Product Details

• Actors: Philippe Caubère, Nathalie Roussel, Didier Pain, Thérèse Liotard, Julien Ciamaca
• Directors: Yves Robert
• Writers: Yves Robert, Jérôme Tonnerre, Louis Nucéra, Marcel Pagnol
• Producers: Alain Poiré
• Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: November 5, 2002
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00006I04J
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,286 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #18 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > European Cinema > France > Drama
  #31 in	Movies & TV > Drama > Family Life > Fathers & Sons
  #47 in	Movies & TV > Music Video & Concerts > Artists > Beach Boys

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Among the bounteous literary and cinematic legacy of Marcel Pagnol, poet laureate of Provence, is a two-volume memoir, My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle. The enormous success of Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring (Claude Berri's 1986 remakes of two Pagnol films from the '50s) encouraged Yves Robert to shoot another Pagnol diptych. Like Garlaban, the great bluff overhanging Pagnol's childhood home, the result is "less than a mountain, much more than a hill." The first part, My Father's Glory, spans Marcel's early years from infancy to preteen. The film keeps faith with its juvenile subject, leaping from one quirky detail of landscape, character, or biography to the next--whatever has caught the child's fancy and lingered in the adult narrator's memory. This makes for episodic storytelling, but it's an appropriate way to reflect childhood experience, and it doesn't prevent Robert from developing loving portraits of Pagnol's nearest and dearest, or paying luminous tribute to the Provençal countryside Pagnol loved. You can almost feel the sunshine, smell the wild thyme. --Richard T. Jameson

Product Description
Based on the best-selling memoirs of French novelist/filmmaker Marcel Pagnol, this captivating recollection of a young boy's life in turn-of-the-century South of France is an intelligent, emotionallyrealistic account of a more idyllic time. A glorious celebration of family, this is one of the most beguiling films since charm went out of fashion (Time)! Among the intoxicating hills of rustic Bastide Neuve, young Marcel and his family experience an unforgettable summer holiday. Marcel,mystified by nature, eagerly turns to his father, Joseph, for an education on the ways of the wild.But Joseph comes up short in Marcel's eyes when cantankerous Uncle Julesan experienced woodsmanproves to be far more knowledgeable. To redeem himself, Joseph challenges Jules to a hunting matchto prove once and for all that he is not only the patriarch but a father who deserves respect.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lavish, Beautiful, and Sentimental, July 6, 2003

By	Timothy Kearney (Hull, MA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Childhood holidays in the hills of Provence, July 7, 2000

By	"eguisheim" (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Father's Glory [VHS] (VHS Tape)

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.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best childhood films ever, May 5, 2003

By	Edward Aycock (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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."