KINO ON VIDEO TO RELEASE A RESTORED VERSION OF MARCEL PAGNOL'S FANNY TRILOGY FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ON DVD."

Kino on Video is proud to release for the first time on DVD and VHS an all-new restoration of Marcel Pagnol's THE FANNY TRILOGY. Considered "one of the most cherished love stories of the century" (American Film Magazine), THE FANNY TRILOGY can now be appreciated in a four-disc box set bringing all three feature films from the trilogy MARIUS(1931), FANNY (1932) and CÉSAR (1936) together with a fourth disc bringing a wide variety of special features including: a 74-minute documentary about the trilogy, 88 minutes of exclusive audio commentary by Marcel Pagnol, original theatrical trailers, and much more. Also included is an illustrated essay by French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier (THE CLOCKMAKER, CAPITAINE CONAN) on Marcel Pagnol's oeuvre. THE FANNY TRILOGY DVD box set is priced at $79.95 and will be available to the general public on June 15th, 2004. The individual titles continue to be available on VHS at $29.95 each.

With the recent sound and picture cleanup supervised by the Pagnol family, the immense appeal of the world and characters of the French provinces can be again appreciated in its pristine original quality. Much like the great 1930s and 40s films of John Ford and Frank Capra, Pagnol's THE FANNY TRILOGY brought to the screen an entire set of previously unrepresented archetypes and astonished worldwide audiences and critics alike.

Perhaps best known for his FANNY TRILOGY, Pagnol originally wrote MARIUS, FANNY and CÉSAR for the stage. Each play ran a record-setting number of a thousand performances and were as popular as they were critically revered. This unexpected success allowed Pagnol to adapt his own material into screenplays and produce three feature films, each based on one of the plays. The Fanny Trilogy, also known as the Marseille Trilogy, was later adapted into a 1955 Broadway musical named 'FANNY' and into a memorable Hollywood film. Seen today as a seminal and highly influential love story, THE FANNY TRILOGY reflects Pagnol's love and curiosity for the less industrialized south of France; he was born in Provence in 1895. Bringing to the screen a fresh combination of unpretentious dialogue and a unique kind of romantic realism, Pagnol's cinema was seen during the 1930s as separate from the developing avant-garde French cinema, which experimented with sound, image and their possible connections with language and politics.

But even if Pagnol once claimed that cinema was merely "the art of imprinting, fixing and diffusing theatre," he inadvertently dethroned the high-drama‹and high-class‹subject matters common to 1920s French cinema by introducing a fresh look at the everyday activities of the working class. THE FANNY TRILOGY not only took Europe by storm but also brought Provence's market stalls and distinct French dialect to the forefront of the European art/cinema scene. Seventy years after MARIUS, FANNY and CÉSAR were originally released in theatres, THE FANNY TRILOGY DVD box set presents properly restored versions of Marcel Pagnol's most famous films to a new audience of filmgoers as well as scholars and fans of the famed 1930s French cinema.

SPECIAL FEATURES SUPPLEMENTAL DVD:


"Author of the Trilogy" - A 74-minute original documentary about Marcel Pagnol's FANNY TRILOGY (2003, Color).
Trailers for MARIUS, FANNY, CESAR.
Audio Commentary by Marcel Pagnol for MARIUS (60 min), FANNY (18 min), and CESAR (10 min).
A brand-mew Marcel Pagnol Biography
Filmographies / Posters Gallery / Stills Gallery / Original Promotional Material
In French w/ Optional English Subtitles AND ...
AS A PRINTED BOOKLET ‹ An exclusive, original essay about Marcel Pagnol and the FANNY TRILOGY written by acclaimed French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier (COUP DE TORCHON, SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY, CAPITAINE CONAN).

MARIUS (1931)

Marius, the first film in the FANNY TRILOGY masterfully tells the tale of Cesar (Raimu), a café owner in the port of Marseilles whose son Marius (Pierre Fresnay), a young man-about-town, works with him. Marius loves Fanny (Orane Demazis), the daughter of a fish-monger, but also longs to live the adventurous life of a sailor. Even though the young couple become lovers and plan to marry, Fanny realizes that she cannot hold Marius from his dreams.

FANNY (1932)

Fanny spins a simple, charming story out of the humor and compassion of the Provençal French. Set in Marseilles, the young and beautiful Fanny (Orane Demazis) discovers that she is pregnant after her lover, Marius, has deserted her to follow the adventurous life of the sea. In order to make the child legitimate, she reluctantly accepts the marriage offer of the older wealthy suitor Panisse (Charpin). Unaware that he is now a father, Marius returns to marry Fanny, but is sent away by his father Cesar in order to prevent further unhappiness.

CESAR (1936)

Cesar begins with the death of Cesar's best friend, old Panisse (Charpin), the town merchant who has devoted his wealth and love to the happiness of his young wife, Fanny (Orane Demazis), and their son (Andre Fouche). After the death of Panisse, the son is told by his mother that his real father is the legendary Marius, Cesar's son, who left Marseilles 20 years earlier to travel the world. Feeling betrayed, the son sets out to find Marius who is living quietly in a nearby town. It is only through the efforts of young Cesar that Fanny and Marius, still desperately in love after 20 years, are finally reunited. This dramatic and moving story, punctuated by witty dialogue, provides a poignant concluding chapter to Pagnol's famous trilogy.

Originally posted by RevKarl
If this exact same package was being released by Criterion, any guesses how many "I'm buying" posts would be here by now?

Originally posted by RevKarl
If this exact same package was being released by Criterion, any guesses how many "I'm buying" posts would be here by now?

If this exact same package was being released by Criterion, any guesses how many "I'm buying" posts would be here by now?

Originally posted by FilmFanSea
I have been anticipating this release since it was first announced in Kino's catalog. This set is based on one released in France last fall by CMF (which, oddly, is already OOP as far as I can tell). There is an extensive review (in French) of the CMF box set at dvdrama. I can't say that I'm wild about Kino's suggested retail price, but I'm hoping DDD or Digital Eyes (which seem to have the best prices on Kino discs) will offer it at a decent discount.

Originally posted by RevKarl
Personally, I'm a big fan of Kino...IMHO, they are the top DVD distributor of silent films and their release of Love Me Tonight was one of my favorite DVD purchases of 2003.

Originally posted by baracine
What I called "an impressive and slightly echo-y foley" is in reality direct sound recording. In the absence of dialog, the very realistic direct sound recordings - everything from seagulls to the shimmering of the bar's bead-curtain - have been somewhat cleaned-up or amplified and they are very nice.

Originally posted by unclehulot
Well, my jaw is dropping right now -- I've rented (thank god) Marius, and I'm afraid what they've done to the sound (assuming Kino's giving up what they were supplied with) is one of those nasty jobs where sound effects have been added and overlaid to the original soundtrack!!! Perhaps it wouldn't be SO noticeable on small tv speakers, but right at the start they have added all kinds of annoying sounds of feet scuffling along the pavement, and various honks and background crowd noises. These stay within the mono domain, thank god, but I find it as distracting as what the "Vertigo" restoration does (car engine noises and doors slaming thrice as loud as they should be).

Try chapter 4 of "Marius" and you'll hear added sounds of doors opening and closing, cash registers (?), seagulls and footsteps all CLEARLY recorded later and in a different ambience from the original. None of this crap is on the old Image LD issues, which are otherwise completely supplanted by the superior visual quality here (with a little "zoom out" I don't find the cropping to be a problem).

What I find upsetting here is that no one at Kino would be aware of this sound tinkering and demand an original track. I really hope this is not the wave of the future. Ruscico has been called to task for their 5.1 travesties (Stalker), but I'm afraid that the fact that this stays in the single channel domain will mute criticism.

Shame!

Originally posted by baracine
I'll have to take your word that these sound effects are added and not just cleaned up. But I find them extremely cool, sensual even... [But then, I also thought the colourized version of King Kong was an unjustly maligned work of art in its own right.]