Customer Reviews

Fanny [VHS]

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This is one of the finest romance films I can think of. The cast carries it off splendidly and the film is gloriously photographed. There are so many touching moments in this film that to go into detail about it would ruin someone's first experience of it. Leslie Caron was never more expressive. She plays innocent, caring, noble, sad, joyful, and intelligent. Her acting talents are on full display here. She deserved an Oscar nomination for this performance.
The picture received a nomination and Joshua Logan has a better time out directing this one than with "South Pacific," even though he had the Pagnol original to rely upon. So many scenes resonate with truth and emotion in this film. I recommend it highly. And, again, Warners, where is the DVD????

A charming romantic fable, FANNY is based on the "Marseilles Trilogy" by Pagnol and the Broadway musical from 1954.

Leslie Caron plays Fanny, the impish daughter of Honorine (Georgette Anys), who sells fish on the waterfront. Marius (Horst Bucholtz) and his father Cesare (Charles Boyer) own the bar overlooking the bay.

When Fanny proclaims her love for Marius, they plan to marry, when Marius is tempted away through his desire to become a sailor. He leaves Fanny and his unborn child to an uncertain fate.

A relief comes in the form of wealthy and kindly Panisse (Maurice Chevalier) who offers to marry Fanny and raise the child as his own.

A charming, hypnotic tale that boasts stellar performances. Boyer was nominated for Best Actor here, but why was Caron not nominated? She gives probably one of the finest performances of her career here.

Directed by Joshua Logan (SOUTH PACIFIC), FANNY is one very entertaining movie.

"Fanny" was made almost ten years before I was born, but it is one of my favorite romances. It is a wonderful story about love found, love lost and love found again. You will feel the characters' emotions as though you were standing there. It takes place in Marseilles a waterfront community on the coast of France. There is Marius who is in love with Fanny, but dreams of going to sea. Fanny is also in love with Marius, but in order to help him live his dream she sacrifices her own. In a twist of fate Fanny marries another man. There is also Cesar, Marius' father, Panisse, Fanny's husband, and Cesario, Fanny and Marius' son. I have watched this film too many times to count.

This is one of the sweetest movies I've ever seen, and it is a shame that Warner Bros. didn't bother to renew their rights to it. Image Entertainment rides to the rescue, though, with a new DVD release of this classic.

When I say the movie is sweet, it manages to do so without being cheesy. Leslie Caron is in the title role as a young woman who finds herself pregnant after consummating her relationship with Marius, a young man who has a lust to travel and hates being tied down. The next day he leaves for a long sea journey. When Fanny learns of her condition, she accepts a proposal from the elderly Panisse (Maurice Chevalier) and he gives all of his love and acceptance to both her and her child. Marius returns after the child is born, never having known until he returns that he is a father. He wants Fanny back, and he and Panisse square off in a showdown over both Fanny and her child. However, Fanny has something to say about this too. It's a great film about love, responsibility, selfishness, and the root of true happiness.

It is my favorite Leslie Caron movie and a great role for Chevalier in his later years. After having just recently seen the Ernst Lubitsch musicals Chevalier starred in thirty years before, I have to say he may have grayed but he never lost that essential indescribable charm he had in his youth.

Finally, this superb movie is available on DVD! It's incomprehensible that Warners have ignored it for years, and thankfully it has now been picked up by Image, releasing June 2008. I see from their site it has a 5.1 soundtrack, so the widescreen transfer should be great, doing justice to the wonderful cinematography. There are many reviews for 'Fanny' under Amazon's separate listing, all confirming the charm and brilliance of this unforgettable movie. A huge thank you to Image for releasing this gem.

Fanny is the story of a young man and young woman, childhood friends who are probably destined to marry. Horst Buchholz and Leslie Caron portray these two young people, Marius and Fanny. However, choice intrudes into the otherwise smooth flow of events and unplanned consequences occur.

This is a complex story. Marius is the son of a tavern owner. Fanny is the daughter of a fish purveyor in Marsailles. You can see that their fate is pre-ordained.Early in the story Marius and Fanny become lovers. You would expect the two to marry. But there is a restlessness in Marius that is eating in him like acid. He does not want to be the next tavern owner. His horizons are those of the sea and when an oceanographic ship comes into port, he ships out as a member of the crew.

Events unfold quickly upon his departure. Fanny discovers she is pregnant. Her mother threatens to disown her. A ship chandler played by Maurice Chevalier steps in and offers to marry her and save her from the shame and ridicule that an out of wedlock birth would have produced. Marius father, played by Charles Boyer, at first is against the marriage but soon comes around to agreeing to it.

Marius is gone but he is always present - like a spectre. Fanny has never forgotten him, nor has his father and fanny's husband.
Briefly, Marius returns to Marsailles to pick up a part for the ship. He meets Fanny and learns he is a father but that his son is being raised by another man. This meeting is extremely moving as all the charecters come together for a moment of truth.

Yet the film continues on. Marius son grows older and through the intervention of a friend of Marius', he meets Marius but doesn't know he is his father. All he knows is that the man is a friend of his mother. He learns what Marius life has been like since he left Marsailles and it is far from what Marius had expected.

The climax of the film is wonderful and extremely moving.

This film combines a fine cast, both principles and supporting members, with marvelous locations and a compeling theme. I recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the Marsailles Trilogy. This is an extremely powerful and moving film. It should be a must have in everyone's video library.

I am 36 year old and saw this movie when I stayed home sick from school 20 year ago. I loved it so much at 16 that I bought the VHS tape. To date, this is one of my favorite movies. I have forced many of my friends to watch this movie only to have them say that they loved it! Horst Buchholz has got to be one of the best looking sexiest movie stars of that era. I just love him. I'm so sad he is gone. The cast in this movie is outstanding. There is humor, anger, love and happiness all in one movie. Buy it! You won't be disappointed!
Please make this available on DVD. I will buy it!

Why don't DVD of this movie???? It's incredible! Buchholz is great, Caron is great, also Boyer and Chevalier; the story, the charming, the screenplay... all is great in this movie. I can't understand. Where is the DVD?????

I love love stories. Joshua Logan's 1961 production of Fanny is one of my favorites. Fanny was adapted from the series of novels by Marcel Pagnol called the Marseilles Triloy. Each of the novels were adapted as films in the 1930s in Europe. In 1954 the novels were adapted for Broadway in a musical called Fanny.

Fanny stars Leslie Caron as Fanny, a young woman who sells fish on the Marseilles waterfront with her mother when she is not flirting with old men to try to make Marius, the guy she loves, jealous. Marius is played by the German actor Horst Buchholz. He runs a small bar also on the waterfront with his cantankerous dad Cesar, played by Charles Boyer. The wealthy old widower, Panisse, who loves to come down and slum it with Cesar and his other old buddies at the bar is played by Maurice Chevalier.

Fanny loves Marius. Marius loves Fanny and the sea. And Panisse wants to get married to Fanny for one last ditched effort to provide an heir for the Panisse family fortune. The story has some very unexpected twists and returns, which I will leave as a mystery.

The cast of Fanny is all excellent. The real show stealers are the aging Charles Boyer and Maurice Chevalier.

More than anything Fanny is the story of several different types of love: erotic, paternal, maternal, love of the sea, selfish love, self- sacrificing love, and the love of family and friends.

Fanny was made in 1961 before there was any sex or nudity on the screen. Nevertheless, the scenes between Horst Buchholz (Marius) and Leslie Caron (Fanny) are more erotic even though they are dressed than anything probably being made in Hollywood today.

Fanny is a rare gem.

My prayers have been answered. "Fanny" is now on DVD in a beautiful copy. Now you, that have never heard of "Fanny", can luxuriate in the romance of this classic. The mixture of joy, passion and tragedy are infectious. And what performances! Charles Boyer and Maurice Chevalier in the same film. Boyer is blustery and magnificent as Marius' father and Chevalier, in an Oscar-nominated performance, is Boyer's perfect foil as the self-sacrificing Panisse. Leslie Caron, in the title role, simply dominates the screen in a role that goes from a silly teenage girl to a remarkably complex mother. And Horst Bucholz, a sadly underrated actor, keeps the whole thing revolving around his angst-ridden anti-hero.

I recently bought the Marius Trilogy and was impressed by the first installment, but disappointed by the following sequels. Joshua Logan's version takes a sprawling soap opera and molds into an insistent three-act play, which is in large part due to the muscal librettist S. N. Berhman.

Which brings me to lament that Logan wasn't brave enough to bring the musical "Fanny" to the screen. Perhaps the critics' mauling of the screen version of his "South Pacific" made him hesitant. Perhaps Harold Rome's almost operatic style would have been too strong for the screen. It is a shame because the musical "Fanny" seems to have disappeared from Broadway and regional theatre. However, this film version does immortalize the musical's score by using it as the film's score, much like Billy Wilder did with another non-musical film "Irma La Douce." (In an interview with Robert Osbourne, its star Shirley MacLaine lamented that the film "Irma La Douce" wasn't a musical.)

Perhaps in the near future, someone like Bartlett Sher will take his stable of Broadway actors and stage "Fanny" at the Lincoln Center and the world will then rediscover this classic musical.

Until then the world will have to resort to this DVD version of "Fanny." Not bad for a last resort, in my opinion.