Marius (1931) was the first installment for a trilogy of films, set in Marseilles, following the life and love of Marius and Fanny. The second segment was Fanny (1932) and the third César (1936). The first two films were based on a highly successful play by Marcel Pagnol entitled Marius. One unusual aspect of this trilogy is that all three films had different directors. Alexander Korda directed the first, Marc Allegret the second, and Pagnol the third. Nevertheless, the three films are clearly a trilogy, sharing the same screenwriter (Pagnol), the same lead performers, the same cinematic style, and one continuous storyline. All three bear the clear imprint of Pagnol.

Historical Background: Marcel Pagnol was one of France's leading filmmakers in the thirties, but first made his mark as a playwright. He grew up in rural, southern France and studied for a career as an English teacher while writing plays that were performed by local theater groups near Marseilles. When he took a teaching post in Paris, he found the Parisian audiences very appreciative of his work as well. Two of his theater successes in the 1920's were Topaze and Marius. Before Pagnol took up directing in 1933, he wrote screenplays, derived his own plays, for established directors. Though a great playwright, Pagnol failed to grasp the potential inherent in cinema as a distinct art form. In fact, he maintained that the advent of sound technology had obviated any claim that cinema might have as an independent art form. He viewed cinema as mainly a means of presenting theater productions to wider audiences. Given that perspective, it is little surprise that the films Pagnol scripted and/or directed typically have very intelligent scripts with sparkling dialog but camerawork that is largely static and unsophisticated. In that respect, the films that bear Pagnol's imprint are not great cinema, but the filming of great stage plays. Pagnol's approach to cinema was akin to René Clair's nightmare about what film would become after sound was introduced – an adjunct, in effect, to theater (see my review of Le Million for further discussion of Clair's viewpoint and how he set about ensuring that his worst fears would not be realized). On the issue of the nature of the art of cinema, time proved Pagnol wrong and Clair's fears unfounded, but in 1931/2, the issue was very much up in the air.

The task of directing Marius fell to Alexander Korda. Korda had been born Sándor Laszlo Kellner in 1893 in Pusztaturpaszto, Hungary into an assimilated Jewish family. He became a leftwing activist in Budapest after his father's early death and began writing under the pseudonym Sandor Korda. He took a job in the Hungarian film industry as a publicist, before taking up directing in 1914. He established his own Hungarian production company in 1917 and became interim commissioner of film production for the Hungarian government at the end of 1918. Korda had to flee Hungary, however, when a rightist government seized power. He worked thereafter in Austria, Germany, Hollywood, and France, before finally settling in England. Marius was the last film made by Korda during his brief French residency, in 1931. His greatest successes came during his residence in England, from 1932 until his death in 1956. During that time period, he was one of the leading figures in British cinema, directing such classics as The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935), Rembrandt (1936), The Thief of Bagdad (1940), and That Hamilton Woman (1941). As a producer, he was greatly instrumental in the development of promising young directors, such as Carol Reed. In recognition of his achievements and contributions to the motion picture industry in England, he was knighted in 1942.

The Story: Marius (Pierre Fresnay) is the twenty-three year-old son of César (Raimu), who owns and operates a bar. César has been a widower for twenty years and has raised his son on his own. Though he cheats openly at cards and nags Marius incessantly, César is devoted to the young man and looks forward to retiring, ultimately, and turning the bar over to his son. Marius, however, has dreams of his own. Living in the seaport of Marseilles, Marius has sometimes drunk rum with the sailors fresh into port from adventurous trips to South America or the East Indies. He has smelled both the spices and the salty sea air and longs to set out to sea himself. The yearnings of his rebellious spirit are such that he has even resisted attachments to the young ladies of Marseilles, especially the lovely Fanny (Orane Demazis), who he has known affectionately since childhood. He allows himself to think of Fanny only as a dear friend.

Fanny, however, has long since set her heart on Marius and, growing impatient for signs of romantic interest on his part, concocts a plan to awaken his jealous urges. Fanny has acquired the romantic interest of the fifty year-old widower, Honoré Panisse (Fernand Charpin), who is a sail-maker and wealthier than most of the other patrons of César's bar. He's a decent enough chap, but nearly thirty years out-of-date for Fanny. Rather than reject him outright, Fanny settles on the idea of allowing the old coot to woo her a bit at the bar, while Marius is serving tables. The ruse is so effective that Marius is soon almost at blows with Panisse. Even so, Marius holds back from expressing romantic interest toward Fanny because he has hopes of joining the crew of a ship that is about to sail, as a replacement for a missing Corsican.

When the Corsican shows up after all, Marius's hopes are dashed. When Fanny then openly declares her love for him, Marius acknowledges that Fanny is the only girl that he's ever had eyes for, and the two lovers begin slipping out at night and sleeping together. Fanny's mother, Honorine Cabanis (Alida Rouffe), like many a mother before and since, hopes to preserve Fanny's chastity for the bridal bed, all the more so because Fanny's aunt, Claudine Foulon, turned into a tramp, after being loved and abandoned by a sailor. Honorine also had her own premarital affair, as César reminds her at one point, but mother's always have higher expectations of their daughters than they had for themselves at the same age. When Honorine discovers the two lovers wrapped in each other's arms in bed at 7 AM one morning, she demands that César help her ensure that the two lovebirds marry as quickly as possible.

SPOILERS AHEAD. SKIP TO THEMES TO AVOID.

That, of course, is Fanny's fondest desire as well. For his part, Marius remains terribly conflicted. His passion for the sea is unabated but he genuinely loves Fanny and wants to do what's right by her. Fanny gradually comes to realize that she'll be stuck for life with a tormented husband if he suppresses his heart's desire. She decides to make the supreme sacrifice. When an opportunity unexpectedly arises for Marius to join a crew at last, Fanny realizes that Marius will deny his own desire out of love and loyalty for her. She decides to deceive him into believing that she will marry Panisse, after all, because Panisse can offer more security for herself and her mother. In a beautifully dramatic scene, Fanny acts the part of spurning Marius, while, in truth, her own heart is breaking.

Fanny: You asked for nothing. It was I who came to you. Go, Marius. Follow your desires. They don't include me.

Marius: Fanny, don't tempt me.

Fanny: Just cross the quay.

Marius: Take me in your arms, cover my eyes! Hold me tight!

Fanny: You don't have to suffer. You've still time.

Marius: What would you do if I left?

Fanny: Don't worry. I've thought about that.

Marius: You thought about it? What do you mean? You'll marry Panisse?

Fanny: Anyone. What does it matter?

Marius: You've spoken to him? Have you? [She nods in the affirmative.] When?

Fanny: Several times.

Marius: It was a lie that you'd rejected him? [She nods.]

Fanny: I'm not doing it for myself. I have to think of my mother. She's not as young as she was.

As Marius makes his getaway to the ship, appropriately named Malaise, Fanny bears her pain and makes the final sacrifice of distracting César, who would have surely stopped Marius from leaving, by talking with him about an imaginary future living together as a family, once she has married Marius. Then, as the ship stack signals its departure from port, Fanny faints in César's arms.

If you've read this far but have no intention of seeing the film or its sequels, you might want to know what happens in the two subsequent films. Briefly, in Fanny, the title character discovers that she is pregnant with Marius's child. To save face and provide for herself and her child, she marries Panisse, who raises the child lovingly as his own. César takes the part of godfather to the boy who is actually his grandson. Marius returns from sea after a year and realizes that he has lost his true love, because she cannot now betray either Panisse or her child. In César, Fanny's son, named "Cesariot," still believes the aging Panisse to be his biological father and Panisse, even on his deathbed, refuses to tell the boy about Marius. After Panisse's death, Fanny tells Cesariot the truth of his origin and, with information from César, the boy goes looking for his father, leading, at last, to the uniting of the two lovers and a happy ending.

Themes: Although I consider myself a romantic, there is one kind of device frequently used in romantic narratives to which I have philosophical objection, and it's the one that is the driving force in Marius. The pivotal moment in the story is when Fanny deceives Marius, sacrificing her own fondest hopes in order to encourage him to pursue what she believes to be his life's desire. I believe that each person has an inherent right to self-determination and that the highest order of respect we can have for those we love is to allow them to make the decisions crucial to their existence for themselves. It is presumptuous, in my opinion, to believe oneself better able to make life decisions for another person than they would be able to make for themselves. It is entirely appropriate to make suggestions or to help a friend think through a decision by posing questions, but it is disrespectful to trick or manipulate that person into making the decision we believe to be the right one by a ruse or stratagem. While I admire Fanny's willingness to sacrifice her own interests on Marius's behalf, she unwittingly did him a disservice. One reviewer states that Marius ultimately realizes that he made a mistake by going to sea. I think that it was actually Fanny who made the mistake. She took it upon herself to decide that Marius's yearning for the sea was stronger than his love for her. Marius had a right to make that choice on his own – even if it meant ultimately living with his own mistake. It is better for a person to have to live with his own mistake than someone else's. I imagine, however, that Pagnol's main thematic point was different: that there are certain crucial moments in a life when we must choose between alternative paths and, whichever we choose, another possibility is irrevocably lost.

Production Values: Despite its cinematic deficiencies, Marius is a masterpiece of human drama. There are no large heroic or tragic events driving the narrative, just the ordinary challenges of ordinary people. Pagnol's strengths as a writer for stage and screen were mainly rich character development and witty, believable dialog. The substance of his work is not terribly unlike soap opera, but realized with great intelligence and depth. In addition to the central characters, there are three regulars at the bar who provide comic relief: Mr. Albert Brun (Robert Vattier), who is a bit of a dandy with hopes of becoming a bureaucrat, Félix Escartefigue (Paul Dullac), a chubby sea captain and ex-Navy man , and Piquoiseau (Robert Vattier), who is Marius's liaison with the ships' captains, trying to help him find a spot on a crew. It is truly amazing how many different characters Pagnol is able to flesh out to a significant extent in a film lasting about two hours. All of the characters seem like complete human beings, with strengths, flaws, peculiarities, and personalities.

A large part of that character development can be attributed to the highly literate dialog, but another part goes to the credit of the fine cast of performers. Raimu, who played César, was considered among the finest actors of his era and his screen presence in Marius is extraordinary. His other credits include the two sequels, Fanny (1932) and Cesar (1936), as well as The Baker's Wife (1938). I thought Pierre Fresnay equally effective as Marius, which is high complement indeed. I've seen Fresnay do outstanding work before, in Grand Illusion (1937), in which he was brilliant as Capt. De Boeldieu. He, too, appeared in both sequels to Marius and in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). Orane Demazis's emotional performance resonated with me, as well. Fernand Charpin, who played Fanny's mother, appeared in the two sequels and in Pépé le Moko (1937) and The Baker's Wife (1938). Beyond the great individual performances, Marius features a whole lot of superlative ensemble acting, with the various actors playing off one another marvelously.

The camerawork in the film is mostly very primitive. The vast majority of the film is shot with static camera placements. There are a few spots where the camerawork and/or editing are a bit more creative. During the scene in which Marius and Fanny first make love (off-camera) in Marius's bedroom, the camera pans around the walls to show various wall hangings, all having to do with ships and the sea, reinforcing the conflict between Marius's love for Fanny and his love for the sea. There are a few outdoor shots of the port and ships of Marseilles that extend the production beyond pure theater. For the most part, however, the movie has the feel of filmed theater.

Bottom-Line: Marius is great dramatic theater with rich characters and fine acting. If one examines the cinematic production features separate from the script and performances, one has to acknowledge that the film is glaringly weak as cinema. It's more like watching an episode of Masterpiece Theater than what we expect from film. The cinematic shortcomings are, at least, instructive. Dating from 1931, at the beginning of the sound era, Marius illustrates the alternative course that cinema might have taken, were it not for the creative ingenuity of those directors who saw that the proper course for filmmaking lay in a direction largely independent from theater. That, however, is not the main reason to see this film. The main reason is fascinating characters and fine performances. Marius is in French with English subtitles and has a running time of 125 minutes.

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older