adaptation of one of his own plays. Over a film career spanning thirty-four years, he directed about twenty films. Topaze he committed to film not once, but twice, in 1936 and again in 1951. Some of his best works were Cesar (1936), Harvest (1937), and The Baker's Wife (1939). During this time, he also wrote scripts and dialog for screen adaptations of his plays directed by others, including Alexander Korda's Marius (1930), Louis Gasnier's Topaze (1932), and Peter Seller's Mr. Topaze/I Like Money (1961). Pagnol's plays continued to serve as the inspiration for films after his death. Claude Berri's two part epic Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring (1986), for example, was based on a play by Pagnol that the author had himself previously filmed as Manon des Sources (1952).

Pagnol also produced all of his own films at a time when all other movies in France were being produced in the big studios of Paris. He was one of the first independent filmmakers and, as such, served as the inspiration for the Italian directors who became the Neo-realism movement during the 1940's. Pagnol controlled all aspects of his films, from writing, to filming, to production. His films emphasized shooting on-location, which later became hallmarks of the French New Wave and Italian Neo-realism. Pagnol's first wife had the same name as President John F. Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline Bouvier, and was born just three years earlier than the famous Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, in 1926. Jacqueline Pagnol performed in several of her husband's films.

Harvest (1938) (Regain in French) was an adaptation of a novel by Jean Giono (1895-1970) and one of four novels by this author that Pagnol adapted into films, the others being Jofroi (1933), Angele (1934), and La Femme du Boulanger (1938). Giono's writings often relate to regression from the modern, mechanized world and a return to a simpler style of life and fundamental truths. The New York Film Critics picked Pagnol films two years in a row as the Best Foreign Film: Harvest in 1939 followed by The Baker's Wife in 1940 (See New York Film Critics' Circle Awards for Foreign Films (1935-2004).)

The Story: It is the 1930's in rural France and the population of the small village of Aubignane in Provence is dwindling. The youngsters who had grown up in the village have abandoned it for modern life in the French cities. Only three inhabitants remain: the aged plow maker, Gaubert (Edouard Delmont), the equally ancient widow of the well digger, Zia Mamèche (Marguerite Moreno), and a forty-year-old trapper and poacher, Panturle (Gabriel Gabrio). As the story beings, Gaubert's son, Jamin (Charles Blavette), is requesting a day off so that he can fetch his old father from Aubignane and bring him to live in the city with Jamin's family. Gaubert has reluctantly agreed only because he can no longer care for himself. The despondent old man doesn't even have the heart to bid farewell to Mamèche. It is left to Panturle to inform Mamèche of Gaubert's departure. Now, the population of the village will be just two. Mamèche believes that the only hope for the future of the once thriving village is for Panturle to take a wife and produce a family. She gets Panturle to promise that he'll keep a woman if Mamèche is able to find one for him.

Meanwhile, in another village some distance away, an itinerant knife grinder, Urbain Gedemus (Fernandel), chats with the local constabulary. A woman runs up to inform Gedemus and the policeman that another woman has been locked in a nearby stable and is being raped sequentially by a group of men. The policeman is disinterested, suggesting, basically, that men will be men. Gedemus is a bit more chivalrous and adept with his knives and sets off to bring an end to the misdeed. He frees the woman from her captivity and demands that the policeman at least arrest the one responsible for initiating the activity. When it turns out that the instigator is a broad-shouldered and muscular blacksmith, however, both Gedemus and the policeman decide that perhaps it will be best to let sleeping dogs lie. The unfortunate victim of this abuse is Arsule (Orane Demazia), an attractive young woman and singer of perhaps 25-30 years of age. Gedemus offers her a "job" as his assistant, which means basically that she can pull his cart and sleep with him in exchange for food and protection. She's desperate enough to accept.

Gedemus and Arsule set off to tour the various villages in the region, but Arsule is somewhat freaked out by the shadows and movements in the woodsy countryside. She begins to imagine that the movements of the trees are demons and that some of the bushes "hop." Or perhaps, it is not just her imagination but some rather delicate spooking being exercised by Mamèche, in order to guide the pair of wanderers in the direction of Aubignane. One way or another, Gedemus and Arsule reach the nearly abandoned village with their cart and find their way to the dwelling of Panturle, which is the only one not fully in disarray. The shy Panturle refuses to come to the door, however, and coyly peeks out through the shutters at what is likely the first young woman he's seen in years. When he kicks over an object, he also spooks his visitors and they hastily retreat down the road to a campsite for the evening. Panturle follows in order to get a further glimpse at the strange angel that he's spied, but ends up plunging over the waterfall next to the campsite and into the stream. He is pulled from the stream by Gedemus and Arsule, alive but unconscious. After determining that Panturle is alive, Gedemus pulls Arsule away and insists that they ignore the nearly drowned man and get some sleep. Arsule waits until Gedemus has fallen asleep and returns to check on Panturle.

Panturle has regained consciousness and soon he and Arsule are sharing their innermost aspirations and feelings. These two are as evidently soul mates as you'll ever encounter in film and Arsule decides very quickly to abandon Gedemus and throw her lot in with Panturle. Together, they will build a life in this abandoned village and bring it back to life. The remainder of the film chronicles their efforts, with the help of some kindred spirits in nearby villages, to begin farming the rich soil of Aubignane. This part of the film is not only a touching love story but, more than that, a story about living off the land and bringing the beneficence of nature to life. It is a pastoral story about returning to basics, the agricultural way of life, and elementary truths.

Themes: The primary theme of this film is something that Pagnol understood well from his own life: having the courage to swim upstream against the current, in order to get to where one wants to be. Aubignane had been a beautiful pastoral village, but its citizens had succumbed to the lure of urbanization that was rampant in France during the years between the wars. Panturle dreams of revitalizing the village, by beginning a family and building a farm where they can rediscover their connection to the rich soil. Gaubert and Mamèche are too old to begin over again, but give every last ounce of what they have left, each is their own ways, to facilitate Panturle's dream and to share in it vicariously. Pagnol was equally courageous in swimming countercurrent by producing his films independently.

Production Values: The script for Harvest is a thing of commendable beauty, of high poetry. It is that rare literate film that can only transpire from fortuitious circumstances such as a great playwright adapting the work of a great novelist. This film reaches down into the essentials of life to reveal human existence at its most dignified and serene. Before watching this film, I would not have imagined that a simple discussion of the gift of a loaf of bread, for Panturle to take home to his new "bride," could bring me to tears.

The film was shot on location in the Provence region of France and the pastoral countryside of the thirties is utterly gorgeous. This is a hard film to find in any format and can be pricey if you are able to locate a copy. It has not yet been blessed with a restoration or DVD release but most certainly cries out for such treatment. Although my copy was marred by some debris and scratches, the beauty of the settings nevertheless emerges intact. The film has a somewhat gritty appearance, though less so than the films from the later Neo-realism school in Italy. The cinematographers for the film were Willy and Roger Ledru. The shot composition and mise-en-scene are excellent, but the camera movements are pretty basic, with a lot of static placements. Some shots used an interesting windmill effect for transitions.

Another highlight of this beautiful film is the soundtrack, which features the music of Arthur Honegger, who was one of the French composers that Jean Cocteau famously dubbed Les Six (the others were Auric, Durey, Milhaud, Poulenc, and Tailleferre). It is a stirring score, but I've long been partial to Honegger's music (especially the Christmas Cantata and the rousing Symphony No. 2).

The performances are outstanding across the board in Harvest, beginning with the three principals. Gabriel Gabrio, as Panturle, gives a fully credible performance with great emotional depth. He did admirable work as well in Pépé le Moko (1937). Orane Demazis, though no Hollywood-style glamour queen, has great beauty of a naturalistic variety. When this film was made, she had already made a mark in such films as Marius (1931), Fanny (1932), and Cesar (1936). The first two were produced and written by Pagnol (but directed by others) and the last was produced, directed, and written by Pagnol. Pagnol will be remembered, among other things, for discovering the French comic actor, Fernandel (1903-1971), who, like Arletty and Cher, was good enough to get by just fine with a single name. He was the top French comedian for a period spanning four decades. He gives a brilliant performance in Harvest, in a morally ambivalent role encompassing both admirable and contemptible behaviors. The secondary performers were superb as well. Marguerite Moreno, who played the aged Mamèche, had previously worked in The Story of a Cheat (1936). Henri Poupon and Odette Roger were excellent, as L'Amoureux and his wife Alphonsine, in the scene that brought me to tears. There were other fine performances as well.

Bottom-Line: When Harvest first came to New York in 1939, amazingly, the State Board of Censors initially banned the film as corrupt (though they were later overturned by their superior body, the Board of Regents). There is not so much as a smidgen of nudity, not a foul word uttered, and no on-screen violence, though the lead female character, Arsule, is raped repeatedly (off-camera and off-soundtrack) in a stable in a rural village. Apparently what the Board of Censors was concerned about is that Panturle and Arsule assume the status of husband and wife without having had the benefit of an official wedding ceremony. Oh, horror! That, my friends, is the extremes to which censorship can evolve – even here in the now-liberal northeast of America – when it takes root. Though there is nothing pious about The Harvest, I'd be hard-pressed to name a more fundamentally moral film than this one. It is a virtual hymnal to genuine love and respect between a man and a woman as well as love and respect for the bounty of nature.

Sadly, the American distributors savagely cut this beautiful film, to just 77 minutes, when it first appeared in America in the thirties. My VHS copy from Interama Video Classics is the full 127 minutes and not a minute too long. Harvest is in French with English subtitles. I highly recommend it as a beautiful love story and food for the human spirit.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from France:

Alphaville
Amélie
The Battle of Algiers
La Belle et la Bête
Bob le Flambeur
Le Boucher
Boudu Saved from Drowning
A Bout de Souffle
La Cage aux Folles
Céline and Julie Go Boating
La Cérémonie
La Chèvre
Children of Paradise
Cléo from 5 to 7
Un Coeur en Hiver
Contempt
Cyrano de Bergerac
Delicatessen
The Dinner Game
Diva
The Earrings of Madame de . . .
Entre Nous
Eyes Without a Face
La Femme Nikita
Forbidden Games
French Cancan
Grand Illusion
Hate
The Horseman on the Roof
Jean de Florette/Manon
The King of Hearts
Last Year at Marienbad
Life and Nothing But
Madame Rosa
A Man Escaped
Le Million
Monsieur Hire
The Mother and the Whore
La Nuit de Varennes
Pépé le Moko
Peppermint Soda
Playtime
Providence
Rififi
La Ronde
Round Midnight
The Rules of the Game
Le Samourai
Summer
A Sunday in the Country
The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe
Three Colors
Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Vagabond
Wages of Fear

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older