Marcel Pagnol

In a rural French village an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property... (imdb)

In this, the sequel to Jean de Florette, Manon (Beart) has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside... (imdb)

Every holiday Marcel and his family go to their cottage in the Provence (France). He likes the hills in this region. Before they arrive at the cottage they have to walk about 5 miles. With the co-operation of an ex-pupil of Marcels father, who's a teacher, they only have to walk 1 mile, since they can take a shortcut along a canal, through the backyards of some excentric people. During one of these holidays he meets Isabelle, a pretty but conceited girl... (imdb)

A young boy's life in turn-of-the-century France. Marcel, witnesses the success of his teacher father, as well as the success of his arrogant Uncle Jules. Marcel and family spend their summer vacation in a cottage in Provence, and Marcel befriends a local boy who teaches him the secrets of the hills in Provence. (imdb)

Angèle, the daughter of Clarius, a farmer in the mountain of Provence, lives with her parents and their valet Saturnin. One day, near the farm, she meets Louis, a good-looking young man from Marseilles who is taking a holiday there. Unaware that he is nothing but a gigolo she is seduced by Louis and follows him to the city... (imdb)

Almost 19-year-old Marius feels himself in a rut in Marseille, his life planned for him by his cafe'-owning father, and he longs for the sea. The night before he is to leave on a 5-year voyage, Fanny, a girl he grew up with, reveals that she is in love with him, and he discovers that he is in love with her. He must choose between an exciting life at sea, and a boring life with the woman he loves. And Fanny must choose between keeping the man she loves, and letting him live the life he wants. (imdb)

A man must choose between his love of the sea and a woman.

Honoré Panisse is dying, cheerfully, with friends, wife, and son at his side. He confesses to the priest in front of his friends; he insists that the doctor be truthful. But, he cannot bring himself to tell his son Cesariot that his real father is Marius, the absent son of César, Cesariot's godfather. (imdb)

Marius has left, signed up for a five year hitch on a ship bound for the Indian Ocean. In his few letters to his father César, he hardly mentions Fanny (imdb)

After the young people abandon their French village for the city, middle-aged poacher Panturle (Gabriel Gabrio) longs to revive the area. Soon a knife grinder, Gedemus (Fernandel), arrives at the village with his companion, young Arsule (Orane Demazis), whom he treats harshly.

Francoise is seduced and betrayed by a wandering worker, and her father, Galubert, allows her to return to his home on the condition that she and the child stay concealed in the cellar. She is discovered there by a cluck, who falls in with her. (imdb)

A rural maiden's two suitors go off to war, leaving her pregnant. (imdb)

A father in pre-WWII France is torn between his sense of honor and his deep love for his saintly daughter when she gets in trouble with the wealthy son of a shopkeeper. (imdb)

Mr. Topaze ('Peter Sellers' ) is an unassuming school teacher in an unassuming small French town who is honest to a fault. He is fired when he refuses to give a passing grade to a bad student, the grandson of a wealthy baroness. Castel Benac (Herbert Lom), a government official who runs a crooked financial business on the side, is persuaded by his mistress, Suzy (Nadia Gray), a musical comedy actress, to hire Mr. Topaze as the front man for his business. (imdb)

César runs a bar along Marseilles' port, assisted by his 23 year old son, Marius. Colorful characters abound: M. Panisse, an aging widower and prosperous sail maker; Honorine, a fishmonger with a sidewalk stall near the bar; her daughter, Fanny, who helps her sell cockles; and, various old salts. Friends since childhood, Fanny and Marius love each other, but Marius has a secret wanderlust: every ship's whistle stirs a longing for foreign lands.

"Fanny" is the second part of the "Marseille trilogy", made by Marcel Pagnol with the generic name of "Marius, Fanny and César". Fanny falls in love and is abandoned by Marius. Now she discovers she is pregnant. Her mother and Marius's father, César, persuade her to accept the romantic advances of a much older man. To save face, Fanny accepts to marry Honoré Panisse, a rich merchant of the Vieux Port, 30 years her senior who will recognize her son.

Manon des Sources, directed by Marcel Pagnol, tells the story of Manon, a girl living in the mountains, who decides to block the spring supplying the water to the village. Manon wants to have revenge on the inhabitants of the village that ignored her father when he was killing himself to find precious water for his own land. (imdb)

Cigalon (Alexandre Arnaudy) manages a restaurant in a small town in Provence. A chef with a high opinion of his past culinary achievements, he makes no effort to attract customers and is rude to those who venture into his establishment expecting to be fed. To Cigalon, gastronomy is the greatest of all the arts, and so he is naturally aghast when a former laundress named Madame Toffi (Marguerite Chabert) opens a restaurant next door to his.

In the French port of Marseille, a young woman named Madelon is in love with a young sailor, Marius. Discovering she is pregnant after Marius sets out to sea for several years, she marries another man to prevent the child being born out of wedlock.

This is the story of a wealthy bourgeois who marries his only child, a daughter, to a penniless nobleman because he hopes to use his son-in-law to get a title. The son-in-law is a lazy, affected stereotype; but M. Poirier is also a stereotype, of the obnoxious big businessman. The poor daughter, who falls in love with her husband, lets him walk all over her. (imdb)

"Merlusse" is French schoolboy slang for codfish, and M. Blanchard, a professor at a certain lycée, was known to his victims by that name. On Christmas eve, when some twenty of the students--orphans, foreigners or just plain "unwanteds"--had to remain in the boarding school, Merlusse is placed in charge.

Topaze, an honest teacher in a private school, is dismissed for speaking too frankly to an aristocratic parent. He is hired by a crooked politician who needs a front man to head one of his phony companies. Topaze, realising he's been conned, takes on the authority that is legally his by ousting his crooked boss and acquiring his mistress.

Franz Schubert retired from Vienna in country for musical writing. He draws his inspiration from a romance with the watermiller's daughter.

An old man sells his orchard, but when the new owner wants to cut the trees down, he threatens with suicide.

Japanese adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's Marius. This version is set in early 20th century Japan.

A Belgian TV-movie from 1959

During the Restoration, Napoleon's officers are retired and living on half pay. Useless and idle, they spend their time meeting in hope of his return. When the emperor dies, they plot to offer the throne to his son, L'Aiglon.