Did the little girl Seraphita really suggest that the farm folk put powdered glass (if that's what powder meant here) in people's food or drink for fun? These peasants could give the good country people of Deliverance a run for their money.
shareOn the Criterion edition I got from NF and just watched, the subtitle translation is "powder in the glass" ...not "powdered glass". The implication is some kind of emetic or nausea agent in dry form snuck into his wine. While certainly not nice, it's not all that far beyond the old "practical joke": Ex-Lax dissolved in a cup of coffee.
Your more dramatic interpretation seems to hinge on that slightly different translation. Can somebody who understands spoken French chime in here, so we're not just at the mercy of the (possibly misleading or inaccurate) subtitle translation?
I could have misread the subtitle--it does seem more plausible that the unfriendly country people put powder in the priest's wine to make him ill rather than powdered glass which could have led to criminal charges. They're still a nasty bunch, though.
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