Daniel Auteil made his international career in the mid-1980s with roles in Maurice Pagnol arthouse block-buster adaptations Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources.
When directing his first feature, 2011’s The Well Digger’s Daughter, he returned to Pagnol for the source material. Now he has once again come back to directing with Pagnol’s Marseille Trilogy of which Marius is the first part.
Marius, set in 1920s Marseille, recounts the love affair between a young shop girl Fanny and her childhood friend would-be-sailor Marius. As the childhood friends dance around their feelings for each other, Panisse, a wealthy older man bides his time as he sets out to woo Fanny from the feckless young Marius.
Marius and Fanny were shot back to back and are to be released simultaneously in the UK with the third part, César, following next year.
