Figure 1.--"La Gloire de mon père" ("My Father’s Glory") is about Marcel whose's father is a successful teacher and an arrogant uncle. Every year Marcel’s family take their vacation in the beautiful French countryside of Provence. It is based on the novel by Marcel Pagnol. The cover of the edition here has a scene from the film.

"La Gloire de mon père" ("My Father’s Glory") is about Marcel whose's father is a successful teacher and an arrogant uncle. Every year Marcel’s family take their vacation in the beautiful French countryside of Provence. There they stay at the family cottage and while there, Marcel meets a boy who shows him the wonders of the countryside. It is here that Marcel falls in love with the hills around the area where he is staying. (La) Gloire de mon père a.k.a My Father’s Glory (France, 1990)

Filmology

The film was directed by Yves Robert based on the best-selling memoirs by Marcel Pagnol, an important French novelist and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol. A reader tells us, "Both films were shown consecutively on British television in the mid 1990s and I remember watching both. The acting was superb, but what stole the film was the location shots, especially those shot in the French hillsides with Vladimir Cosma’s haunting music in the background, which I can still remember even though it’s been quite a while since I saw both films."

Novel

The book written by Marcel Pagnol, was originally published in French and in two volumes, La Glorie de mon père and Le Chateau de ma mère and was first published in Great Britain by Hamish Hamilton in 1960 under the title The Days Were Too Short . The Picador edition was published in 1991 with the two volumes in one book.

Chronology

The film is set in the early 1900s.

Cast

The cast included: Philippe Caubère (Joseph Pagnol) , Nathalie Roussel (Augustine), Didier Pain (Oncle jules), Thérèse Liotard (Tante rose), Julien Ciamaca (Marcel at 11), Benoit Martin (Young Marcel), Victorien Delamare (Paul), Joris Molinas (Lili des Bellons).

Plot

Marcel has a father who is a successful teacher and an arrogant uncle. Every year Marcel’s family take their vacation in the beautiful French countryside of Provence. There they stay at the family cottage and while there, Marcel meets a boy who shows him the wonders of the countryside. It is here that Marcel falls in love with the hills around the area where he is staying. This humorous and captivating recollection of a young boy's life in turn-of-the-century southern France focuses on his memorable summer holidays. Mystified by nature, Marcel turns to his father for an education on the ways of the wild. But his father comes up short in Marcel's eyes when Uncle Jules, an experienced woodsman, proves to be far more knowledgeable.

Parks

La Gloire de Mon Pere provides an interesting scene in the Parc Borely. Parks were very important to the lives of city children. Here we see an image of Marcel and his brother Paul walking in Parc Borely in Marseilles. Much of the film (and book) is set in the Provencal countryside where the boys wear holiday clothes but for walks in the city parks they are all dressed up. The great wrought iron gates shown remind me of the gates at Kew Gardens and I also recall those water sprinklers in Summer being set up by the flower beds in our local park. We used to run through them when it was hot.I'm trying to write a bit more on that.

Sequel

A sequel to the film was, "Le Château de ma mère" ("My Mother's Castle") which was filmed in the same location and with more or less the same cast.

Costuming

The cover photograph shows a still from the film with left to right, Joris Molinas and Julien Ciamaca. Notice the buttons on the outside seem of the short trousers Julien is wearing. All the boys in the school scene wear short pants and smocks.

Anthony

Created: August 3, 2003
Last updated: 8:03 AM 10/13/2015