César is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel

César (1936)141 minDramaRating 66/100

In the final chapter of The Marseille Trilogy, Marcel Pagnol returns his compassionate gaze to his weathered characters as they discover the possibility of reconciliation and the durability of love. Leaping forward twenty years, the trilogy continues with the death of Fanny’s husband, Panisse, and the discovery of her secret by her son, Césariot. The young man resolves to track down his biological father, Marius, whose life has been fraught with calamity and poverty. The only film in the trilogy written expressly for the screen and directed by Pagnol, César resolves the protagonists’ star-crossed destinies with the garrulous wit and understated naturalism that have made this epic love story a landmark of humanist filmmaking.

Cast: Raimu, Orane Demazis, Pierre Fresnay, Fernand Charpin, Robert Vattier, Paul Dullac, Marcel Maupi

Director: Marcel Pagnol