Half a Loaf

Film: L’Femme du Boulanger (The Baker’s Wife)
Format: VHS from Northwestern University Library through WorldCat on big ol’ television.

There are plenty of stories about infidelity out there, but none quite as strange as L’Femme du Boulanger (The Baker’s Wife). This is a film that blends comedy with pain, loss, drama, romance, and morality. It’s not at all the film I expected, and I continue to realize that “not what I expected” is frequently a good thing.

Here’s the story in a nutshell—a baker and his wife move to a small town in southern France. The town has been desperate for a new baker, since the last one was inconsistent, and they’ve been living off stale bread for months. The new baker makes a top quality product. He’s also considerably older than his wife, who is young and attractive, and immediately falls for the shepherd of the local marquis. That night, she runs away with the shepherd, leaving her husband distraught and unwilling to bake more bread until she comes home.