Marcel Pagnol, one of the great French creators of the 20th century, was commemorated in the Principality on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death. Tuesday April 16, HSH Prince Albert paid a public tribute in front of the Pagnol memorial, located Square Marcel Pagnol in Monaco, in the presence of Nicolas Pagnol, the writer’s grandson.
Pagnol died in Paris on April 18, 1974, as one of the most famous people who gave a special identity to life in the south of France. He was a gifted playwright and an esteemed filmmaker, but he also wrote several books considered essentials of French literature, such as “The Glory of My Father” and “The Castle of My Mother.”
But he is also best known for his triptych on life in Marseille and in the Old Port of this city: Marius-Fanny-César, after his play, Topaze enjoyed immense success in 1928. Pagnol became a jack of all trades artistic. of trades, who was named a member of the prestigious French Academy following the Second World War.
Marcel Pagnol lived for ten years in Monaco, first on Boulevard d’Italie then on Boulevard des Moulins (in a villa demolished in the 1970s). He maintains very good relations with Prince Rainier III, who finds in this contemporary of his father a confidant in the cultural field. Pagnol was appointed by the prince president of the Prince Pierre Prize (Monaco’s literary prize) and president of the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.
This is certainly also the reason why the country commemorates this anniversary. Prince Albert recently said of Pagnol: “My father considered him a close friend, even a confidant. For a very long time, until the death of the writer, they maintained a continuous correspondence. She was the person from the literary and artistic world for whom he had the most affection.
The Prince himself has few memories of Pagnol, who sometimes visited his father at the palace. “I was very young, but I remember the discussions between him and my father in the early seventies. I remember him as a very warm man who impressed me because I knew his films. Our generations have been immersed in Pagnol culture, but it is important to pass on the taste of it to the youngest. Today, I continue to admire the filmmaker, memoirist and writer. His work has not aged a bit.
Marcel Pagnol was a special artist and there is even an adjective “pagnolesque” to describe the type of people or situations he shows in his works. He was born (in 1895) and raised in the town of Aubagne, between Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, where he studied philosophy at university. He had to do his military service because of the First World War and was assigned to a regiment in Nice.
After the war, Pagnol became a professor in Marseille and now devoted himself to writing plays. He had great success with the play Topaze and moved to Paris. Out of nostalgia, he began his trilogy on life in Marseille with the titles in first names: Marius-Fanny-César. He chose well-known actor Raimu for the lead role of Caesar. This piece was a huge success. In the 1930s he focused on directing feature films and for the film version of Marius he worked with actors such as Raimu and Fernandel. Near Marseille, he created a film studio, which is also described as the “Hollywood of Provence”.
When he refused to participate in a Nazi propaganda film during the occupation of World War II, he withdrew and isolated himself in Monaco, but after the war he turned again to cinema, including his first French film in color, after also working on a television adaptation of Lettres de mon moulin by the Provençal writer Alphonse Daudet.
After Pognal’s daughter died following a bout of ketosis, he immediately left Monaco in grief, but retained ties to the palace. Subsequently, he devoted himself to writing several autobiographical books.
In a special issue of Nice morning regarding the writer, Pagnol is described thus by his editor Lionel Paoli; “This eternally worried man drew on his journey to shake up the energy that allowed him to move mountains, without ever managing to fully reassure himself. The man who was taken for a genius dilettante was first and foremost a hard worker, a dissatisfied craftsman.
Three years after his death, Prince Rainier III dedicated a small place to him near the Place des Moulins. Under a monument is a quote from Pagnol about Monaco: “Here the arts can still live in the shade of the olive tree, on the shores of the Latin Sea, where the authority of each watches over the freedom of all. »
Tuesday April 16, a commemorative plaque was also unveiled in front of the villa “La Lestra”, located at 12 boulevard des Moulins, Pagnol’s residence from 1951 to 1954.
Featured image courtesy of the Communications Department: HSH Prince Albert and Nicolas Pagnol
