Mireille, the only daughter of a wealthy Provençal landowner, swears to marry only a man she truly loves, even if he is poor. Mireille has already made her choice: Vincent, a basket maker. During the Arles feria, Mireille rejects the advances of Ourias, a wealthy breeder. Jealous that Mireille prefers Vincent to him, Ourias provokes him and beats him violently. Learning that her love is wounded, Mireille ventures alone into the mountains to find him.
Based on Frederic Mistral's long poem in Provençal ( Nobel prize 1904) and Charles Gounod's opera , after a first version in the silent age , this one 's half a musical ;the actors fell into oblivion , they both only made a handful of movies ;so did the director ,René Gaveau, whose only movie you can find today is his stupefying "Adam est.... Eve " ,a French Ed Wood's "Glen or Glenda?"
It was restored with good results , the pictures lovingly depicted the Camargue -some scenes seem to have filmed on location ,but the informations on this film are rare .
Its depiction of life in the Camargue is endearing : the women in their folk costumes,the guardians ,French cowboys,the farandole,the mas (farm in Provence).
As the story ,it's a tragic love story ,not unlike Alphonse Daudet 's "l'Arlésienne" -which also became a Bizet's opera- and was filmed in the thirties too .
Directing is Ok in its depiction but it falls flat when it comes to story -telling :the drowning of the brute is a mess ,and Mireille's long walk under a blistering sun ( impressive in the text ,translated into French of course ) is not convincing at all ;in the final scenes in the church ,using close shots , things go a little better .
Mireille ,the first name,is the Provençal form of Myriam or Marie. The film ends in Saintes Maries de La Mer town , where the legend has it that Mary- Magdelene and two of her companions would have landed .
