The valleys of Provence, the rustle of olive trees, the clink of ice in pastis. To invoke the imagination of Marcel Pagnol – the filmmaker, but also the playwright and author – is to engage in a synesthesia of the senses. Almost all the director’s films start at aperitif time, on a quaint village square, around a convivial table, where colourful characters discuss their communal life. The picturesque beginnings contain a political obsession dear to Marcel Pagnol, born in 1895 in Aubagne, some fifteen kilometers from Marseille, the son of a schoolteacher and fervent secularist: how to create a society, to bind individuals around democratic values, to achieve collective harmony?
Behind his melodious accent, Marcel Pagnol’s cinema brims with great technical ambitions and avant-garde experiments. Rediscovering his films sheds light on a prolific and brilliant filmmaker, who embraced the challenges of talking cinema from an early stage.
50 years after his death, the 4K restoration of Pagnol’s work provides a tremendous opportunity to rediscover his generous art of dialogue, his authentic characters, bathed in the warm light of a Provence he immortalised like no other.
THE MARSEILLE TRILOGY
A cinematic masterpiece that captures the soul and spirit of the French port city. Comprising three iconic films, Marius (1931), Fanny (1932), and César (1936), this trilogy is an exploration of love, family, and the rugged beauty of Marseille’s landscape.
THE HILLS OF PROVENCE TRILOGY
The taste of summer seen through the eyes of young Marcel Pagnol. His love for nature, the smell of thyme, the sound of the cicadas, the singing accents, the intensity of short-term summer friendships are explored through these three nostalgic films, My Father’s Glory (1990), My Mother’s Castle (1990), and The Times of Secrets (2022). A real feast for the eyes and the ears for younger and older generations.
