César (film)

César
1936 poster for César showing Fanny and Marius
Directed by	Marcel Pagnol
Written by	Marcel Pagnol
Starring	Raimu Pierre Fresnay
Cinematography	Willy Faktorovitch
Edited by	Suzanne de Troeye
Music by	Vincent Scotto
Release date	27 October 1936
Running time	168 min
Country	France
Language	French

César is a 1936 French film, written and directed by Marcel Pagnol. It is the final part of his Marseille trilogy, which began with the film Marius and was followed by Fanny. Unlike the other two films in the trilogy, César was not based on a play by Pagnol, but written directly as a film script. In 1946 Pagnol adapted the script as a stage play.

Plot[]

Honoré Panisse is dying, cheerfully, with friends, wife, and son at his side. He confesses to the priest in front of his friends; he insists that the doctor be truthful. But, he cannot bring himself to tell his son Césariot that his real father is Marius, the absent son of César, Césariot's godfather. Panisse leaves that to Fanny, the lad's mother. Dissembling that he's off to see a friend, Césariot then seeks Marius, now a mechanic in Toulon. Posing as a journalist, Césariot spends time with Marius and leaves believing tales that Marius is involved in burglary and drug trafficking. Only after the truth comes out can Marius, Fanny, César, and Césariot step beyond the falsehoods, benign though they may be.

Cast[]

• Raimu as César Ollivier, bar owner
• Pierre Fresnay as Marius Ollivier, son of César
• Orane Demazis as Fanny Panisse, wife of Honoré
• Charpin as Honoré Panisse, husband of Fanny
• André Fouche as Césariot Panisse, son of Fanny
• Alida Rouff as Honorine Cabanis, mother of Fanny
• Milly Mathis as Claudine Foulon, aunt of Fanny
• Robert Vattier as Adelbert Brun, retired customs official
• Paul Dullac as Félix Escartefique, retired ferry captain
• Marcel Maupi as Innocent Mangiapan, ferry stoker
• Édouard Delmont as Dr Félicien Venelle
• Thommeray as Elzéar Bonnegrâce, parish priest

In popular culture[]

• The famed restaurateur and founder of California cuisine, Alice Waters, was so taken by this film 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.^[1]
• The main characters from the films Marius, Fanny and César make a cameo appearance in the Asterix comic book Asterix and the Banquet.^[2][3]

References[]

External links[]

• César at IMDb
• The Marseille Trilogy: Life Goes to the Movies an essay by Michael Atkinson at the Criterion Collection