the myth told by Fabrice Luchini

FRANCE 5 – FRIDAY APRIL 29 AT 10.35 P.M. – DOCUMENTARY

For all, the name of Pagnol resounds. Legendary author, successful director and prolific director, his face figures in the pantheon of French artists who shine with unfailing versatility and virtuosity. In fact, although his work is still as much a source of inspiration (four film adaptations since 2011), it remains essential to perpetuate it with new generations. The contribution it represents for French heritage remains exceptional.

Fabien Béziat (including author of the documentary The Epic of the Black Mouthswith Hugues Nancy) took charge of the first large portrait devoted to the author of Manon of the sources and of The glory of my father. The director breaks with the traditional form of the documentary to offer a different experience: neither experts, nor biographers, nor distant colleagues parading in a series of anecdotes of variable quality… Here, it is a single voice that guides us, that of Fabrice Luchini. The actor with his unique phrasing is the narrator of this almost two-hour dive into the life of this French myth.

Acts of resistance

Through these peregrinations, it is the underside of an exciting career, marked by ups and (many) downs that are told. First of all, his fight against the “intelligentsia” of Parisian critics, who take malicious pleasure in demolishing his least convincing films. Another event that marked his career forever: the war. The documentary does not fail to recall how much Pagnol showed courage and abnegation in the face of the Nazis, who wanted to control his art. Many are its acts of resistance, ranging from the destruction of one of its films by refusing to give it to the occupants to the sale of all of its cinema studios. “I am perhaps the only one who refused to shoot for the Germans”, we hear it said in old recordings.

The documentary also allows itself to go where it was not expected. One can generally expect, from this kind of program, to remain in the laudatory portrait, hagiographic. However, he is described here as a man concerned about his image and what others think of him, even if it means modifying reality to embellish it according to his interests. Thus, we will hear him brag about an Oscar that he never had, or even invent that he was born on the same day as the cinema. A true Marseillais!

By skillfully using excerpts from his various films and a mastery of the verb of which Luchini has the secret, The Treasures of Marcel Pagnol succeeds in moving by faithfully sketching the dizzying destiny of the character, while paying homage to his undeniable talent and the importance of his creation, whether literary or cinematographic.