Charming family film, beautiful cinematography and music score, gentle humour .
Disadvantages:
Rose tinted nostalgia, no real plot, no extras, subtitles cannot be turned off !
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
'My Fathers Glory' (to give the English translation) is the 1990 adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's 1957 memoir of the same name detailing his childhood years. The info on the Ciao link regarding this dvd is incorrect in stating it is about Marcels friendship with a girl, that actually refers to 'le Chateau de Ma Mere' which is the sequel to this film, and continues where this film leaves off.
~Who was Marcel Pagnol?~
For those of you who are not familiar he was a French film maker and author of (among others) 'L'eau des Collines' which you may better know in it's 1980's film adaption form as 'Jean de Florette' and 'Manon des Souces' starring Gerard Depardieu and Yves Montand. Without going too much into the plot of these films they were about a town gentleman moving to Provence in the early part of the 20th century and his struggle to live off the land. It is not necessary to have seen these two films to enjoy this film, but if you have you will enjoy (as I did) spotting the inspiration which lead to what (in my opinion) are two masterpieces of cinema.
~The Film~
The story begins with Marcel Pagnol's birth in 1895 to a middle class family in Aubagne. His father Joseph (Philippe Cauberre) is a teacher and his mother Augustine (Nathalie Roussel) is, well... beautiful and delicate. His early years were spent as the centre of attention of his mother and aunt Rose (Therese Liotard) , until his younger siblings are born. Marcel is a somewhat precocious pre-school child who teaches himself how to read to the horror of his aunt Rose who believes his head will explode and tries to stop him. When aunt Rose meets and marries Jules, a well to do man of means, the family are delighted, at 26 they feared she would become an old maid! Her husband, uncle Jules (Didier Plain), is a colourful, jovial but arrogant character who as a devout catholic is often at odds with Marcel's agnostic father. The friendly rivalry between the two leads to some comic scenes throughout the film. When the family pack up to spend the summer in Provence Joseph the educated town man is like a fish out of water, as he strives to adapt to rural life. Those of you who have seen 'Jean de Florette' will appreciate the significance of this. Marcel adores Provence and quietly but desparately hopes his father will triumph and his pride will survive entact.
Marcel is played by two boys (Benoit Martin and later Julien Ciamaca) as he ages throughout the film, they each play him as a solemn serious child beyond his years and in addition there is a narration supposed to be that of the adult Pagnol, which is done by Jean Pierre Darras. The portrayal is of a very different simpler time, where children were innocent much longer. The women are shown to be content in their role as mothers and wives, spending much time in the kitchen yet perfectly dressed at all times and the men are upstanding and decent. There are no big drama's, only the small drama's of childhood, as everything is shown only from Marcels child perspective. This idyllic perspective results in a rather rose tinted nostalgic tale with limited character development.
I've given it 3 stars because although I enjoyed it (I am a big fan of 'Jean de Florette' and 'Manon des Sources'), there is nothing in this film which I would declare a 'must see'. It certainly has it's flaws, it's a pleasant feelgood film but there is no real drama or plot to balance and the pace is plodding at times. If you have enjoyed Pagnol's books or the inspired films, or if you are a Francophile who just enjoys anything French (I am all of those things!) you will probably find enough here to enjoy, if not I hope I have given you enough information to make up your own mind.
*Technical details*
I have not read the book so cannot comment on the accuracy of the film adaptation. Being made in 1990 the film is posthumous (Pagnol died in 1974), but is made by Gaumont studios which was founded by Pagnol in the 1930's.
The DVD itself is a budget affair with no extras apart from scene selection. The subtitles are automatic and cannot be removed either by menu or the subtitle button on my DVD player, this could be annoying for those who speak French well and prefer to work out the dialogue for themselves. I do not speak French well but was surprised to find the dialogue so simple I could understand much of it without the help of subtitles.
The soundtrack is by Vladimir Cosma, and is classic French complimenting the scenes nicely.
Run time 106 mins, cert U (however young children would be unlikely to be able to follow a subtitled film)
Price: Another of my bargain £1 rentals from my local library but a quick look around shows the price ranges from a reasonable £7.99 at Play.com to £17.99 at Amazon (seems very steep for a dvd with no extras), it also pops up on Ebay from time to time.
