This article is part of our reviews of AI research papers, a series of posts that explore the latest findings in artificial intelligence.

The short excerpt below from the 1938 film La Femme du Boulanger (The Baker’s Wife) ingeniously depicts how the human mind can extract deep meaning from life experiences and perceived situations. In the movie, directed by Marcel Pagnol, the baker Aimable welcomes his wife Aurelie, who has just come back after running off with a shepherd days earlier.

While Aimable treats Aurelie with sweet words and a heart-shaped bread (which he had baked for himself), he shows no kindness toward Pomponette, his female cat who coincidentally returns home at the same time as Aurelie, after abandoning her mate Pompon for a chat de gouttière (alley cat). Aimable calls Pomponette _ordur _(junk) and a _salope _(a rude term) who has run off with _un inconnu _(a nobody) and bon-a-rien (good for nothing) while the poor Pompon has been miserably searching for her everywhere.

While Aimable cuts the cat down to size with his tongue-lashing, Aurelie cringes in her seat and starts to sob.

“What does he have better than [Pompon]?” Aimable asks. “Rien (nothing),” answers Aurelie in a shaky voice, barely above a whisper. It’s not clear whether she’s talking about the stray alley cat or the shepherd boy.

“You say rien,” Aimable tells his wife in a sweet and soft voice. “But if she could talk,” he says, his voice becoming stern again as he returns his gaze back to Pomponette, “if she had no shame, if she didn’t fear to pain pauvre Pompon, she would say, ‘He is prettier.’” Again, there are many hidden meanings and accusations in his words.

As Aimable is rambling on, apparently oblivious to his wife’s reaction, Pomponette starts drinking milk from Pompon’s bowl. And that’s where he drives the dagger. “Look there,” he says. “This is why she returned. She was cold and hungry.”

Meanwhile, Aurelie is holding the heart-shaped bread that Aimable had baked—for himself.

Most humans can extract the deep meanings, metaphors, and intricate nuances hidden in the flaky grayscale image frames and noisy sound waves of this video sequence. We can empathize with Aimable and Aurelie (and map them to our own previous life experiences).

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