Translating as 'My Mothers Castle', the film 'Le Chateau de Ma Mere', made in 1990, is the second film adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's childhood memoirs set in early 20th century France. It would be best to first watch the preceding film 'La Gloire de Mon Pere' which sets the scene and characterisations but it is not essential. In fact, if you had a choice which of the two films to watch I would recommend this one above the other. Where as 'La Gloire de Mon Pere' is a charming but plodding film the pace of 'Le Chateau de Ma Mere' is faster paced with a more involving plot.
~Who was Marcel Pagnol?~
For those of you not familiar (and who have not read my previous 'La Gloire de Mon Pere' review), Marcel Pagnol was a French film maker and novelist born in 1895. You may best know him as the author of 'L'eau de Collines' which was adapted into the popular 1980's films 'Jean de Florette' and 'Manon des Sources' starring Gerard Depardieu and Yves Montand. Without going into too much detail, they are about a townsman who moves to Provence and struggles to adapt to rural life. The story has a strong morality theme throughout. It is not necessary to have seen these two films to enjoy this film but if you have you will enjoy spotting the
inspiration which lead to what, in my opinion, are two masterpieces of French cinema.
~The film~
Following from 'La Gloire de Mon Pere' it is the early 1900s and the Pagnol family have returned from their idyllic summer holiday in Provence back to their town life. Father Joseph (Philippe Cauberre) has returned to his teaching job at school and the boys Marcel aged around 12 (Julien Ciamaca) and Paul aged around 7(Victorien Delamare) are back to their studies. Marcel, ever the bright one, has been entered for an exam to win a scholarship, but all he can think about is Provence and hunting with his friend Lili ( a peasant boy he met during the first film). His parents are keen for him to succeed and he has to study much of his free time. Then comes a surprise, they are to return to Provence for the Christmas, his parents love the life there as much as Marcel. There after the family plot to spend more and more time in Provence enjoying the clean air and lazy days they enjoyed so in the first film.
This is where the film departs from the first. Whereas the first is all idyll and not much plot this film introduces several new strong characters, not all of whom are pleasant, and has two successive storylines within. The first concerns Marcel's meeting with Isabella a young pretentious girl of Bohemian parents, who is what we would call a bit of a 'drama queen'! She invents various games whereby Marcel is her slave, and he is so enthralled by her femininity that he is willing to comply, much to the horror of his friend Lili and brother Paul who are disgusted that any boy should be ordered around so by a girl. I honestly found this character quite horrible to watch, and shared Lili and Paul's disgust. This torture thankfully doesn't last too long as her family exit fairly early on in the film.
The second part of the story is where I felt the film really began to gather pace. The Pagnol's continue to strive for more ways to have their time in Provence and mother Augustine (Nathalie Roussel) soon has a brilliant idea which she then expertly executes which means they can spend every weekend at their Provencal home. However the family are finding the 3 hour trek to the rural house in the hills exhausting on a weekly basis. Another solution presents itself in the form of a former pupil of Joseph's who has a not very legal but very effective idea to reach their country home faster. Joseph being a man of integrity and a school teacher has a dilemma, should he force his wife and children to become exhausted taking the long route or should he risk his position by taking the illegal shorter route? Along the chosen route there is adventure, peril, but also much comic humour.
The end of the film changes mood suddenly as Jean-Pierre Darras as the voice of the adult Pagnol tells us briefly of what became of his family and friends over the following years and about his own rise in fortunes which saw him open his own film making company Gaumont studios in the 1930's. It is a very poignant ending and I did require a tissue.
~Technical Details~
Made in 1990 at the same time as 'La Gloire de Mon Pere', this film was made posthumously (Pagnol died in 1974) and adapted from the novels Pagnol wrote during the 1950's of his childhood. I haven't read the books so can't comment on the accuracy of the adaptation.
As in the first film there is a beautiful classic French music soundtrack by Vladimir Cosma which is available seperately on CD.
The DVD by Second Sight films is budget style, no extras except for scene selection. The English subtitles are automatic and I could not remove them by menu or subtitle button on my DVD player. This would be frustrating for those who can speak French well and who wish to hear rather than read the film. Although my French is not very good as much of the dialogue is between children I found it fairly simple to understand without subtitles much of the time.
Runtime 94 minutes, cert U (although not many children would be able to follow a subtitled film).
A £1 bargain rental from my local library if you wish to buy this ranges from a reasonable £7.99 at Play.com to £17.98 on Amazon, it also pops up used on Ebay from time to time.
Pictures
The Pagnol family of the film
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Well I'm glad this one is better than the first - I agree, it was a bit slow. I still haven't seen Jean de Florette and Manon de Sources, but hopefully I will do sometime soon! Another great review!
weetoon 30.01.2006 14:34
I have read the books (this is actualy a trilogy in book form) so many times, as a child and later, that I hesitate to watch the film and risk spoiling the characters who live in my head! But I think I will have to give it a go at some point, spurred on by your review!
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Le Chateau de Ma Mere:In this sequel to La Gloire de Mon Pere, writer Marcel Pagnol's ... more
memoirs of childhood continue to captivate.Devasted at having to leave his wondrous hills of Provence, where his family had spent the summer, Marcel is elated when th...
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