The Well Digger's Daughter, Directed by actor Daniel Auteuil,
The Well Digger's Daughter (La fille du puisatier, original title fans)
is based on the novel by Marcel Pagnol, who, not coincidentally, wrote
Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources, the much-loved films that helped
make Auteuil's name and which his directorial debut strongly resembles.
Set in rural pre-war France, the film stars Auteuil as widower Pascal
Amoretti, who works as a well-digger in order to support his six
daughters, the eldest of which is the beautiful Patricia (Astrid
Berges-Frisbey).
Director: Daniel Auteuil
Writers: Marcel Pagnol (from the novel by), Daniel Auteuil (adaptation)
Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey and Nicolas Duvauchelle
Twenty-five years after rising to international acclaim in Jean de
Florette and Manon of the Spring, Daniel Auteuil returns to the world of
Marcel Pagnol for his first work as director with this celebrated
remake of the 1940s classic. Auteuil stars as the eponymous well-digger
Pascale, a widower living with his six daughters in the Provence
countryside at the start of World War I. His eldest, Patricia (the
luminous Astrid Bergès-Frisbey), has returned home from Paris to help
raise her sisters,
and Pascale dreams of
marrying her off to his loyal assistant Felipe (Kad Merad). But when
she's impregnated by a wealthy young pilot (Nicolas Duvauchelle) who
promptly abandons her for the frontlines, Pascale is left to contend
with the consequences.
