The Comte tries to run Vianne out of business by spreading rumors at the local hair salon and having Pere Henri (Hugh O'Connor, "The Young Poisoner's Handbook") denounce her wares as sinful in his sermons, but he can't argue with her harboring of Josephine.
The film is set in a provincial French town in 1960, where everyone is deeply religious, and the local Mayor (Alfred Molina) has set himself up as the town’s moral guardian, with the aid of the timid and easily-coerced priest (Hugh O’Connor – last seen in The Young Poisoner’s Handbook).