Fanny (1932)

Marius has left, signed up for a five year hitch on a ship bound for the Indian Ocean. In his few letters to his father César, he hardly mentions Fanny. When she finds she is pregnant, she ... See full summary »

Director:

Marc Allégret

Writers:

Marcel Pagnol (play), Marcel Pagnol (screenplay)

Stars:

Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Raimu	...	César
Pierre Fresnay	...	Marius
Orane Demazis	...	Fanny
Fernand Charpin	...	Honore Panisse (as Charpin)
Auguste Mouriès	...	Félix Escartefigue (as Mouriès)
Robert Vattier	...	Albert Brun (as Vattier)
Marcel Maupi	...	Innocent Mangiapan chauffeur du ferry-boat (as Maupi)
Alida Rouffe	...	Honorine Cabanis
Milly Mathis	...	Tante Claudine Foulon
Odette Roger	...	Fortunette
Louis Boulle	...	Elzéar

Storyline

Marius has left, signed up for a five year hitch on a ship bound for the Indian Ocean. In his few letters to his father César, he hardly mentions Fanny. When she finds she is pregnant, she considers her options: suicide, to raise the child on her own, to wait for Marius, or to marry Honoré Panisse, the older merchant who seeks her hand. These choices are emotional: to raise a bastard, to trust in Marius' eventual return, to believe he'll want to marry her, to save her mother from shame, to fool Panisse, to give her child a name. In scenes dramatizing Fanny's honesty, she talks to her mother, then Panisse, César, and later Marius, and she makes her choices.

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Plot Keywords:

one word title | marseille provence | sequel | provence | sailor | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

12 February 1948 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Films Marcel Pagnol, Les Établissements Braunberger-Richebé

Technical Specs

Runtime:

140 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Soiund System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Famed restaurateur and founder of California cuisine, Alice Waters, was so taken with the Fanny trilogy that she named her Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse. The café upstairs from the restaurant is decorated with posters from the films Marius, Fanny, and César.

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Connections

Version of Fanny (1933)

User Reviews

A Quiet Masterpiece From A Time Long Gone

If you can get by the first fifteen minutes, get into the leisurely pacing and that fact that nothing is going to explode and no one shoots anybody or stabs anyone in the eye, and the film is about learning to live with other human beings, about being a parent, about falling and staying in love, perhaps you'll come to love this film, too.

The trilogy is set in another time long gone--Marseilles, a provincial fishing village, where Cesar and his son operate a sort of bar where locals drift in and out and play cards; a pretty young woman sells seafood outside, and she's known son Marius since they were children. Enough said: except that the acting is amazingly naturalistic for a 1930's film, that the performance by famed French entertainer Raimu is beyond words, is simply astounding in his range of emotions, his understanding of the human condition. This understated drama is a quiet masterpiece.