Film cesar marcel pagnol biography

Marcel Pagnol

Novelist, playwright and filmmaker from France

"Pagnol" redirects here. For other uses, see Pagnol (disambiguation).

Marcel Paul Pagnol (, alsopah-NYAWL;French:[maʁsɛlpɔlpaɲɔl]; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974) was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française. Pagnol is generally regarded as one of France's greatest 20th-century writers and is notable for the fact that he excelled in almost every medium—memoir, novel, drama and film.

Early life

Pagnol was born on 28 February 1895 in Aubagne, Bouches-du-Rhône department, in southern France near Marseille, the eldest son of schoolteacher Joseph Pagnol and seamstress Augustine Lansot. He was secretly baptised at the Église Saint-Charles in Marseilles. Marcel Pagnol grew up in Marseille with his younger brothers Paul and René, and younger sister Germaine.

School years

In July 1904, the family rented the Bastide Neuve, – a house in the sleepy Provençal village of La Treille – for the summer holidays, the first of many spent in the hilly countryside between Aubagne and Marseille. About the same time, Augustine's health, which had never been robust, began to noticeably decline and on 16 June 1910 she succumbed to a chest infection ("mal de poitrine") and died, aged 36. Joseph remarried in 1912.

In 1913, at the age of 18, Marcel passed his baccalaureate in philosophy and started studying literature at the university in Aix-en-Provence. When World War I broke out, he was called up into the infantry at Nice but in January 1915 he was discharged because of his poor constitution ("faiblesse de constitution''). On 2 March 1916, he married Simone Colin in Marseille and in November graduated in English. He became an English teacher, tea

Biography: life and films

Marcel Pagnol was born in southern France in 1895, the son of a schoolmaster and a seamstress. The family settled in the Saint-Loup district of Marseilles and Pagnol enjoyed a stable, middle class family background, although his mother died from pneumonia when he was just 14. He studied philosophy at the University of Aix-en-Provence, where, in 1913, he founded a student literary magazine which became the influential Les cahiers du Sud.

After graduating and having been discharged from the army for health reasons, Pagnol began a career as a school teacher, working initially in Pignes and Tarascon. In 1916, he married his first wife Simone Collin and obtained a degree in literature. About this time, he began to write poetry. In 1922, he moved to Paris to continue his teaching career, whilst writing plays.

Pagnol's first major success as a writer was his 1925 play, Les Marchands de gloire, a satire on how opportunistic civilians profit from the heroism of soldiers during wartime. This was followed by Jazz (1926) and the hugely popular Topaze (1928) and Marius (1929), which won Pagnol international acclaim as a playwright.

Having abandoned teaching, Pagnol returned to Marseilles in 1932 to found his own film production company, buying land where he would film some of his most famous films. His first film as a producer was Marius (1931) and as a director was Joffroi (1932).

In stark contrast to the prevailing trend in French cinema at the time (which was almost entirely centred on films set in Paris, made in studios in Paris), Pagnol developed his own style of film-making which foreshadowed the work of the neo-realists by over a decade. His films were almost exclusively poignant human dramas, sometimes comic, filmed on location in the beautiful Provençal countryside and towns where Pagnol grew up as a boy.

Pagnol's most well-known films are the Marius-Fanny-César trilogy which capitalised on the success of h

César (film)

1936 French film

César is a 1936 French romanticdrama film written and directed by Marcel Pagnol and starring Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Fernand Charpin, Orane Demazis, and André Fouché. It is the final film in Pagnol's Marseille Trilogy, which began with Marius (1931) and continued with Fanny (1932). Unlike the other two films in the trilogy, César was not based on a play by Pagnol, but was written directly as a film script. In 1946, Pagnol adapted the script for the film as a stage play.

Plot

Honoré Panisse is dying, cheerfully, with friends, wife, and son at his side. He confesses to the priest in front of his friends and insists the doctor be truthful about his prognosis. However, he cannot bring himself to tell Césariot, his twenty-year-old son, that the young man's biological father is Marius, the absent son of César (Panisse's old friend and Césariot's godfather). After Panisse's funeral, Fanny, Panisse's wife and Césariot's mother, gives in to the priest's pressure to make the truth known, and tells Césariot about the relationship she had with Marius before she married Panisse.

A gobsmacked Césariot tells Fanny that he is going to visit a friend from school, but really goes to see Marius, who is now a car mechanic in Toulon. Posing as a journalist, Césariot spends some time with Marius, but he returns home after some of Marius' friends—to play a joke on the naive youth—tell him that they and Marius are involved in burglary and drug trafficking. A chance encounter in Marseille later alerts Marius' business partner to the relationship between Marius and Césariot, and he comes clean to Césariot about the joke.

Césariot finds Marius and reveals his true identity. He brings Marius to see Fanny and César, and Marius chastises them for ruining all of their lives in the name of propriety and believing negative rumors that they had heard about Marius over the years. Marius then tells Césariot that Césariot knows where to find him an

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  • Who Was Marcel Pagnol?

    Marcel Pagnol was a towering figure in French culture, best known for his versatile contributions to literature, theatre, and cinema. His work is celebrated for capturing the spirit and landscape of Provence, offering insights into the rural life and traditions of the region. Pagnol's storytelling weaved together humour, nostalgia, and a deep affection for his characters, securing his place as a beloved author and filmmaker.

    Early Life and Career of Marcel Pagnol

    Marcel Pagnol was born on February 28, 1895, in Aubagne, France, to a school teacher and a seamstress. Growing up in Marseille, Pagnol was deeply influenced by the landscapes and culture of Provence, elements that would later permeate his works. After completing his studies in English literature, Pagnol started his career as a teacher before moving to Paris to pursue writing. His early work saw success in the theatre with plays such as The Baker's Wife and Marius, marking the beginning of a prolific career that spanned across literature and cinema.

    Major Contributions of Marcel Pagnol to French Literature

    Pagnol's contributions to French literature are vast and varied, encompassing drama, novels, and autobiographies. He is particularly celebrated for his series of novels and plays set in Provence, which not only contributed significantly to French theatre but also to the development of the sound film in France. Here are some of his major contributions:

    • The Marius Trilogy: Consisting of Marius, Fanny, and César, this series of plays and films offers a heartfelt portrayal of life in Marseille's Old Port, focusing on love, friendship, and family.
    • Souvenirs of Childhood (Souvenirs d'enfance): A series of autobiographical novels including The Glory of My Father and The Castle of My Mother, providing a nostalgic reflection on Pagnol's youth in Provence.
    • Contribution to Cinema: Pagnol was a pioneer in the use of sound in cinema, producing and d
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