
Distributor: Second SightFilms
Time: 201 minutes
Region 2 / Region B
If you asked around for people’s favourite French films, at least one of Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources would probably be in most people’s top five. La Gloire de Mon Père and Le Château de Ma Mère would not be far behind. All of them come from the mind of Marcel Pagnol.
While Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources were stories set in his beloved Provence, these other two are his own memories of childhood. They took place at the turn into the twentieth century, a time when his schoolteacher father was optimistic about the benefits that new technology, such as the telephone, were about to offer the world. With his father’s promotion and the family’s new ability to take holidays in Provence, the tone is unrelentingly optimistic.
As Marcel (Julien Ciamaca) is the oldest son of his father Joseph (Philippe Caubère) and mother Augustine (Nathalie Roussel), we follow the growth of his family: the birth of his siblings, the romance and marriage of his aunt Rose (Thérèse Liotard) to the wealthy Jules (Didier Pain) and the growth of their own family.
Yves Robert’s treatment of Pagnol’s life is suitably romanticized, in keeping with the author’s own work. The films have little story in terms of hard plot, but they ooze atmosphere and draw the viewer into a world of new discoveries, all seen through a child’s eyes. When his aunt is about to give birth, he explains to his brother how you add up the ages of the parents and that is the age that the child is born, so the baby will be wrinkled and in its sixties.



While the other feature is named Filming Aunt Rose, it uses interviews with Director of Photography Robert Alazralki, as well as Thérèse Liotard, to recount the memories of working with Yves Robert on the making of these films. It helps that the two had wildly different experiences with the man.
These stories are enormously popular in France, the first novel selling 50,000 copies in its first month and the movies making over $3 million. These films are utterly charming and filled with human experience. The friendly battles between Marcel’s atheist father and Christian uncle show how respect for people should trump idealogical disagreements, while Marcel’s exhilaration at being among the hills is infectious.
The two belong together and the new features complete the package.

Derek Walker
http://walkerwords.wordpress.com
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