Pagnol, Marcel

Pagnol, Marcel (1895-1974), French dramatist, writer, and film-maker. He was born in Aubagne near Marseille, which provided the setting for many of his works. He studied classics at Marseille and Montpellier universities, and became an English teacher. In 1926, he made his debut as a playwright in Paris with Les Marchands de gloire, a satire set during and after World War I. There followed Jazz (1927), Topaze (1928; Topaze, 1963), Marius (1929), and Fanny (1931). Topaze, the story of a mediocre teacher who becomes rich by setting aside his scruples, was an enormous success. In 1930, Pagnol discovered the huge potential of “talking pictures”, thinking of them as “canned theatre”. Though his approach was criticized, his early films brought to the French cinema-goer a popular and realistic world and a concern for regionalism in films such as Angèle (1934), César (1936), Regain (1937), La Femme du boulanger (1938), Naïs (1945), and Manon des Sources (1952). By 1954, the veteran actors who had contributed so much to the success of his work were dead or in retirement, and Pagnol ceased production. In 1957 he started writing his Souvenirs d'enfance, a tribute to his love for Provence. In the early 1960s, the French nouvelle vague (“New Wave”) rediscovered his films, acclaiming his work as a precursor of Italian neorealism. Pagnol died in Paris. He was elected to the Académie Française in 1946; and nominated Grand Officier to the Légion d'honneur, Commandeur des Palmes Académiques, Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, and Officer of the Belgian Ordre Léopold. His Souvenirs d'enfance have appeared in four volumes: La Gloire de mon père (1957), Le Château de ma mère (1958; these two volumes were translated, as The Days Were Too Short, in 1960); Le Temps des secrets (1960; The Time of Secrets, 1962); Le Temps des amours (1977; The Time of Love, 1979).