César (1936)

César is a French romantic film drama first released in 1936, directed by Marcel Pagnol.  The film stars Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Fernand Charpin, Orane Demazis and André Fouché.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


Several years have passed since the marriage of Fanny and Panisse.  After the death of Panisse, Fanny tells her son, Césariot, that his real father is Marius, who left Marseilles twenty years ago to travel the world and who is now living alone in a nearby town.   The café-owner César sets about trying to reunite Fanny, Marius and their son...

The final instalment in Marcel Pagnol’s famous romantic trilogy provides a fitting conclusion to a remarkable and entertaining series of films.  Raimu gives one of his best screen performances as the film’s central character, the café owner César, capable supported by Pagnol’s familiar troupe which includes Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis and Fernand Charpin.

Ironically, César was the only film in the trilogy to be made on film before being performed on stage (it was also the only one to be directed by Pagnol himself).  This reflected Pagnol’s own view that cinema had overtaken the theatre as the primary medium for dramatic art.

© James Travers 2001

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