Pagnol and Fernandel, the variations of love of their grandsons

About a century ago, Marcel Pagnol met Fernandel for the first time and told him: “I know what you need!”. Their immediate complicity thus gave birth to six films, spread over twenty years. At the start of the year, Nicolas Pagnol said almost the same language to Vincent Fernandel. “This is what we’re going to do.”he told her, before offering to become the storyteller of a show called Marcel Pagnol, variations of love.

The respective grandsons thus ensure the succession through a “music reading” imagined and directed by Nicolas Pagnol. Vincent Fernandel is the storyteller, while the piano accompaniment is provided by Franck Ciup. Composer of several hundred pieces, inspired by classical, modern and even avant-garde, he is such a fan of Pagnol’s work that in 2016, he bought his piano at the auction of objects from the family’s Parisian mansion.

At the end of last year, he met Nicolas. During their conversation in a bar in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, he mentioned, in particular, his taste for a form of show combining literature and music. It then caused a click in Nicolas’ mind. He had the missing link in front of him! He immediately asked her to participate in the adventure, in the form of accompaniment in the spirit of cinema soundtracks, with original melodies punctuating a monologue, a dialogue or an extract from a film scene. .

In the process, Nicolas defined a common thread based on an observation. Knowledgeable about his grandfather’s cinematographic, theatrical and literary work, he noticed the presence of a recurring theme: love. The fusional passion between two beings is, of course, treated, but it is far from being the only one. In each of the films allusions to his attachment to the earth, to art and loyalty in friendship are also present. This is how Nicolas Pagnol made a drastic selection. He constructed a 75-minute set made up of extracts from classics, including Manon of the Sourceset The glory of my fatherto which he added lesser-known texts. Among them are the preface to his translation of the Bucolic of Virgil, passages from the correspondence between Marcel and Jacqueline shortly after their meeting, and the scenario of Prayer to the starsthe cinematographic triptych that the war left unfinished. If the moment when Hugolin announces to the papat that he is in love was retained, the final scene of Fannywith Marius and Caesar, was, on the other hand, discarded.

Before a planned tour from Allauch (Friday July 19) to Turkey, a free performance was organized this weekend by the Mairie des 11^e et 12^e districts of Marseille, on the occasion of the Moline Festival. A few hours earlier, Vincent inaugurated a garden which bears the name of his father, Franck Fernandel, who died in 2011. It is located a few hundred meters from Avenue Fernandel and the Villa des Mille Roses, where the actor lived. Events welcomed by a woman who, in Aubagne, told Vincent: “So, that’s it, you’re finally back!”