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No longer out of reach, Marcel Pagnol’s stunning 3-feature saga of love and honor in a French seaport is one of the great movie experiences — and the most emotional workout this viewer has seen in years. The tradition of greatness in the French sound cinema began with gems like these, starring legendary actors that were sometimes billed only with their last names: Raimu, Charpin. Those two, Pierre Fresnay and Orane Demazis are simply unforgettable — it’s 6.5 hours of dramatic wonderment.

Marcel Pagnol’s The Marseille Trilogy

Marius * Fanny * César

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 881-884

1931 – 1936 / B&W / 1:19 flat full frame, 1:19 flat full frame, 1:37 flat full frame / 127 * 127 * 141 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 20, 2017 / 79.96

Starring: Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis, Fernand Charpin, Alida Rouffe, Paul Dullac, Robert Vattier, André Fouché.

Cinematography: Ted Pahle, Nicolas Toporkoff, Willy Faktorovitch

Original Music: ?, Vincent Scotto, Vincent Scotto

Written by Marcel Pagnol

Produced by Ted Pahle,...

Marcel Pagnols’ Marseille Trilogy, Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog” and Nicholas Ray’s “They Live by Night” are among the new titles joining the Criterion Collection this June. In addition, Kenji Mizoguchi’s “Ugetsu” and Sam Peckinpah’s “Straw Dogs” are being upgraded in new Blu-ray editions. More information below.

Read More: The Criterion Collection Announces May Titles: ‘Ghost World,’ ‘Dheepan,’ ‘Jeanne Dielman’ and More

“Ugetsu”

“Having refined his craft in the silent era, Kenji Mizoguchi was an elder statesman of Japanese cinema-fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other younger directors-by the time he made ‘Ugetsu.’ And with this exquisite ghost story, a fatalistic wartime tragedy derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, he created a touchstone of his art, his long takes and sweeping camera guiding the viewer through a delirious narrative about two villagers whose pursuit of fame and...

It’s only the very beginning of 2017, but in the world of film things tend to move quickly. Well, in so many ways, at least. As the repertory film scene continues to expand, film studios and boutique distributors trying to find any classic catalog title that may hit the fancy of a specific niche film going audience, Janus Films continues to not only be leading the way but bringing to theaters some of the most exciting discoveries of any given year.

Take for example their latest release. January 4 marks the start of Janus’ touring of new restorations of not one, not two but three of the truly great and influential early entries into the French Film Canon. Written by Marcel Pagnol, Marius, Fanny and Cesar all find themselves under the watchful eye of different filmmakers, but carry with them the same sense of warmth and vitality that is crystal clear in Pagnol’s story.

With a new restoration of Marcel Pagnol's "Marseilles Trilogy" coming to art-house cinemas, Mubi is showing three later Pagnol adaptations: Joshua Logan's Fanny (1961) and Daniel Auteuil's Fanny (2013) and Marius (2013) in the United States.The sea calls to Marius like a siren song, a tantalizing beckon to a life of mobility, exhilaration, and maritime adventure. It is a life far from his current reality, slinging drinks in his father’s shoreline bar, but it is a tempting existence that forever fills his fantasies and directs his path forward. Little wonder, really. The port of Marseilles is teeming with the influence of a sailor’s life, from the towering ships, their sails and masts hovering above the liquid horizon, to the shopfront interiors adorned with innumerable images of nautical signification, paintings and model ships that testify to the lifeblood of this city. Lifeblood, maybe, but also a curse. For Marius (Pierre Fresnay), his father,...

“I am not the father of neorealism on screen, you are,” said director Roberto Rossellini to novelist, playwright and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol, one of the most prolific artists in the early years of cinema. Now, many will soon be able to watch one of Pagnol’s defining works in his career: the epic “Marseille Trilogy,” a saga of love, labor and good food in 1930’s France, which will return to theaters in a brand-new 4K restoration this January.

Read More: ‘Mulholland Drive’ Returns To UK Theaters Next Year In New 4K Restoration

The series follows young barkeep Marius (Pierre Fresnay) who is in love with the cockle monger Fanny (Orane Demazis), but cannot quell his wanderlust. Stretching out over years, their romance plays out amidst many provincial characters, like Marius’ father César (Raimu), who struggles to keep his family and community together, and Honoré Panisse (Fernand Charpin), the aged widower vying for Fanny’s hand.

Marc Allégret: From André Gide lover to Simone Simon mentor (photo: Marc Allégret) (See previous post: "Simone Simon Remembered: Sex Kitten and Femme Fatale.") Simone Simon became a film star following the international critical and financial success of the 1934 romantic drama Lac aux Dames, directed by her self-appointed mentor – and alleged lover – Marc Allégret.[1] The son of an evangelical missionary, Marc Allégret (born on December 22, 1900, in Basel, Switzerland) was to have become a lawyer. At age 16, his life took a different path as a result of his romantic involvement – and elopement to London – with his mentor and later "adoptive uncle" André Gide (1947 Nobel Prize winner in Literature), more than 30 years his senior and married to Madeleine Rondeaux for more than two decades. In various forms – including a threesome with painter Théo Van Rysselberghe's daughter Elisabeth – the Allégret-Gide relationship remained steady until the late '20s and their trip to...

Picking up where Marius left off, actor-director Daniel Auteuil's Fanny — the second entry in his planned adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's 1930s Marseilles trilogy — offers both the same pleasures (bighearted performances, an engaging maritime setting) and drawbacks (unabashedly dated values, a rigid theatricality) as its predecessor.

But the narrative circumstances make for an overall tone that is less sprightly: Alexandre Desplat's score does a lot of heavy melodramatic lifting as Fanny (Victoire Bélézy) and César (Auteuil) mourn the sudden departure of their beloved Marius (Raphaël Personnaz), who has hopped aboard the Malaisie for a five-year voyage. With Marius gone, the port's wealthy sailmaker, Panisse (Je...

Fanny Feast: Auteuil’s Underwhelming Trilogy Continues

The mid-section of his Pagnol tribute, Fanny promises to give us the female perspective in the crossed lover’s situation established in preceding chapter, Marius. But just as the opening portion revolved at needless length around an eponymous character who is given little more to do than moon over finding his dream job on a big boat, the next segment feels more of a weary inevitability of the morose narrative than rather than signaling a differing viewpoint.

While Alexandre Desplat’s score dips less uneasily into insistent whimsicality in this more serious minded portion, it’s still more of a sycophantic simper than anything adroitly engaging with the material at hand. One can assume the final segment, Cesar, will suffer from the same slights, but unfortunately Auteuil’s extreme respect (and unnecessary proximity) in his adaptation of Pagnol’s material is exactly what...

You’re Horrible, Marius: Auteuil’s Next Stop on the Pagnol Train

At the very least, actor Daniel Auteuil’s return to the director’s seat with the first chapter of his remake of Marcel Pagnol’s Marseille Trilogy, Marius (the original 1931 version was helmed by Alexander Korda) is less aggravating than the 2011 remake of another Pagnol title, The Well Digger’s Daughter, but that’s not saying much. Slight in every conceivable aspect, it’s the initial chapter in a continuing provincial trilogy of wayward love and strict adherence to social norms, here related without any kind of additional panache, a workmanlike homage to the vintage cinema Auteuil desperately wants to evoke.

In the Old Port of Marseille, Cesar (Daniel Auteuil) the crusty owner of Bar de la Marine, runs his humble business with the help of his son, Marius (Raphael Personnaz). While Marius moons for his one true love,...