‘A Magnificent Life’ review: Sylvain Chomet animates the life of Marcel Pagnol

Dir/scr: Sylvain Chomet. France/Luxembourg/Belgium 2025. 90mins

The playwright, creator and film-maker Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974) clearly did have A Magnificent Life – however you think about it should have been considerably thornier and extra advanced than the sugar-glazed account depicted within the newest from acclaimed French animation specialist Sylvain Chomet (Triplets Of Belleville). His first animated characteristic since 2010’s The Illusionist, and first characteristic since 2013’s reside motion Attila Marcel, A Magnificent Life provides a fond, unashamedly soft-hearted portrait of an undeniably essential determine in Twentieth-century French tradition.

A beautiful, decidedly dewy-eyed heritage hagiography

Regardless of his legacy in much-loved latter-day variations corresponding to Jean de Florette, Pagnol isn’t a reputation that has a lot forex with youthful generations, nor outdoors France – and within the age of digital animation, this lovingly crafted however visually conservative piece may appear dated dated. Older viewers would possibly take it to their hearts, and its extremely particular cultural references will imply it’s of best attraction to devoted Francophiles. 

French title Marcel Et Monsieur Pagnol highlights a story that doubles between the grownup author and his boyhood self. The movie begins with the aged Pagnol (voiced by Laurent Lafitte), his theatrical success declining, wearily considering writing a memoir – which he does with the assistance of his childhood self, considered one of many pleasant visions that hang-out him by way of the movie, which notably additionally consists of his ever-loving late mom Augustine (Géraldine Pailhas).

The movie covers Pagnol’s days as a struggling English trainer newly arrived in Paris together with his spouse, who ultimately leaves, satisfied that he’s losing his time making an attempt to be a playwright. Success ultimately comes together with his 1927 play Topaze, a few schoolmaster and impressed by Pagnol’s father. As talkies come to interchange silent motion pictures, Pagnol goes on to discover cinema, ultimately directing his personal much-loved options like Regain (Harvest), Le Shpountz and The Nicely-Digger’s Daughter. These movies rejoice the tradition, language and accent of Pagnol’s native Marseilles, the place he creates his personal unbiased studio. 

A Magnificent Life additionally briskly covers Pagnol’s wartime profession – he defiantly refuses to cede to Germany’s insistence that he cooperate with its movie business – and his amorous relationships with three actresses who starred in his work, Orane Demazis, Josette Day and Jacqueline Bouvier (whom he later married). Bizarrely, assorted comedy animals seem all through – a chicken which spurs on his writing efforts by squawking, “Pagnol! Pagnol!”, a big slobbering canine, an omnivorous sheep that turns into his studio mascot.

As this would possibly counsel, A Magnificent Life incorporates an offputting quota of cuteness together with the nostalgia, and far goofiness apart from. A few of the supporting voice characterisations are so exaggerated that they barely meet a Hanna-Barbera stage of sophistication.

The animation is as elegant as you’d anticipate from this director, the figures crisply delineated in clear black traces (the well-known ligne claire of French comedian books, a discipline wherein Chomet can also be distinguished). The characters transfer and emote elegantly, and the interval element is as meticulous and as densely evocative as in his different options, with handled clips from Pagnol’s movies vividly illustrating his display profession. The textures are equally wealthy, from the grungy autumn tones of an inhospitable Nineteen Twenties Paris to the balmy Mediterranean solar accompanied by the sound of cicadas (the insect was the logo for Pagnol’s studio). However the tone doesn’t escape a sure diploma of caprice, even kitsch, as when Augustine is seen floating in a swirl of flowers that then flip into her funeral wreath.  

The movie – billed upfront as a real story, and made with the enter of its topic’s grandson and archivist-biographer Nicolas Pagnol – provides a broad, extremely informative account of a revered life and profession. Whether or not it actually opens up Pagnol’s oeuvre, or makes you wish to uncover his work is one other query: fairly, it seems like a stunning, decidedly dewy-eyed heritage hagiography.