My Mother's Castle
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Movie Reviews of My Mother's Castle
Movie Review: Bittersweet memories of a childhood
Summary: 5 Stars
"My Mother's Castle" is based on the second part the 1957 autobiographical novels by Marcel Pagnol and is the sequel to "My Fathers' Glory". It is an extremely enchanting and lyrical memory of a childhood in an almost unrealistically happy and charming family in the early years of the 20th century. Acting, costumes and scenery are splendid. The actors are very handsome too, in a wholesome way. The movie takes up where "My Father's Glory" had left off and while there is no big plot, the focus is mainly on one important event in the family's life and its resolution.
As an American one is struck by the rigorous rules and regulations that existed in France and probably still exist, where even the salary scale for the working masses is publicly known and 'engraved in granite', and one has great respect for and fear of nonsecterian authority, the result of the extremely bloody and hard won revolution more than 100 earlier... One also marvels at the rigid class distinction between regular 'republican' folks ( citizens of the French republic, NOT belonging to the republican party ) and 'the rich'.
Life is good to the family and an adventure and there are wonderful humorous moments, and there are laughs and we enjoy their good fortune, ranging from attaining a scholarship to the 'lycee' to advancement in the father's career, but only too soon, as Pagnol puts it so succinctly, "time passes and makes life's wheel turn like that of a is the life of man, a few moments of joy quickly obliterated by unforgettable sorrow........." but it seems to me, Pagnol had more than a few moments of happiness in his childhood...
....There is a surprising ending to the story which is almost uncanny. The proverbial wheels of life/fate do seem to turn in strange mysterious ways sometimes.
Movie Review: and the greatest of these is Love.
Summary: 5 Stars
Amongst all the "bleak"," hard-hitting", "unflinchingly honest" "unrelenting realism" with which we are confronted in the name of so much art-house cinema, this film (together with its predecessor My Father's Glory) offers something precious, something we lose in transit to adulthood. For in each one of us the secret garden, the summer holiday, the opening of presents, the kitchen of warm community longs to be found again. Its there, but we in jaded sophistication and disillusion have lost the key.
Having a key to a door along the canal which would afford their luggage-laden family an illicit short-cut en-route to their holiday house, and all the attendant moral dilemmas for a strict middle-class family is the ostensible subject-matter of the film. Not much, a trivial bourgeois episode, rendered for maximum sentimental effect says the cynic inside. Yes. Until your eyes involuntary begin to follow the limpid flow of water in the canal, until the landscape of Provence takes you in, and you find yourself a guest at their table in a lavender dusk. With the whole expanse of childhood waiting to be explored in the morning.
At the end of the film the cold, real world is acknowledged, but reluctantly, hurriedly like an unpleasant aftertaste. Time passes and death closes in on us all, encloses us from all. But in an act of defiance the adult Marcel literally breaks down the door central to the film, the source of anguish. Love, it is hinted, will prevail, and restore.
See this film to be made young again. Even if only as fleetingly as water flowing away.
Louis M
Movie Review: A Worthy Follow Up to My Father's Glory
Summary: 5 Stars
My Mother Castle picks up where My Father's Glory Ends. Like its predecessor, it is a movie that really does not have a plot, but it has well developed characters, a beautiful setting, and wonderful music. In this film, the family visits a beloved vacation home in the South of France as often as possible. The mother Augustine is more the focus of this film, but Marcel's father also plays a significant role. We get a sense of how powerful his father's teaching impacted students when we meet one of his former students who is now an adult. In this film we see Marcel grow up a bit more. He still has a great friend in the country boy Lilli, a friendship which began in the first film. He also has his first crush on a rather eccentric girl. Perhaps the greatest moment in the film is when the family learns that Marcel will be able to attend a prestigious exam school. Marcel realizes that this will give him greater educational opportunities than his father ever had, but he also realizes that he may never be the wonderful person that his father happened to be.I viewed this film prior to viewing My Father's Glory. This is not to say that My Mother's Castle is not a good enough film to stand on its own. The two films are nearly equal in all aspects. The high standards of the first film were applied to the second film, but since this film takes place after My Father's Glory, it will be less confusing to viewers if they have already met the characters in the first film.
Movie Review: a beautiful and heartfelt sequel to LA GLOIRE DE MON PERE (MY FATHER'S GLORY).......
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw this sequel many years ago in French class and it was probably one of the most beautiful pieces of poetry set to film that I had ever seen. For those of you unfamiliar with the first in this two part film series, I really reccomend that you watch LA GLOIRE DE MON PERE (MY FATHER'S GLORY) before seeing LE CHATEAU DE MA MERE (MY MOTHER'S CASTLE). This second part is based on the teen years of writer Marcel Pagnol and some of the most profound memories he had from that time of his life. It follows him, his family and the people who cross his path along the way. We see the triumphs and the tragedies and all incidents are depicted with grace and beauty (even when they are the most painful to watch). Everything from the separation that occurs between parent and child to childhood crushes are shown in a very natural and believable way. What's more, the cinematography just makes the scenes soar. Some of the sequences appear as if out of a luscious landscape painting. Whether you are a Francophile or someone new to foreign film, I highly reccomend this.Movie Review: second best movie ever made
Summary: 5 Stars
The first best movie ever made is the one preceding this, "My Father's Glory" (La Gloire de Mon Pere) by the same production company a few years earlier. "Le Chateau de Ma Mere" is the sequel. This one has the same superb production values, the same actors, etc. It stands alone as a wonderful story of growing up in Southern France 100 years ago. However, seen AFTER the first one, it is even better. We care deeply about these people,and having met them before, the true-life events that befall them are very moving.
The movie ends with a brilliant circularity that makes you draw your breath.
I saw the movies before reading the books, and the films are very true to the books. In fact, having seen the films first, the faces and voices of the actors and the striking scenery filled my imagination.