The Marseille Trilogy, the title under which Criterion has released Marcel Pagnol’s immortal Fanny trilogy, was, whether you call it The Marseille Trilogy, Pagnol’s trilogy or the Fanny trilogy, the screen’s first trilogy.

Pagnol (1895-1974) was born near Marseilles where he was raised, but moved to Paris in 1922 where he taught English until 1927. Having co-written a play produced in 1924, he decided to devote his life to playwriting instead of teaching. His first solo effort was Topaze, produced in 1928 and later filmed three times, by Hollywood in 1933 with John Barrymore and Myrna Loy; and by Pagnol himself in 1935 with Louis Jovet; and in 1951 with Fernandel. It was his next play, Marius, however, about life in his beloved Marseilles, that really established him. Fascinated by the medium of film, Pagnol made a deal with Paramount to produce a film version of that play which was released in France in 1931 and the U.S. in 1933, albeit without subtitles. He had wanted Paramount to produce that play’s sequel, Fanny, but Paramount demurred, declaring that sequels didn’t make money. He produced it himself, releasing it in France in 1932. That may have been the end of the story, but Pagnol’s fans impressed upon him that he couldn’t leave the story with the young lovers, Marius and Fanny, broken up at the end. He returned to the characters once again in 1936 to put the finishing touches on their story with César.

The U.S. did not see the full trilogy until 1948 when Marius was re-released with subtitles and Fanny and César were shown for the first time. Audiences were ecstatic, and the success of the U.S. releases led to the 1954 Broadway musical Fanny with a score by Harold Rome starring Ezio Pinza as César, Walter Selzak as Panisse, William Tabbert as Marius, and Florence Henderson as Fanny. The musical would be filmed as a straight drama seven years later when Joshua Logan, director and co-producer of the play, decided to use Rome’s score only as background.

Although not credited with the direction of the first two films in the trilogy, Pagnol did direct the actors while other directors, in his words, directed the films. Marius, which centers on the son of the local bar owner; his romance with local girl Fanny; his father, César; and his father’s friend, the wealthy merchant, Panisse, was filmed largely in and outside the bar. It ends with Fanny encouraging Marius to follow his heart’s desire and go to sea, then keeping César busy so he doesn’t see him leave. It was officially directed by Alexander Korda (The Private Life of Henry VIII, That Hamilton Woman) who got along well with Pagnol.

Fanny begins with Fanny’s dilemma in finding she’s pregnant. Does she commit suicide, raise the child by herself, wait for Marius to return, or marry the rich, but much older childless widower Panisse? She chooses the latter. Panisse becomes a devoted, loving father to the child. César proves to be an equally devoted, loving godfather to his namesake nicknamed Césariot. Marius returns, but is sent away by Fanny. Officially directed by Marc Allégret (Plucking the Daisy), Allégret and Pagnol did not get along. Allégret objected to Pagnol directing the actors, but gave in when he realized that only Pagnol could control the larger-than-life Raimu as César. Pagnol is said to have directed at least one of the film’s famed tracking shots from the bar to the docks.

Raimu (The Baker’s Wife) was a huge star who Pagnol wanted to play Panisse, but who wanted to play César because most of the action in the first film took place at César’s bar. Pagnol relented and cast character actor Charpin (Pepe le Moko) as Panisse. It made him a star. Pierre Fresnay (Grand Illusion, Le Corbeau), who is second billed behind Raimu on all three films, was already a star when he first played Marius. At 34 he was a bit long in the tooth for the part, but played it well. Orane Demazis (Les Misérables, Harvest), who played Fanny, was making her film debut. She went on to a long career in French cinema.

César, the last film in the trilogy, picks up with the death of Panisse, Fanny’s revelation to the grown Césariot that César’s Marius was his real father and Césariot’s seeking out of Marius. The most cinematic of the three films, it was directed by Pagnol without assist from any other director and brings the story to its logical conclusion. André Fouché (Mayerling, Playtime) joined the company as Césariot.

The musical version of Fanny and the non-musical Hollywood version of it cuts out most of the action in César, ending with the dying Panisse giving his blessing to Fanny’s inevitable remarriage to Marius, but the meeting between Césariot and Marius occurs when Césariot is still a young child and Fanny and Marius are still young enough to have other children. Leslie Caron as Fanny, Charles Boyer as César, Maurice Chevalier as Panisse, and Horst Buchholz as Marius starred in the Oscar-nominated film version for which Boyer was nominated for his performance. Caron and Chevalier were nominated for Golden Globes for theirs.

In the late 1980s, award-winning filmed versions of Pagnol’s Jean de Florette and its sequel, Manon of the Spring, further enhanced his reputation.

The Marseille Trilogy, while always popular in France, had fallen into some disrepute among the French critics in the 1950s. It regained its reputation when Francois Truffaut championed it in the 1960s. The digitally restored trilogy was shown theatrically in separate showings in Paris in December 2015 and at the Seattle International Film Festival in May 2017 prior to the Criterion release on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Kino Lorber has released Hal Ashby’s 8 Million Ways to Die on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Ashby could do no wrong in the 1970s. All seven of the films he directed in that decade – The Landlord, Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Bound for Glory, Coming Home, and Being There – were either critical or commercial hits or both. All seven have stood the test of time. The five films he made in the 1980s prior to 8 Million Ways to Die were critical and commercial failures. The reception accorded 8 Million Ways to Die fell somewhere in-between.
Jeff Bridges, Patricia Arquette and Andy Garcia star in the Los Angeles set actioner about cops, prostitutes, pimps, and drug pushers.

This week’s new releases include Criterion’s highly anticipated 2K restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog and Shout Select’s The Pink Panther Film Collection.