PROFILES

It's the 120th anniversary of Marcel Pagnol's birth so his grandson, in charge of the writer's legacy since 2003, talked to us about the events planned.

The film trilogy: Marius, Fanny and César
"The original negatives of the film trilogy had deteriorated terribly, we had to act fast. Their restoration was made possible thanks to important partners such as the CNC, the Cinémathèque Française, the Franco-American Cultural Fund, Monaco's Archives Audiovisuelles, and also ordinary people who approached me direct when I put out a call for crowdfunding. Since then we've begun restoring three more feature films. That's the big challenge ahead of me: reviv­ing my grandfather's 21 films made from 1931 to 1957. The first of the trilogy will be released in France on 9 December, followed by the other two a fortnight later; then a DVD of the trilogy will come out in 2016."

Cinema correspondence
"In my grandmother's attic I unearthed some of Marcel's correspondence. The idea of publishing part of it soon took hold as his exchanges with, and copies of letters to, such prestigious corres­pondents as René Clair, Raimu, Cocteau and Fernandel are fascinating. My job was to "contextualise" all those letters within my grandfather's life. In J’ai écrit pour toi le rôle de ta vie(1), which comprises only cinema correspondence, we discover a light-hearted, sardonic, rather bawdy Pagnol who's very soft-hearted with his friends. A second volume consisting of theatrical, literary and personal correspondence will be published in autumn 2016."

Graphic novels
"Marcel was long labelled a children's writer because from the 50s to the 90s he was a school favourite. Children's literature his may be, but in the same sense as Dickens and Kipling! I'd like young people of today to discover him in a different light. In November we and publishers Bamboo Edition are launching a collection of graphic novels for all readers(2). The first two coming out are La gloire de mon père and Merlusse, adapted by Serge Scotto and Eric Stoffel and drawn by Eric Hübsch and Morgann Tanco. Topaze will follow in 2016."

Two exhibitions in the South
"As part of Marcel Pagnol Year in Aubagne, where he was born, there'll be an exhibition in October in the Salle des Pénitents Noirs, displaying documents and objects that belonged to him – his Academy robes, his inkwells, his cameras etc., – and which my grandmother [94-year-old Jacqueline, famous as Manon des Sources; Ed.] and my father agreed to loan for the first time. In Marseille, the Alcazar Library is later putting on an exhibition on Marius – there'll even be the actual bar from the film, unearthed at a Var antique dealer's!"

A "family" biopic
"Four years ago, we and Ashargin Poiré, grandson of the famous French producer Alain Poiré who was a very close friend of my grandfather, had the idea of making an original Marcel Pagnol biopic. Today I can reveal that the visionary genius Jacques Perrin and his company Galatée are taking part in this highly ambitious project that should be in cinemas in 2017. Sylvain Chomet, who made the wonderful Triplets of Belleville, is to
direct this great movie mixing animation, archives and reconstruction."

The one and only Pagnol

His Marseille trilogy (Marius, Fanny and César) is a classic, as are his novels My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle. Despite long being considered a children's writer and a harbinger of "Marseille comedy", Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974) stands tall beside Provence's literary masters such as Alphonse Daudet, Frédéric Mistral and Jean Giono. A member of the Académie Française, Pagnol too made Provence familiar literary territory, and in the words of the Encyclopædia Universalis is "a case apart in 20th-century literature, the prototype of the modern playwright to whom cinema gave a new means of expression [and an artist] whose acute business sense enabled him to shake off the control of industrialists and financiers", although earning him the disdain of certain intellectuals of his day. But not of the public!

Par Mireille Sartore
Portrait : Sophie Boulet