This 1990 French film presents idyllic episodes from the childhood of novelist and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974). Together, the episodes present a portrait of an ordinary family with an extraordinary ability to love. Set in Provencal in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the film first introduces members of the family, including Marcel (Julien Ciamaca). When he is still a preschooler, his father Joseph, a teacher, takes him to classes to watch over him. Marcel, however, learns along
with the other children and starts to read out loud in class. Astonished, Joseph (Philippe Caubčre) writes a sentence on the blackboard and asks, "What does that say?" Marcel, reading the words, says, "The father is proud of his little boy." This little scene establishes the tone and meaning of the film. Flashing ahead seven years, the camera then follows the Pagnols after they leave Marseilles for a summer vacation in the Provencal countryside, there to bask in the simplicity of rural life. From then on, it is not what happens to the family that engages audiences; it is how it happens -- with a quiet exuberance and joie de vivre. Besides Marcel and his father, the vacationers include his mother, Augustine (Nathalie Roussel), a beautiful and kindly homemaker; Marcel's little brother Paul (Victorien Delamare); and his Uncle Jules (Didier Pain) and Aunt Rose (Thérčse Liotard). After they arrive at their cottage, 11-year-old Marcel wastes no time wading into the greenery in search of adventure. What he finds is another adventuresome boy, Lili de Bellons (Joris Molinas), a native of the region. They become friends and fellow explorers, capturing cicadas, climbing rocks, and even invading an eagle's cave. Sometimes they just have fun shouting to hear an echo boomeranging back. At meal times -- often outdoors -- fresh fruit and good-natured repartee satisfy appetites. For spectator sport, the diners listen to the occasional religious arguments between Uncle Jules, a God-fearing Catholic, and Joseph, a God-doubting agnostic. Augustine and Aunt Rose avoid the polemics, for they have more important matters on their minds: keeping house, watching children, and planning the next day's menu. And then the film takes a turn toward real drama. Uncle Jules, full of tales about his prowess as a hunter, persuades Joseph, full of ignorance about guns and hunting, to go on a bird hunt. Woe is Papa, Marcel thinks. When the day of the great hunt arrives, Marcel secretly follows Joseph and Uncle Jules into the woods, setting the stage for the film's climactic moment. ~ Mike Cummings, Rovi
I had never been interested in visiting Paris until I read Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. Paris had flesh after that. I could visualize it. The details Hemingway relates make me wish I could have been a starving artist in love as he was at the time. Maybe I could have run into Ezra Pound.
My Father's Glory,
a film about the memoirs of Marcel Pagnol, did the same for me in regards to Marseille and Aubagne. The movie never tries to portray a realistic Marseille at the beginning of the 20th century. Instead, it's an idealized remembrance of Pagnol's childhood in which no one gets into a quarrel that can't be solved by mealtime, and everyone feels the joys of life and love.
The movie takes place throughout Pagnol's childhood; however, the second half of the film deals with a particularly vivid summer holiday in which Pagnol escapes into the French hills. Along the way, Pagnol takes pride in his father's successes and also meets a friend who teaches him how to trap fowl and navigate the landscape. A favorite scene of mine has the two friends hunkered in a cavern watching a lightning storm play out among the scrublands below them.
The back of the DVD jacket will tell you that the plot revolves around a hunting match, but nothing could be further from the truth. The movie has no major conflict, no problem that must be solved. There's a conclusion, and the young Pagnol does learn a valuable lesson; yet, it's an afterthought. The meat of the movie is the photography and whimsical interaction between characters. It's more a series of short sketches than a cohesive story. Delightful is the best adjective to use.
I found myself chuckling on several occasions at the comic timing. It's not funny, but it is very amusing and endearing. This is a rare movie in which you do not laugh at the characters but with them. I half expected any one of the them to turn to the camera and wink just to remind me they were in on the joke too, as if to say, "It's OK. We know you're not laughing at us. Go on. Have a good time."
The only bittersweet moments in the film come when we realize (along with our young protagonist) that the fun can't last. When he realizes he only has a day or two left of his holiday before going back to school, we are crushed that we'll be leaving the French countryside along with him.
What I couldn't understand was how this movie wasn't nominated for the foreign language Academy Award. After checking the IMDb, I figured it out. Cyrano de Bergerac, a classic of modern French cinema, was released the same year and took the spot as France's official entry. It's too bad. My Father's Glory would have had a good chance of winning too.
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