Warning. This film is over 2 hours and the film is all in French so you will need to find a copy with subtitles unless you understand French.
But the effort to find the version with English subtitles and the effort to find the time to watch this film in one sitting is worth it with the payoff of a good study of human emotions and characters.
Pierre Fresnay as Marius is charming and complicated. He yearns to set sail on all the ships that dock in their port and is saddened when any of them leave without him as a passenger.
Marius has a childhood girl friend, Fanny, that is in love with him. Orane Demazis plays Fanny. She is stellar in the role. Her best acting moments come at the end of the film when she must decide to marry Marius or let him be married to the sea. Demazis is amazing in the last 5 minutes of the film.
Raimu lays Marius' father. He is comical and sad and a dreamer. The part reminds me of Tevye from Fiddler or Zorba from Zorba the Greek. He is a delight to watch.
So many times we are not aware of what other countries were producing back in the 1930's. We think that only our great American film companies can give us the great films and stars. But Marius shows us that we should broaden our field of vision and look in all corners for good film.
Go French. Make it classy with an accent! Classé!!!
But the effort to find the version with English subtitles and the effort to find the time to watch this film in one sitting is worth it with the payoff of a good study of human emotions and characters.
Pierre Fresnay as Marius is charming and complicated. He yearns to set sail on all the ships that dock in their port and is saddened when any of them leave without him as a passenger.
Marius has a childhood girl friend, Fanny, that is in love with him. Orane Demazis plays Fanny. She is stellar in the role. Her best acting moments come at the end of the film when she must decide to marry Marius or let him be married to the sea. Demazis is amazing in the last 5 minutes of the film.
Raimu lays Marius' father. He is comical and sad and a dreamer. The part reminds me of Tevye from Fiddler or Zorba from Zorba the Greek. He is a delight to watch.
So many times we are not aware of what other countries were producing back in the 1930's. We think that only our great American film companies can give us the great films and stars. But Marius shows us that we should broaden our field of vision and look in all corners for good film.
Go French. Make it classy with an accent! Classé!!!