Marcel Paul Pagnol (; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974) was a French
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...
,
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
, and
filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
. Regarded as an
auteur
An auteur (; , 'author') is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded but personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, which thus manifests the director's unique ...
, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
. Although his work is less fashionable than it once was, Pagnol is still 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 and film.
Early life
Pagnol was born on 28 February 1895 in
Aubagne
Aubagne (, ''Aubanha'' in Occitan language, Occitan according to the classic norm or ''Aubagno'' according to the Mistralian norm) is a Commune in France, commune in the southern French Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône. In ...
,
Bouches-du-Rhône
Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and large ...
department, in southern France near
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
, the eldest son of schoolteacher Joseph Pagnol and seamstress Augustine Lansot.Castans (1987), pp. 363–368 Marcel Pagnol grew up in Marseille with his younger brothers Paul and René, and younger sister Germaine.
School years
In July 1904, the family rented the ''Bastide Neuve'', – a house in the sleepy Provençal village of
La Treille
La Treille is a ''quartier'' on the outskirts of the 11th ''arrondissement'' of Marseille, in the Department of Bouches-du-Rhône, France. It has approximately 900 inhabitants. At the centre of the ''quartier'' is the seventeenth century hillsid ...
– for the summer holidays, the first of many spent in the hilly countryside between Aubagne and Marseille. 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 chest
infection
An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...
(''"mal de poitrine"'') and died, aged 36. Joseph remarried in 1912.
In 1913, at the age of 18, Marcel passed his
baccalaureate Baccalaureate may refer to:
* ''Baccalauréat'', a French national academic qualification
* Bachelor's degree, or baccalaureate, an undergraduate academic degree
* English Baccalaureate, a performance measure to assess secondary schools in England ...
in philosophy and started studying literature at the University in
Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...
. When
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
broke out, he was called up into the infantry at
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
but in January 1915 he was discharged because of his poor constitution (''"faiblesse de constitution'). On 2 March 1916, he married Simone Colin in Marseille and in November graduated in English. He became an English teacher, teaching in various local colleges and at a
lycée
In France, secondary education is in two stages:
* ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15.
* ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...
in Marseille.
Career
Time in Paris
In 1922, he moved to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, where he taught English until 1927, when he decided instead to devote his life to playwriting. During this time, he belonged to a group of young writers, in collaboration with one of whom,
Paul Nivoix
Paul Eugène Nivoix (December 24, 1889 - September 14, 1958) was a French playwright and screenwriter.
Theater
With Marcel Pagnol:
* ''Tonton'' 1924
* '' Les Marchands de gloire'' 1925
* '' Un direct au cœur'' 1926.
Filmography
* 1932: '' ...
, he wrote the play, ''Merchants of Glory'', which was produced in 1924. This was followed, in 1928, by '' Topaze'', a satire based on ambition. Exiled in Paris, he returned nostalgically to his Provençal roots, taking this as his setting for his play '' Marius'', which later became the first of his works to be adapted into a film in 1931.
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. (Jacques later became his father's assistant and subsequently a cameraman for France 3 Marseille.)
Filmmaking career
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. He contacted Paramount Picture studios and suggested adapting his play ''Marius'' for cinema. This was directed by
Alexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956) 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. 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. On 4 April 1946, Pagnol was elected to the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
, taking his seat in March 1947, the first filmmaker to receive this honour.
Themes of Pagnol's films
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.
As a novelist
In 1945, Pagnol remarried, to Jacqueline Bouvier (the actress
Jacqueline Pagnol
Jacqueline Andrée Pagnol (née Bouvier; 6 October 1920 – 22 August 2016) was a French actress. She acted in many French films in the 1940s and 1950s. She was the wife of French author and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol.
Biography
Early life
Jacq ...
). They had two children together, Frédéric (born 1946) and Estelle (born 1949). Estelle died at the age of two. 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
''Souvenirs d'enfance'' ("Souvenirs of infancy", "Childhood memories") is a series of autobiographical novels by French filmmaker and Académie française, ''académicien'', Marcel Pagnol (1895–1974).''Books and Writers'' ''Souvenirs d'enfance' ...
'' – based on his childhood experiences.
In 1957, the first two novels in the series, '' La Gloire de mon père'' and ''
Le château de ma mère
''My Mother's Castle'' (french: Le Château de ma mère) is a 1957 autobiographical novel by Marcel Pagnol, the second in the four-volume series ''Souvenirs d'enfance'' and the sequel to ''My Father's Glory''. It was the subject of a film mad ...
'' were published to instant acclaim. The third ''Le Temps des secrets'' was published in 1959, the fourth '' Le 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'' and '' Manon des Sources'' – which focused on the machinations of Provençal peasant life at the beginning of the twentieth century and were published in 1962.
Pagnol adapted his own film ''Manon des Sources'', with his wife Jacqueline in the title role, into two novels, '' Jean de Florette'' and ''Manon des Sources'', collectively titled '' L'Eau des Collines''.
Death
Marcel Pagnol died in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
on 18 April 1974. He is buried in Marseille at the cemetery ''La Treille'', along with his mother, father, brothers, and wife. His boyhood friend, David Magnan (''Lili des Bellons'' in the autobiographies), died at the
Second Battle of the Marne
The Second Battle of the Marne (french: Seconde Bataille de la Marne) (15 July – 18 July 1918) was the last major German offensive on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during the World War I, First World War. The attack failed wh ...
in July 1918, and is buried nearby.
Translations
Pagnol was also known for his translations of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
(from English) and
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
(from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
):
*1944 : ''Le Songe d'une nuit d'été'' (''
A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...
'') by William Shakespeare, first presented in 1947, at the Grand Théâtre de Monaco; Paris, Œuvres complètes, Club de l'Honnête Homme, 1971
*1947 : ''
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
'' by William Shakespeare, Paris, Nagel
*1958 : ''Bucoliques'' ('' The Eclogues'') by Virgil, Paris, Grasset
Pagnol's ''Hamlet'' is still performed in France, although some have criticized his portrayal of Hamlet as somewhat effeminate.
Claude Berri
Claude Berri (; 1 July 1934 – 12 January 2009) was a French film director, writer, producer, actor and distributor.
Early life
Born Claude Beri Langmann in Paris, Berri was the son of Jewish immigrant parents. His mother, Beila (née Bercu), w ...
Le château de ma mère
''My Mother's Castle'' (french: Le Château de ma mère) is a 1957 autobiographical novel by Marcel Pagnol, the second in the four-volume series ''Souvenirs d'enfance'' and the sequel to ''My Father's Glory''. It was the subject of a film mad ...
'', Pagnol's affectionate reminiscences of childhood, were filmed by
Yves Robert
Yves Robert (19 June 1920 – 10 May 2002) was a French actor, screenwriter, director, and producer.
Life and career
Robert was born in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France. In his teens, he went to Paris to pursue a career in acting, starting with ...
.
In 2000,
Jacques Nahum
Jacques Nahum (27 February 1921 – 21 July 2017) was a French director, screenwriter, and producer, famed for producing the cult television show ''Arsène Lupin'', descended from the Pallache family.
Background
Jacques Nahum was born on ...
produced ''Marius'', ''Fanny'', and ''César'' for French television.
In 2011, '' La Fille du puisatier'' was filmed by
Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil (; born 24 January 1950) is a French actor and director who has appeared in a wide range of film genres, including period dramas, romantic comedies, and crime thrillers. In 1996 he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Fest ...
.
In 2013, '' Marius'' and '' Fanny'' were remade by Daniel Auteuil.
Awards
* 1939: Best foreign film for ''Harvest'' -
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) is an American film critic organization founded in 1935 by Wanda Hale from the New York ''Daily News''. Its membership includes over 30 film critics from New York-based daily and weekly newspapers, magaz ...
* 1940: Best foreign film for ''The Baker's Wife'' - New York Film Critics Circle Awards
* 1950: Best foreign film for ''Jofroi'' - New York Film Critics Circle Awards
Tribute
On February 28, 2020,
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
celebrated his 125th birthday with a
Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
Jofroi ''Jofroi'' is a 1934 French drama film directed by Marcel Pagnol and starring Vincent Scotto. It tells the story of a man who has sold his orchard. When the new owner wants to cut the trees down, the former owner threatens with suicide. The film is ...
'' (1934)
* ''
Angèle
Angèle is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
*Angèle (singer) (born Angèle Van Laeken, 1995), Belgian singer
* Angèle Dola Akofa Aguigah (born 1955), Togolese archaeologist
* Angèle Arsenault (1943–2014), Canadian-Acadi ...
Regain
Regain Records was a Swedish-based independent record label. The label predominantly released death metal and black metal albums. Regain Records was founded from what remained of the former label, Wrong Again Records, by Per Gyllenbäck in 19 ...
'' (1937)
* ''
Le Schpountz Le schpountz is a 1999 French film directed by Gérard Oury (a remake of the 1938 film '' Heartbeat'' by Marcel Pagnol). Irénée does not want to work in his uncle's grocery shop and spends his time dreaming of becoming an actor. Irénée's chance ...
'' (1938)
* ''
La Femme du boulanger
''The Baker's Wife'' (french: La femme du boulanger) is a 1938 French drama film directed by Marcel Pagnol. It is based on the novel '' Blue Boy'' by French author Jean Giono and became the basis of the American musical ''The Baker's Wife''.
It t ...
'' (1938)
* ''
Monsieur Brotonneau
''Monsieur Brotonneau'' is a 1939 French comedy drama film directed by Alexander Esway and starring Raimu, Josette Day and Marguerite Pierry.Crisp p.112
Synopsis
Monsieur Brotonneau leaves his cheating wife Thérèse for his secretary Louise. When ...
The Pretty Miller Girl
''The Pretty Miller Girl'' (French: ''La Belle Meunière'') is a 1949 French musical film directed by Marcel Pagnol and starring Tino Rossi, Jacqueline Pagnol and Raoul Marco. It is part of the tradition of operetta films. The title is a referen ...
'' (1949, in colour)
* ''
The Ways of Love
''The Ways of Love'' is a 1950 anthology film.
The film features three segments, Jean Renoir's "A Day in the Country", Marcel Pagnol's "Jofroi", and Roberto Rossellini's "The Miracle".
''L'Amore'' and ''The Ways of Love''
One segment of ''The Wa ...
Fernandel
Fernand Joseph Désiré Contandin (8 May 1903 – 26 February 1971), better known as Fernandel, was a French actor and singer. Born near Marseille, France, to Désirée Bedouin and Denis Contandin, originating in Perosa Argentina, an Occitan t ...
Letters from My Windmill
''Letters from My Windmill'' (french: Lettres de mon moulin) is a collection of short stories by Alphonse Daudet first published in its entirety in 1869. Some of the stories had been published earlier in newspapers or journals such as ''Le Figaro' ...
'' (''Les Lettres de mon moulin'') (1954)
Bibliography
* ''Merchants of Glory'' (1925, theatre play)
* ''Jazz'' (1926, theatre play)
* '' Topaze'' (1928, theatre play)
* '' Marius'' (1929, theatre play)
* '' Fanny'' (1932, theatre play)
* '' César'' (1936, theatre play)
* '' La Gloire de mon père and
Le Château de ma mère
''My Mother's Castle'' (french: Le Château de ma mère) is a 1957 autobiographical novel by Marcel Pagnol, the second in the four-volume series ''Souvenirs d'enfance'' and the sequel to ''My Father's Glory''. It was the subject of a film mad ...
'' (1957,
autobiographies
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
Lycée Français International Marcel Pagnol ''Lycée Français International Marcel Pagnol'' ( es, Liceo Francés Internacional Marcel Pagnol) is a French traditional school in Asunción, Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no ...
Notes
:* Born 25 October 1869. Died 8 November 1951, age 82.
:* Born 11 September 1873. Died 16 June 1910, age 36.
References
Sources
* Castans, Raymond (1987). ''Marcel Pagnol''. Éditions Jean-Claude Lattès.