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18-539: La Treille became famous as the place where writer Marcel Pagnol spent his summer holidays during his childhood—at the Bastide Neuve —and he is buried in the cemetery there. This is also where La Pascaline —the house where Pagnol started to write Souvenirs d'enfance ( La Gloire de mon père and Le Château de ma mère )—is located. Pagnol's early films used the village as a backdrop and its inhabitants as actors: it has only slightly changed since then. Behind

36-756: A Vichy propaganda film series, to be processed at his laboratories in Marseille, and distributing a propaganda short about the attack on Mers-el-Kébir . Pagnol defended himself as the Germans banned The 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. Pagnol died in Paris on 18 April 1974. He

54-501: 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

72-551: 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, 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

90-486: 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 .) 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. The film

108-1084: 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), who died at the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918, is buried nearby. Pagnol was also known for his translations of Shakespeare (from English) and Virgil (from Latin ): Pagnol's Hamlet is still performed in France, although some have criticized his portrayal of Hamlet as somewhat effeminate. In 1986, Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources were adapted by filmmaker Claude Berri . In 1990, La Gloire de mon père and Le château de ma mère , Pagnol's affectionate reminiscences of childhood, were filmed by Yves Robert . In 2000, Jacques Nahum produced Marius , Fanny , and César for French television. In 2011, La Fille du puisatier

126-721: The chemin des Bellons , the main street in the village. A section of the Canal de Marseille passes below the village, which is served by the public transport system of Marseille and accessible also from Aubagne . 43°18′49″N 5°30′45″E  /  43.31361°N 5.51250°E  / 43.31361; 5.51250 This Bouches-du-Rhône geographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Marcel Pagnol Marcel Paul Pagnol ( / p ə ˈ n j ɒ l , p æ -/ , also US : / p ɑː ˈ n j ɔː l / pah- NYAWL ; French: [maʁsɛl pɔl paɲɔl] ; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974)

144-498: 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 – 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 were published to instant acclaim. The third Le Temps des secrets

162-517: The church, in the main square or placette , is a small fountain, used as Manon's fountain in Pagnol's 1953 film version of Manon des Sources . The village is situated at the start of the range of hills containing the Garlaban . This countryside featured prominently in Pagnol's books about his childhood and is now known in France as La Pagnolie . It can be explored on footpaths starting at the end of

180-484: The eldest son of schoolteacher Joseph Pagnol and seamstress Augustine Lansot. He was secretly baptised at the Église Saint-Charles in Marseilles. Marcel Pagnol grew up in Marseille with his younger brothers Paul and René, and younger sister Germaine. In July 1904, the family rented the Bastide Neuve , – a house in the sleepy Provençal village of La Treille – for the summer holidays, the first of many spent in

198-520: The greatest French actors of the period. On 4 April 1946, Pagnol was elected to the Académie française , taking his seat in March 1947, the first filmmaker to receive this honour. 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

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216-524: 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 ( "mal de poitrine" ) and died, aged 36. Joseph remarried in 1912. In 1913, at the age of 18, Marcel passed his baccalaureate in philosophy and started studying literature at the university in Aix-en-Provence . When World War I broke out, he

234-413: 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. In 1945, Pagnol remarried, to Jacqueline Bouvier (the actress Jacqueline Pagnol ). They had two children together, Frédéric (born 1946) and Estelle (born 1949). Estelle died at

252-522: The title role, into two novels, Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources , collectively titled L'Eau des Collines . 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 adding Philippe Pétain 's armistice speech into The Well-Digger's Daughter , allowing La France en Marche ,

270-513: Was a French novelist , playwright , and filmmaker . Regarded as an auteur , in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie 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 and film. Pagnol was born on 28 February 1895 in Aubagne , Bouches-du-Rhône department, in southern France near Marseille ,

288-665: Was called up into the infantry at Nice 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 Marseille. In 1922, he moved to Paris , where he taught English until 1927, when he decided instead to devote his life to playwriting. During this time, he belonged to

306-434: Was directed by Alexander Korda and released on 10 October 1931. 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

324-469: 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

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