Product Details

• Actors: Julien Ciamaca, Philippe Caubère, Nathalie Roussel, Didier Pain, Thérèse Liotard
• Directors: Yves Robert
• Writers: Yves Robert, Jérôme Tonnerre, Marcel Pagnol
• Producers: Alain Poiré
• Format: NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Orion Home Video
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302359856
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,705 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The second part of Yves Robert's filming of Marcel Pagnol's childhood memoirs completes the narrative so casually begun in My Father's Glory--and fulfills a radiant journey we hadn't even realized we'd embarked on. Marcel is approaching his teens and acquiring a more coherent sense of the world. Accordingly, My Mother's Castle boasts a more concentrated style and unspools its story over (mostly) the space of one year, as opposed to a dozen. Whereas in the first film Robert had worked entirely with little-known players who simply became Marcel's family, here he calls upon screen veterans Jean Rochefort, Jean Carmet, and Georges Wilson to flesh out sharply ironical figures who loom challengingly on the young man's horizon. Consistent with Pagnol's emphasis on Provençal locations, the focal event of the film becomes the weekly walk the Marseilles-based family makes from the trolley station to their remote country cottage--a quintessentially mundane ritual that comes to be fraught with wonder, delight, and terror. It all leads to a payoff that opens the meaning of the title only as the film is reaching its transcendent conclusion. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love, family, teachers and students, May 14, 2003

By 

Amateur curmudgeon "kaleun76" (Lakewood, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: My Mother's Castle [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a film with no action, no violence, no sex, no nudity.
I have seen it 6 or 7 times by the last count.
Superb acting, superb scenery.
The story closely follows Marcel Pagnol's book, and that, by itself makes it worth watching in French. The mastery of the language that Pagnol exhibits, in combination with the sedulously researched historical perspective create a masterpiece.
Other reviewers already have told the story, I am not going to repeat their comments.
If you have children, watch this movie with them. The scene when the schoolteacher father is taking his children along for a stroll, and all the while teaching them is worth millions.
This is not only a coming of age movie, but also a historical snapshot on France at the turn of the century, when science and technology promised a world where everything would be possible.
Of course you should see "My father's glory" first to savor the complete richness and texture of this movie, but it only loses a little if you watch it separately.
Just get both, and be done with it. This is a movie you will watch several times anyway.
A little tragic at the end (this is a French film after all)but no more than the tragedy that was about to unfold in France twice in the next 30 years.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Worthy Follow Up to My Father's Glory, July 6, 2003

By 

Timothy Kearney (Haverhill, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: My Mother's Castle (DVD)

My Mother Castle picks up where My Father's Glory Ends. Like its predecessor, it is a movie that really does not have a plot, but it has well developed characters, a beautiful setting, and wonderful music. In this film, the family visits a beloved vacation home in the South of France as often as possible. The mother Augustine is more the focus of this film, but Marcel's father also plays a significant role. We get a sense of how powerful his father's teaching impacted students when we meet one of his former students who is now an adult. In this film we see Marcel grow up a bit more. He still has a great friend in the country boy Lilli, a friendship which began in the first film. He also has his first crush on a rather eccentric girl. Perhaps the greatest moment in the film is when the family learns that Marcel will be able to attend a prestigious exam school. Marcel realizes that this will give him greater educational opportunities than his father ever had, but he also realizes that he may never be the wonderful person that his father happened to be.

I viewed this film prior to viewing My Father's Glory. This is not to say that My Mother's Castle is not a good enough film to stand on its own. The two films are nearly equal in all aspects. The high standards of the first film were applied to the second film, but since this film takes place after My Father's Glory, it will be less confusing to viewers if they have already met the characters in the first film.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MOVING EXPERIENCE, January 26, 2000

By 

Claudie Wilkinson (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Mother's Castle [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"My Mother's Castle" is a follow-up of the equally brilliant film "My Father's Glory" taken from the books of Marcel Pagnol. This film is like a beautiful painting, true to life and brilliantly acted. It is a film that will leave you in a nostalgic and dreamy mood. It will move you, make you cry both with sadness and joy. A beautiful protrayal of youth, friendship, love and of course Provence. You will all want to go to France on holiday after seeing this film. A MUST see film. Enjoy it everyone!