Marcel Pagnol

Pagnol was born on 28 February 1895 in Aubagne, Bouches-du-Rhône department, in southern France near Marseille, 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. School years In July 1904, the family rented the Bastide Neuve, 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 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. ==Career==

Time in Paris In 1922, he moved to Paris, where he taught English until 1927, 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, by Topaze, a satire based on ambition. He contacted Paramount Picture studios and suggested adapting his play Marius for cinema. The film was directed by Alexander Korda and released on 10 October 1931. His business came to a near-complete end during World War II as both the Nazi occupiers and the Vichy administration wanted to get hold of his film studio's equipment. Pagnol pretexted that his company was failing in order to sell it to Gaumont, and even destroyed the copies of his latest project, La Prière aux étoiles, so the German-controlled Continental 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. As a novelist In 1945, Pagnol remarried to actress Jacqueline Bouvier, later known as Jacqueline Pagnol. They had two children together, Frédéric (born 1946) and Estelle (born 1951). Estelle died at the age of two from encephalitis. 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 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. L'Eau des collines was itself based on the film Manon des Sources'', which Pagnol had directed in 1952 with his wife Jacqueline in the title role. ==Later life==

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, 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. By that time, Pagnol had restarted his filmmaking career with Naïs''. Pagnol's second marriage, with actress Jacqueline Pagnol, brought newfound happiness in his private life. In 1952, he gave Jacqueline the title role of Manon of the Spring, a two-part, 4-hour long film that he had written especially for her. In 1954, the death of their daughter Estelle was a tragedy from which he never quite recovered; he stopped making film afterwards. Jacqueline's support helped him write his successful books during the following years. Pagnol died in Paris 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), who died at the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918, is buried nearby. == Translations ==

Pagnol was also known for his translations of Shakespeare (from English) and Virgil (from Latin): • 1944 : ''Le Songe d'une nuit d'été (A Midsummer Night's Dream'') by William Shakespeare, first presented in 1947, at the Grand Théâtre de Monaco; Paris, Œuvres complètes, Club de l'Honnête Homme, 1971 • 1947 : Hamlet 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. == Film adaptations ==

In 1986, the two volumes of The Water of the Hills were adapted by filmmaker Claude Berri into the two films Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources. 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 was remade by Daniel Auteuil. In 2013, Marius and Fanny were remade, also by Daniel Auteuil. In 2022, Le Temps Des Secrets was adapted and filmed by Christophe Barratier. == Awards ==

• 1939: Best foreign film for Harvest - New York Film Critics Circle Awards • 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 28 February 2020 Google celebrated his 125th birthday with a Google Doodle. ==Filmography==

• Marius (1931) • Fanny (1932) • Jofroi (1934) • Angèle (1934) • Tartarin of Tarascon (1934) • Merlusse (1935) • Cigalon (1935) • Topaze (1936), first version • César (1936) • Regain (1937) • Le Schpountz (1938) • La Femme du boulanger (1938) • Monsieur Brotonneau (1939) • La Fille du puisatier (1940); remade in 2011 • La Prière aux étoiles (1941, unfinished, destroyed) • Naïs (1945) • The Pretty Miller Girl (1949, in colour) • The Ways of Love (1950) • The Prize (1950) • Topaze (1951, starring Fernandel), second version • Manon of the Spring (1952, later novelized and expanded as ''L'Eau des collines; and subsequently remade in 1986 in two parts as Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources'') • Letters from My Windmill (Les Lettres de mon moulin) (1954) ==Bibliography==

• • Castans, Raymond (1987). Marcel Pagnol. Éditions Jean-Claude Lattès. ==External links==