Marcel Pagnol: My Father's Glory, My Mother's Castle

Directed by Yves Robert
Film Movement Classics
1990
208 Minutes
France
French
Family, Biography, Classics, Coming of Age, Comedy
Blu-ray
$39.98

Based on the bestselling memoirs of French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol (the acclaimed author of Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring), MY FATHER’S GLORY and its sequel MY MOTHER’S CASTLE recount the nostalgic memories of Pagnol’s youth growing up in Provence at the turn of the twentieth century. During one idyllic summer, 11-year-old Marcel (Julien Ciamaca) discovers friendship and wonder amid the rocky peaks surrounding his family’s countryside home while learning new respect for his gentle and caring schoolmaster father Joseph (Philippe Caubère). Upon his return to Marseilles, Marcel longs to escape back to his beloved hills and is granted his wish when his adoring mother Augustine (Nathalie Roussel) devises a plan that allows them to visit the cottage more frequently.

Cast

  • Philippe Caubère
  • Nathalie Roussel
  • Didier Pain
  • Thérèse Liotard
  • Julien Ciamaca
  • Victorien Delamare
Blu-ray Features

Bonus Features:

Heritage and Nostalgia video essay by Ludovic Cortade, Associate Professor in French Literature, Thought and Culture at New York University

A Question of Tribe featurette with director Yves Robert’s son Jean-Denis Robert, grandson Martin Drescher, and cinematographer Robert Alazraki
16-page booklet with new essay by filmmaker, producer and writer Kat Ellinger

Discs: 1

  • Highest Rating
    "What is surprising about the two films is the way they creep up on you emotionally, until at the end of the second one, when we discover the meaning of the movie’s title, there is a deeply moving moment of truth and insight. Like all the best movies, these memories of Marcel Pagnol work by becoming our memories, as well."
    Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
  • Highest Rating
    "With beauty, simplicity, and a keen appreciation for the commonplace, director Yves Robert captures the turn-of-the-century childhood of Marcel...."
    Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
  • Highest Rating
    "MY FATHER'S GLORY is the first of Yves Robert's two charming movies based on the sweet reminiscences of Marcel Pagnol.... The film proves exceptional in every way: outstanding cinematography that captures the countryside of Provence, fitting musical score, and wonderful acting performances."
    Movieguide
  • Highest Rating
    "And now here we are back again in the hills of Provence, in the second of two remarkable memory-films based on the childhood of the great French writer Marcel Pagnol. It is likely that no one, not even Pagnol, had a childhood quite this perfect, and yet all happy childhoods grow happier in memory, and it is the nature of film that we can share some of Pagnol's happiness."
    Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
  • Highest Rating
    "Whatever the interval that separates one's viewing of "My Father's Glory" from that of the equally enchanting "My Mother's Castle," it is only an intermission. This second film, like the first, is raised to the heights of voyeuristic pleasure by countless family feasts, happy occasions, warm smiles and intoxicating memories. "My Mother's Castle," a film that is all banquets and bouquets, concentrates as fully on life's smaller joys as on its larger ones, and does so with the kind of panache that has already charmed much of France. "
    Janet Maslin, The New York Times
  • Highest Rating
    "My Mother's Castle maintains an enchantment that paints across its canvas with lyrical watercolor swirls."
    Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
  • Highest Rating
    "Robert catches the book’s reverie, its wistful tenderness. "
    Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times

Awards & Recognition