This film is dedicated to Mas-Félipe Delavouët, the poet discovered by Lawrence Durrell, who wrote 14,000 verses in Provençal over a period of thirty years, and who died on November 18, 1990. "The sky, history and Mediterranean and Provençal myths are the inexhaustable wellspring of this man rooted down there, near Salon-de-Provence" (J.-D. Pollet). "Mas-Félipe Delavouët wrote five books in Provençal, 14,000 verses. A sort of "Odyssey". Of myths. What is stunning in him is that he always talks of disappearances. Cities, works, men, writings, television, etc., everything has to disappear. In order to be reborn. No pain. A sort of hand-to-hand of man and nature. During the filming, I would simply throw out some words... For example, one time I said "creation" and he said: "creation doesn't exist..., creation is before me..., I can only read creation"; this sentence describes Delavouët perfectly (J.-D. Pollet, 1989 and 1993).
Dutch documentary filmmaker Joris Ivens follows the course of the famous wind as it originates in the Alps and finds its way to the Mediterranean Sea. Natural sounds and creative camera work provide a mood film showing the effect of the fury of the wind on the life of southern France.
The works of Marcel Pagnol are a veritable monument of French cultural heritage. Based on previously unseen archive material, film extracts, novels, plays, interviews and letters, the film pays tribute to the major author and popular filmmaker, who made his life a work and his work a life's project.
The last episode of Pagnol's memories (see also "La Gloire de Mon Père" "le Château de Ma Mère" and "Le Temps des secrets") deals with the teenage years of Marcel. While always spending his Summers in his dear Garrigue, he is now on the way to the Baccalaureat. He 's got a good pal Lagneau (The Lamb) who of course infuriates the teachers when he "bleats"...
After the death of uncle Olivier, his estate, a small chateau in Provence and the small town's only undertaker firm in its cellar, befall equally and jointly to his local stepson André Vidal, who runs the business since Olivier semi-retired ill, and German cousin, business consultant Charlotte. She arrives from Frankfort to sell the estate at the skyrocketing prices for such idyllic hospitality industry sites. André is shocked, determined to preserve the town's social fabric by preserving Olivier's heritage, and disappointed she doesn't even recognize him as childhood best playmate. It turns out the backward taxes are a ticking bomb, which she sneakily intends to ignite, only André's charms and the lavender-scented bucolic way of life appeal ever more even to businesslike Charlotte.
In Provence , Father Caillé runs a family pension backed by his daughter-in-law Cora and a maid. The old man persecutes Cora for her assiduity until the day when she, in a particularly violent confrontation, knocks him down before the eyes of Gino, an Italian pensioner of whom she is in love. The two accomplices will try to make up the murder.
The story takes us from the dear Garrigue to the secondary school where Marcel is first ill at ease because he is a scholarship holder and because he went to the grade school (the other bourgeois pupils had probably a private tutor). A fight against a rich kid ,that augurs badly for what is to follow. (to be followed in "Le Temps des Amours" )
In 1852, the mountain village in Provence where Violette lives is brutally deprived of all its men after the repression of the republicans ordered by Napoleon III. Women spend months in total isolation, desperate to see their men again. In this situation, they make an oath in case a man arrives in the village.
Marcel Pagnol's adaptation of his own novel Manon des sources, the story of a shepherdess who exacts her revenge on the townsfolk she blames for killing her father, in two parts: Manon des sources and Ugolin.
When Marie, a widow in Provence with two daughters, locks her bedroom door and goes to sleep, she dreams about Marty, a literary agent in Manhattan who dreams equally vividly about Marie. The women look alike. Marie meets William who begins to court her. Marty meets Aaron, an accountant, becomes his friend and then his lover. Both women tell their lovers about their dream life. William is jealous, Aaron is accepting. Even though they've become lovers, Marie won't fall asleep next to William. Marie goes on holiday with William to Paris, and Marty wakes up with an ashtray from the hotel on her night stand. Are they the same person? What will unlock reality?
Zef’s stormy relationship with his brother Roni is further aggravated when Roni marries his daughter just as he is attending to his wife’s funeral. The two brothers have never got on with each other. One is faithful to his religion, the other lives only for the present. Between London, Paris, Saint-Tropez and New York, a series of confrontations and betrayals threatens to drive the family further apart, but out of this confusion will come a great love story, perhaps even two...
Raised by his science teacher father, Joseph Pagnol, and seamstress mother Augustine, young Marcel grows up during the turn of the century in awe of his rationalist dad. When the family takes a summer vacation in the countryside, Marcel becomes friends with Lili, who teaches him about rural life.
Quinn, a neurotic man, is diagnosed with a harmless eye condition and soon after his life spirals out of control. He second-guesses his plans to propose to his longtime girlfriend, Devon, after his beautiful coworker, Kelsey, confesses that she has a crush on him. After a conversation with his best friend, Jameson, he clumsily tries to explain his doubts to Devon, but his possible proposal turns into a break-up. When Devon flees to Paris, he follows her in a last-ditch effort to win back "the one."
To his chagrin, young Marcel Pagnol and his family move back to their home in Marseilles, France, far from their pastoral holiday cottage in the hills. Determined, Marcel makes the long voyage back to the cottage on foot and lands himself in trouble. One day Marcel's father discovers a shortcut to the cottage, but it requires trespassing. Despite their trepidations, Marcel and his family begin using the secret trail to reach their cottage.
In a time of war and disease, a young officer gallantly tries to help a young woman find her husband.
In a rural French village, an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, and are dismayed to hear that the man who has inherited it is moving in. They block up the spring and watch as their new neighbour tries to keep his crops watered from wells far afield through the hot summer. Though they see his desperate efforts are breaking his health and his wife and daughter's hearts, they think only of getting the water.
In the wake of their parent's separation, three siblings spend the summer in the south of France with their estranged Grandfather. In less than 24 hours, a clash of generations has occurred between the teenagers and the old man. During this turbulent summer, both generations will be transformed by one another.