(E) The Alliance Francaise of Silicon Valley is offering this month a virtual tour of Provence with many events from cooking à la provençale, to painting like Cézanne, and learning why perfume is a source of inspiration in Art (a big topics to research :)).

Part of the Alliance Francaise is the French cine-club of Palo Alto which proposes every month a bilingual discussion, organized by Hélène Laroche Davis, of a French movie, and this month, it is the movie “Marius and Fanny”!

Directed by Daniel Auteuil, Marius and Fanny is based on the play from Marcel Pagnol. The movie is a re-make of the 1931 movie made by Alexander Korda, and a wonderful way to re-discover “la plume de Pagnol”, and the city of Marseilles in Provence in the 1930s. Pagnol makes us think of how some important decisions, that we are making as early adults, will shape the rest of our lives.

The story: “Marius works in his father’s bar at the port, but has dreams of becoming a sailor. His childhood sweetheart, Fanny, works in her mother’s shellfish stall at the port. When Fanny becomes pregnant with Marius’s child, their parents urge the young couple to marry. After their engagement, Fanny realizing his disappointment, encourages him to follow his dream of going to sea. Marius abandons her, and she marries her elderly admirer, Honoré Panisse, to provide a father for her baby. When Marius returns from sea and finds Fanny married, he tries to win her back, but she stayed committed to Pannisse despite the fact that she still loves him.“

A lecture from Daniel Auteuil about his movie:

Note: The picture above is a bottle of Pastis from Marseilles.

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