Marcel Pagnol
Born in 1895 in Aubagne, he studied literature in Aix-en-Provence before being an English teacher at the ‘Lycée Condorcet’ in Paris. Far from his native country, he was bored and so he decided to quit teaching for writing. Success is coming quickly with his first theatre piece called ‘Topaze’ and the famous trilogy ‘Marius’, ‘Fanny’ and ‘Cézar’. In 1933, Marcel Pagnol comes back in Marseille where he set up his cinema studios to turn his own films outside. He was elected in 1946 at the French Academia, and in 1957 he starts his second trilogy: ‘La gloire de mon Pere’, ‘Le chateau de ma mere’ and ‘Le temps des secrets’. Beside numerous theatre plays, he writes in prose ‘l’Eau des Collines’, Claude Berry will adapt 2 films: ‘Jean de Florette’ and ‘Manon des Sources’. The ten last years of his life will be devoted to an historical investigation on the secret of the iron mask; he died in Paris when he was 79 years old.
