The Return of Martin Guerre: Love and Agency in 16th Century France

In 1548 Martin Guerre, a disgruntled, well-off peasant in the rural reaches of Languedoc, France, fled his village of Artigat, leaving his wife, son, and property behind without a trace. Eight years later, Guerre suddenly returns a new man -- loving, charismatic, and vigorous. Bertrande de Rols, once the subject of Guerre's frequent scorn and disregard, finds herself in marital bliss as her recently-returned husband treats her with previously unfounded respect and dignity -- though not all is how it seems. Three years after his return, a rumor begins to spread: Martin Guerre is an impostor. Championed by his uncle Pierre, these rumors claim that Arnaud du Tihl, also known as Pansette, stole the identity of the real Martin Guerre. High jinks ensue, ultimately leading a climactic trial during which the real Martin Guerre, now missing a leg from the Hundred Years' War, arrives to reclaim his name. Oddly enough, this film is based on the legal records of Jean de Coras, a member of the Toulouse Parliament and judge on Guerre's historical case.

Daniel Vigne's Le Retour de Martin Guerre (1982) is a suspenseful film rooted in the daily life of society's most forgotten people: the peasants. The film features neither a grandiose battle of heroic chivalry nor a classic tale of good versus evil; instead, it's an intimate showing of love and identity in the Middle Ages. Much to the film's credit, production overseen by acclaimed historian Natalie Zemon Davis who ensured, at the very least, the semblance of historical accuracy. Davis left the film unsatisfied with Vigne's dedication to history, writing The Return of Martin Guerre as proper analysis of the legal records, though her influence was not wholly lost on the film. 

Peasant Wedding (1567)

The film begins in a modest church of stone, lit only by candlelight, and lacking the comfort of pews. In the church commences the marriage of Martin and Bertrande -- a rather solemn ceremony marked by its presumably arranged nature, evidenced by the age of the bride and groom (around 14) and the extensive dowry cited after the marriage. Bertrande's dowry included money, a vineyard, a bed with a linen cloth and feathered pillows, and other such valuables -- each evidence of a society with a pseudo-middle class, even in rural areas, and not one of absolute poverty for those not of noble birth. After the ceremony, a celebration, quite similar to Pieter Bruegel's Peasant Wedding, began. Men clad in coifs and women in headdresses enjoyed the festivals of marriage: drinking, playing, and eating together in the home of the Guerre patriarch. Here begins one of the great discrepancy with history found in Martin Guerre, the omission of the Basque culture. Martin and his family immigrated to Artigat from the Basque County between France and Spain -- a land with unique social customs sacrificed in the film. One such custom, which was included in the film, involves the eldest male, the only heir under the Basque tradition, and his wife living in the same home as his father. While the inclusion of such a detail is great, the failure to contextualize the custom ignores the nuances of culture and muddles historical truth, as the Basque tradition now appears standard. 

One of the film's more striking sequences features a balance of pagan and Christian culture. Martin and Bertrande, bewitched by Martin's impotence, become the subjects of humiliation after their failure to consummate the marriage. Witchcraft is believed to be the source of their troubles, as Bertrande believes a sorceress jealous of the Guerre and Rols alliance to be behind the plot of their social demise. Seeking a cure, the couple tries various methods, with the most absurd being the pagan charivari. Dressed in the pelt of a bear, Martin is chased through the village by men clad in pine and women's clothes, beating sticks, ringing bells, and flailing tools. It is a humiliating ordeal, only furthered by Martin's capture in which the bear's false testicles are removed in a symbol jab at Martin's impotence. This spectacle is rooted in pagan tradition as a means to scare off evil spirits from newlyweds by using rough or loud noises, and though it may not have succeeded, the charivari demonstrates the more amusing aspects of medieval life often forgotten by the public. 

In addition to the charivari, Martin and Bertrande meet with a village elder to seek a cure. The tradition of consulting a local wise woman was prevalent in the region of Artigat, and although she did not cure the couple, she instructed that four masses must be held to help consummate the marriage. Shortly thereafter, Bertrande was pregnant, though not without a long journey through regional, pagan, and Christian traditions. With the help of Davis, Vigne guides the audience through a culture not entirely under a Christian hegemony; rather, the audience is presented a nuanced society with variant foundations. 

Le Retour de Martin Guerre trades the sprawling battlefields of historical epics for the intimate confines of the medieval village. Under the guidance of Davis, the film features an accurate representation of daily life. The village center is bustling with simple trade as children play in the streets; peasant laborers of all ages and genders toil in the fields, swinging fails and tilling the fields with plows; and life is marked by familial obligations and lineage. Despite all the traits of an authentic medieval society, Martin Guerre diverges from traditional storytelling, presenting Arnaud and Bertrande as co-conspirators. Although ambiguous in the film, the idea of Bertrande being complicit in Arnaud's identity theft was proposed by Davis herself, citing the rising tide of Protestantism in rural France -- a detail omitted in the film -- as support. The film's lack of Protestant themes is ultimately a hindrance, as it removes a fundamental principle by which many of the characters historically operated. 

While not without its issues, Le Retour de Martin Guerre is a well-crafted journey into the nuanced identity of a medieval peasant. If you enjoy tales of suspense, love, and courtroom drama, this is an enjoyable film which proves that the truth can be stranger than fiction.

Works Cited:

Davis, Natalie Zemon. The Return of Martin Guerre. Harvard University Press, 1983.
Vigne, Daniel, director. Le Retour de Martin Guerre. European International, 1982.