Friday, February 28, 2020

February 28 - Marcel Pagnol


Happy Birthday, Marcel Pagnol! Born today in 1895 as Marcel Paul Pagnol, this French novelist, playwright and filmmaker was regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française (also sometimes referred to as the French Academy). 
  
Among his filmmaking credits, Pagnol is best known for writing and directing the 1938 French black and white drama film 'La femme du boulanger' ('The Baker's Wife'). 
  
Based off of the 1932 biographical novel Blue Boy by French author Jean Giono, the film tells that shortly after middle-aged baker Aimable Castanier (Raimu) settles down in a new village in Provence, his young and beautiful wife, Aurelie (Ginette Leclerc), runs away with an attractive young shepherd.  
  
The combination of his wife's desertion and the townspeople's initial mockery of his predicament causes the baker to close his shop in despair. Faced with the dire possibility of life without Aimable's breads, the townspeople attempt to persuade his unfaithful wife to come back. 
  
Although his work is less fashionable than it once was, Pagnol is still generally regarded as one of France's greatest 20th-century writers and is notable for the fact that he excelled in almost every medium—memoir, novel, drama and film. 

Today, a Google Doodle was created in what would have been Pagnol's 125th birthday. 
  
Pagnol had been active from 19331968. 
  
#borntodirect 
@FIAFNY
@Criterion
@GoogleDoodles  
@Britannica

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