I bow to no one in my admiration and respect for Daniel Auteuil as an actor and I'd be hard pushed to name a bad performance I've seen him deliver but with the best will in the world he is not Raimu but having said that no actor living or dead is/was withing at least three light years of Raimu so employing that criteria Auteuil is as good as any bargain-basement Raimu out there. Auteuil's remaking - writing/directing of the great Pagnol Marseilles trilogy is clearly a labor of love. Although born in Algeria he was brought up in the Midi, Pagnol's old stamping ground and his breakout role was as Ugolin in the remake of Pgnol's autobiographical Jean de Florette and Manon de source. He dipped his toe in the water a couple of years back when he took on another great Raimu role in a remake of Pagnol's Le Fille de puisatier, which he again directed and which was well received. Once again the resident tame critic at filmsdefraance proves he doesn't know his ass from third base when he speaks of Pagnol's three STAGE plays when in fact only Marius and Fanny were adapted from plays, the third part, Cesar, was written directly for the screen in the wake of the success of the first two parts. Auteuil has opted to give the role of Marius to a pretty boy rather than an actor as Pagnol did and Raphael Personnaz is a sort of Gallic John Derek and acts about as well as Derek. Her fares better with debutant Victoire Belezt as Fanny but the revelation of the film is Marie-Anne Chazal as Honorine, the mother of Fanny who delivers arguably the best performance in the film. Jean-Pierre Darroussin whilst no Charpin was an inspired choice for Panisse inasmuch as he is a regular in the repertory company of Robert Guideguian, who inherited the mantle of Pagnol and makes excellent films with a Marseilles setting. Clearly if the original - directed by Alexander Korda - were shown alongside this remake the original would win hands down but younger viewers who have not seen - and maybe not even heard of - the original will find lots to like here.
Review of Marius
