Marcel Pagnol | |
|---|---|
 Pagnol in 1948 | |
| Born | Marcel Paul Pagnol (1895-02-28)28 February 1895 |
| Died | 18 April 1974(1974-04-18) (aged 79) Paris, France |
| Occupation | Author Playwright Film director |
| Nationality | French |
| Notable works | Marius Manon des sources The Water of the Hills La Gloire de mon père Le Château de ma mère |
| Spouse | |
| Partner | Orane Demazis (1925–1937) Josette Day (1939–1944) |
| Children | 5 |
| Website | |
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Marcel Paul Pagnol (/pəˈnjɒl,pæ-/, alsoUS:/pɑːˈnjɔːl/pah-NYAWL;[1]French:[maʁsɛlpɔlpaɲɔl]; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974) was a Frenchnovelist,playwright, andfilmmaker. Regarded as anauteur,[2] in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to theAcadémie française. Pagnol is generally regarded as one of France's greatest 20th-century writers and is notable for the fact that he excelled in almost every medium—memoir,novel,drama andfilm.
Pagnol was born on 28 February 1895 inAubagne,Bouches-du-Rhône department, in southern France nearMarseille, the eldest son of schoolteacher Joseph PagnolA and seamstress Augustine Lansot.B[3] He was secretly baptised at theÉglise Saint-Charles in Marseilles.[4] Marcel Pagnol grew up in Marseille with his younger brothers Paul and René, and younger sister Germaine.
In July 1904, the family rented theBastide Neuve,[3] – a house in the sleepy Provençal village ofLa Treille – for the summer holidays, the first of many spent in the hilly countryside between Aubagne and Marseille.[5] About the same time, Augustine's health, which had never been robust, began to noticeably decline and on 16 June 1910 she succumbed to a chestinfection ("mal de poitrine") and died, aged 36.[6] Joseph remarried in 1912.[3]
In 1913, at the age of 18, Marcel passed hisbaccalaureate in philosophy[3] and started studying literature at the university inAix-en-Provence. WhenWorld War I broke out, he was called up into the infantry atNice but in January 1915 he was discharged because of his poor constitution ("faiblesse de constitution'').[3] On 2 March 1916, he married Simone Colin in Marseille and in November graduated in English.[3] He became an English teacher, teaching in various local colleges and at alycée in Marseille.[3]
In 1922, he moved toParis, where he taught English until 1927,[3] when he decided instead to devote his life to playwriting.[7] During this time, he belonged to a group of young writers, in collaboration with one of whom,Paul Nivoix, he wrote the play,Merchants of Glory, which was produced in 1924. This was followed, in 1928, byTopaze, a satire based on ambition.[3] Exiled in Paris, he returned nostalgically to his Provençal roots, taking this as his setting for his playMarius, which later became the first of his works to be adapted into a film in 1931.[7]
Separated from Simone Collin since 1926 (though not divorced until 1941), he formed a relationship with the young English dancer Kitty Murphy. Their son Jacques Pagnol was born on 24 September 1930.[3] (Jacques later became his father's assistant and subsequently a cameraman forFrance 3 Marseille.)
In 1929, on a visit to London, Pagnol attended a screening of one of the first talking films and he was so impressed that he decided to devote his efforts to cinema.[8] He contacted Paramount Picture studios and suggested adapting his playMarius for cinema. The film was directed byAlexander Korda and released on 10 October 1931.[3] It became one of the first successful French-language talking films.
In 1932, Pagnol founded his own film production studios in the countryside near Marseille.[3] Over the next decade Pagnol produced his own films, taking many different roles in the production – financier, director, script writer, studio head, and foreign-language script translator – and employing the greatest French actors of the period, also owningfilm laboratories and several movie theaters in Marseille. Pagnol built a production system that was nearly unique as it allowed him to control all the aspects of his film's production, includingdistribution.[9][10] His business came to a near-complete end duringWorld War II as both the Nazi occupiers and theVichy administration wanted to get hold of his film studio's equipment. Pagnol pretexted that his company was failing in order to sell it toGaumont, and even destroyed the copies of his latest project,La Prière aux étoiles, so the German-controlledContinental Films could not get hold of it. He only kept one theater in Marseille. After the war, Pagnol created a new production company and rebuilt his filmmaking activity.[9] On 4 April 1946, Pagnol was elected to theAcadémie française, taking his seat in March 1947, the first filmmaker to receive this honour.[3]
In his films, Pagnol transfers his playwriting talents onto the big screen. His editing style is somberly reserved, placing emphasis on the content of an image. As a pictorial naturalist, Pagnol relies on film as art to convey a deeper meaning rather than solely as a tool to tell a story. Pagnol also took great care in the type of actors he employed, hiring local actors to appear in his films to highlight their unique accents and culture. Like his plays, Pagnol's films emphasize dialogue and musicality. The themes of many of Pagnol's films revolve around the acute observation of social rituals. Using interchangeable symbols and recurring character roles, such as proud fathers and rebellious children, Pagnol illuminates the provincial life of the lower class. Notably, Pagnol also frequently compares women and land, showing both can be barren or fertile. Above all, Pagnol uses all this to illustrate the importance of human bonds and their renewal.[11]
In 1945, Pagnol remarried to actress Jacqueline Bouvier, later known asJacqueline Pagnol.[3] They had two children together, Frédéric (born 1946) and Estelle (born 1951).[3] Estelle died at the age of two fromencephalitis. Pagnol was so devastated that he fled the south and returned to live in Paris. He went back to writing plays, but after his next piece was badly received he decided to change his job once more and began writing a series of autobiographical novels –Souvenirs d'enfance – based on his childhood experiences.
In 1957, the first two novels in the series,La Gloire de mon père andLe château de ma mère were published to instant acclaim.[3] The thirdLe Temps des secrets was published in 1959,[3] the fourthLe Temps des Amours was to remain unfinished and was not published until 1977, after his death. In the meantime, Pagnol turned to a second series,L'Eau des Collines –Jean de Florette andManon des Sources – which focused on the machinations of Provençal peasant life at the beginning of the twentieth century and were published in 1962.[3]L'Eau des collines was itself based on the filmManon des Sources, which Pagnol had directed in 1952 with his wifeJacqueline in the title role.
Pagnol appeared before a review committee of the Parisian Comite Regional Interprofessionnel d'Epuration on 27 November 1946 for three charges of collaboration. His charges were for addingPhilippe Pétain's armistice speech intoThe Well-Digger's Daughter, allowingLa France en Marche, a Vichy propaganda film series, to be processed at his laboratories in Marseille, and distributing a propaganda short about theattack on Mers-el-Kébir. Pagnol defended himself as the Germans bannedThe Well-Digger's Daughter in 1941 and only unbanned it after the Pétain scene was removed and that the Vichy government seized his studios, personnel, and distribution services. All charges against him were dismissed on 3 February 1947.[12] By that time, Pagnol had restarted his filmmaking career withNaïs.
Pagnol's second marriage, with actressJacqueline Pagnol, brought newfound happiness in his private life.[13] In 1952, he gave Jacqueline the title role ofManon of the Spring, a two-part, 4-hour long film that he had written especially for her.[14] In 1954, the death their daughter Estelle was a tragedy from which he never quite recovered; he stopped making film afterwards.[15] Jacqueline's support helped him write his successful books during the following years.[13]
Pagnol died inParis on 18 April 1974.[3] He is buried in Marseille at the cemeteryLa Treille, along with his mother, father, brothers, and wife. His boyhood friend, David Magnan (Lili des Bellons in the autobiographies), who died at theSecond Battle of the Marne in July 1918, is buried nearby.
Pagnol was also known for his translations ofShakespeare (from English) andVirgil (fromLatin):
Pagnol'sHamlet is still performed in France, although some have criticized his portrayal of Hamlet as somewhat effeminate.[16]
In 1986, the two volumes ofThe Water of the Hills were adapted by filmmakerClaude Berri into the two filmsJean de Florette andManon des Sources .
In 1990,La Gloire de mon père andLe château de ma mère, Pagnol's affectionate reminiscences of childhood, were filmed byYves Robert.
In 2000,Jacques Nahum producedMarius,Fanny, andCésar for French television.
In 2011,La Fille du puisatier was remade byDaniel Auteuil.
In 2013,Marius andFanny were remade, also by Daniel Auteuil.
In 2022,Le Temps Des Secrets was adapted and filmed byChristophe Barratier.
On 28 February 2020Google celebrated his 125th birthday with aGoogle Doodle.[17]
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