Marius (1931 film)

Marius is a 1931 French drama film directed by Alexander Korda. It is based on the 1929 play of the same title by Marcel Pagnol. The film is a part of the Marseille Trilogy which includes the films Fanny (Marius's ex-fiancée) and César (Marius's father). The film was selected to be screened in the Cannes Classics section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The restored film was also given a limited re-release in the United States by Janus Films on 4 January 2017, first premiering at Film Forum.

The film was made by Korda for the French subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. A separate Swedish-language version Longing for the Sea by John W. Brunius was also released in 1931 and a German-language version The Golden Anchor, also directed by Korda, was released the following year.

Plot
The film takes place mostly in the waterfront bar of César, Marius's father. Marius works in the bar and his good friend since childhood, Fanny, works outside the bar selling cockles. Marius has a hidden desire to travel to exotic places with the ship crews that depart from the docks of Marseille. This desire becomes exposed when a rich older man (Panisse) proposes to Fanny and Marius gets jealous. Marius' jealousy of Panisse is the first indication of the secret feelings that he has for her, but much to his surprise, the feelings are reciprocated by Fanny. She confesses that she loves Marius prompting him to reveal his plans of traveling the world to her, noting that being the wife of a man at sea is not a desirable life. After a few nights, it is discovered that they have slept together and Marius's father and Fanny's mother convince him to marry her. Marius becomes noticeably melancholy after proposing to Fanny until a few days later, the date of departure of a boat on which Marius was supposed to crew. Fanny, realizing that Marius is not truly happy being with her, decides to encourage him to leave. She helps distract his father while Marius sneaks onto the boat.

Cast

 * Raimu as César Olivier
 * Pierre Fresnay as Marius
 * Orane Demazis as Fanny
 * Fernand Charpin as Honoré Panisse
 * Alida Rouffe as Honorine Cabanis
 * Paul Dullac as Félix Escartefigue
 * Alexandre Mihalesco as Piquoiseau
 * Robert Vattier as Albert Brun
 * Édouard Delmont as Le Goelec
 * Milly Mathis as Tante Claudine Foulon
 * Marcel Maupi as Innocent Mangiapan Le Chauffeur Du Ferry-Boat
 * Lucien Callamand as Le Quartier-Maitre Du Ferry-Boat
 * Queret as Felicite
 * Valentine Ribe as Un Client / A Customer
 * Vassy as Un Arabe

Cast recordings
An audio cast recording of select scenes, with minor rewritings, was made at the studios Pelouze in Paris in March 1932 and on 2 and 14 December 1933 for Columbia Records by the main cast (Fresnay, Demazis, Raimu, Charpin, Dullac, Vattier, Henri Vilbert). It was later re-issued on compact disc.

In 1960, 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 a reading of his preface to the play written for the publication of his complete works, later collected in the volume Confidences in 1981; and of 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

 * Port of Seven Seas is James Whale's remake of Marius and Fanny.
 * 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. The card playing scene in the comic book is a reference to a similar scene in this film.