Customer Reviews

My Father's Glory [VHS]

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My Father's Glory is the first of two films dealing with the novelist/filmmaker Marcel Pagnol's childhood. The film really does not have a plot. Marcel's parents Joseph, a beloved school teacher, and his mother Augustine, a dressmaker meet, fall in love, and get married. Soon afterward Marcel is born, as is his brother and sister. Marcel's family, along with his Uncle Jules and Aunt Rose, vacation in the South of France, and his father wins a hunting contest. On the surface there is not much to hold the film together. Yet the plot of the film is not what makes it so worthwhile. The film's chief strength is the way that each character is developed. We can see that Joseph is a good and descent man, a masterful teacher, and most especially a devoted father and husband. Young Marcel idolizes his father, and wants all others to realize the father's great qualities. The father is not perfect, and Marcel has questions about his doubt of all things religious. Marcel admires his mother as well, who is a nurturing and caring soul. The other major characters are both richly developed and varied.

The setting of the film is sumptuous. The small French town where Marcel and his family hail from seems realistic and the viewer can feel as if he/she has stepped back in time. The music adds to the film and perfectly blends with the scenes and characters.

Some may feel that the film is too saccharinely sweet. This can be an easy dismissal of a film that is unashamedly lavish, nostalgic, and sentimental. Such critics are wrong, however. The film shows Pagnol's appreciation for his parents, and how their good qualities played such a significant role in the man he would later be.

La gloire de mon pere and its sequel, Le chateau de ma mere are two of those wonderful Sunday afternoon type films that bring back sun-filled days of childhood secrets and adventures. This is Marcel Pagnol's homage to the south of France and the family he loved so dearly. The opening music is dreamy and bittersweet as it perfectly captures the nostalgia that the aged narrator conveys in his voice-overs of his childhood escapades. We follow an adorably young Marcel, his proud, school-teacher papa, Joseph, and his sweet, lovely mother, Augustine, through the birth of his brother Paul, their move to Marseilles, and then on to their summers in the hills of Provence. There, Marcel's heart is forever captured by the song of the cicadas, the smell of wild thyme and lavender, and the pursuit of what lies over the next hilltop. I was charmed by scenes of French school days at the turn of the last century, and Marcel's longing for the holidays and their promise of fun with his steadfast friend, Lili. You too will be delighted by jolly Oncle Jules and promenades in Parc Borély. But most of all, you will be touched by this sensitive and serious young boy who shows such love and loyalty to his father and mother.

This is, quite simply, one of the best films about childhood ever made. But then again, to write this film off as a film about childhood is too easy. This is a gorgeously filmed adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's memoirs of growing up and vacationing in Provence with his family. The cinematography is beautiful, and the cast is uniformly excellent. And as a real treat to film viewers, there are no sentimental or treacly moments that can often bog a film down. A friend noted that while I watched this film, I had a smile on my face the entire time. That's the best kind of film. This is followed by the equally stellar but more somber "My Mother's Castle."

What a beautiful film! This is one of those films where everything works. The visuals are beautiful, the script spare and heartfelt, and the characterizations profound. Can Americans make films like this; where there is warmth and nostalgia but where the humor and the modesty keep sentimentality under control? Forget irony and cliches...this is wonderfully real and exciting.

A wonderful movie about a loving family in a simpler time in the South of France. It's not very often that a G-rated movie comes along that the entire family will enjoy over and over.

I read the book and then bought several copies for my friends and relatives. One evening, I was at one of our local art movie houses and there it was: A poster advertising the arrival of "My Father's Glory." No one in the theater staff knew anything about it. It played in Portland for six months on word of mouth.

Enough said.

This movie is a lyrical adventure back into the realm of childhood when the world was an honest, clean and bright place- and it was centered in your family.

This isn't a movie, it is an ode to childhood and all that's good about it.

It made me feel good for days afterward.

This film is one of the most honest and beautiful accounts of family life and boyhood in the Auvergne and in Marseilles. The warmth of the Langudoc shimmers through the colours of the film as also through the lives of this happy family drenched in the browning sunlight in the last few years of the nineteenth and the first few of the twentieth century. This warmth is reflected also in the son Marcel's friendship with the young peasant boy, Lili, who modestly asks if he may keep the sailor suit which fits him. In a sense, this is a 'lower professional' childhood rather than the aristocratic one of the Tadzio in 'Death in Venice'. It is completed by a continuation film, equally wonderful, called 'Le Chateau de ma Mere' - and this, too is a must. The two together make for a wonderful winter evening and make you realise just what dross we are generally offered on the television.

My Father's Glory is, quite simply, a marvelous story about the simple (and profound) memories of childhood. This film is an adaptation of the memoirs of great, Provence-based writer Marcel Pagnol. Marcel (Julien Ciamaca)has two wonderful and loving parents, school teacher Joseph (Philippe Caubere) and seamstress Augustine (Nathalie Roussel). Marcel's early recollections of childhood are, both, heartwarming and tender. He remembers taking many walks with his Tante (Aunt) Rose (Therese Liotard) in the park, where Rose has a chance encounter with her future husband, Marcel's Uncle Jules (Didier Pan). He also remembers the arrival of his younger brother, Paul (Victorien Delamare), his companion and friend in many of life's adventures. This story also recounts the family's summer trip to the country (this ties into the significance of the title, but I won't ruin it for you).

At this day and age, where filmmaking runs rampant with cynicism and darkness, My Father's Glory is a refreshing alternative. This is a joy to watch.....it makes you feel happy to be alive.

Perfection. That's it. Flawless in every production value, every sound, every image, every word, every expression. There is no other film to my knowledge to equal it. Captivating and timeless, it never disappoints.

"Le Gloire de Mon Pere" is one of the best films I have seen in a long time. The first time I saw it was in my french class. I thought it was cute and decided to see if the library had it, they did. After I saw it the second time I realised how good it is. The true story of Marcel and his father is unique for the 90's. I highly reccomend this film and its sequel "La Chateau de Ma Mere", the rest of the story of Marcel and his family. It has a sad ending but is worth it.