César (film)

César is a 1936 French film, written and directed by Marcel Pagnol. It is the final part of his Marseille trilogy, which began with the film Marius and was followed by Fanny. Unlike the other two films in the trilogy, César was not based on a play by Pagnol, but written directly as a film script. In 1946 Pagnol adapted the script as a stage play.

Plot
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 Césariot that his real father is Marius, the absent son of César, Césariot's godfather. Panisse leaves that to Fanny, the lad's mother. Dissembling that he's off to see a friend, Césariot then seeks Marius, now a mechanic in Toulon. Posing as a journalist, Césariot spends time with Marius and leaves believing tales that Marius is involved in burglary and drug trafficking. Only after the truth comes out can Marius, Fanny, César, and Césariot step beyond the falsehoods, benign though they may be.

Cast

 * Raimu as César Ollivier, bar owner
 * Pierre Fresnay as Marius Ollivier, son of César
 * Orane Demazis as Fanny Panisse, wife of Honoré
 * Fernand Charpin as Honoré Panisse, husband of Fanny
 * André Fouché as Césariot Panisse, son of Fanny
 * Alida Rouffe as Honorine Cabanis, mother of Fanny
 * Milly Mathis as Claudine Foulon, aunt of Fanny
 * Robert Vattier as Adelbert Brun, retired customs official
 * Paul Dullac as Félix Escartefique, retired ferry captain
 * Marcel Maupi as Innocent Mangiapan, ferry stoker
 * Édouard Delmont as Dr Félicien Venelle
 * Thommeray as Elzéar Bonnegrâce, parish priest

Cast recordings
An audio cast recording of select scenes, with minor rewritings, was made in Paris on 27 and 28 May 1937 for Columbia Records by part of the main cast (Raimu, Charpin, Dullac, Fouché), except for M. Brun, who was played by Auguste Mourriès, who had performed as Escartefigue in the film Fanny, and for the priest Elzéar, played by Delmont, who in the film played Dr Venelle. This include one scene not kept in the final version of the film, Panisse’s eulogy by Escartefigue at his funeral. It was later re-issued on compact disc.

In 1962, Pagnol’s distribution company, the Compagnie méditerranéenne de films, published the film soundtrack on disc, interspersed with narrative comments and descriptions spoken by Pagnol. In complement came recollections about the production of the film, later published as part of the augmented edition of his 1934 essay Cinématurgie de Paris. It was re-issued on CD by Frémeaux & Associés, in their “Librairie sonore” series.

In popular culture

 * The famed restaurateur and founder of California cuisine, Alice Waters, was so taken by this film that she named her Berkeley restaurant "Chez Panisse". The café upstairs from the restaurant is decorated with posters from the films Marius, Fanny, and César.
 * The main characters from the films Marius, Fanny and César make a cameo appearance in the Asterix comic book Asterix and the Banquet.