I just watched this film on DVD thanks Amazon.fr.It's a mini series that was rather popular in France in 1993, at the time I was 12 and did not really care about watching it.Now as an adult I wanted to give this 5 hour and 30 minute epic a try. Did I enjoy it? Yes....and no. the problem is that the first 2 part of the movie is about a baker that adopt two boys to teach then his art and to make his wife who ran away from home after she lost her unborn child , come home. Then by the end of the second part it seem that the story makes a u-turn and when the wife finally meet her adopted children it's very brief and not very emotional and the story then goes out into a more adult oriented , less family friendly direction. The first two part are touching and sweet , and all the actors are wonderful, the first two part could be seen by the all family. The third part is about sex and war. It's not that I mind that it's just that it's a total departure from the first two part and some question that was raised in the first two part like one of the boy's parents who died in a fire , and how it feel like the boy is hiding something from his adopted brother about what really happened is never really answered at the end.Actually lots of little story lines from the first two parts are completely neglected in the third part. Another thing,the two actors that plays the grown up boys in the third part are just plain bad, especially during a scene when one of the boys had to act drunk,the acting was so atrocious I wanted to close my eyes.It's funny to think that 10/11 years old were better actors ten there adult counterparts. Allso for a 5 hours and 30 minutes film , it feels like there are no closure at the end , its funny because part two had more closure then the final part. To finish I would have really recommend that film if it had ended with part 2 but because of the horrible part 3, I have a hard time doing so. It's a shame because I really enjoyed the film at first . I will give it 5 out of 10, 5 for the first two part and zero for part 3.
