Le Temps des Secrets

Marcel Pagnol's childhood memories have spawned a true franchise (1) la gloire de mon père (dir :Yves Robert) (2) le château de ma mère (idem) (3) le temps des secrets (MTV) (4) le temps des amours.(MTV)

This theatrically released new version of (3) is very pleasant though nothing was ever to re-capture the luminous magic of (1) and (2).

Both versions of Pagnol's third volume feature the same characters but not always the same situation ; this one is more tuned into the times zeitgeist; when Marcel recites Victor Hugo's "après le bataille", check the date on the blackboard :it's 1905 ,the very year of the separation of the Church and the State ; this event is hinted at and Marcel 's daddy has the upper hand over Uncle Jules : "my paradise is here in Provence and I do not have to die to taste it "

Ditto for the Marcel/Isabelle relationship .Although she accepts him as an attentive escort ,she does not miss an opportunity to make him feel she's a noble and that he is almost "riffraff " to her .The decline of the aristocracy (replaced by the dominant bourgeoisie) is represented by the noble father who lost in job in a newspaper because he's a barfly.

Ditto for the scenes in high school ; the scenes are here similar to those of the MTV version ;a scholarship holder like Marcel is inferior to the bourgeois students whose wealthy family pays for their studies

Thus the class struggle is more prominent in Barattier's film ; but it does not overshadow the beauty of the Provençal landscapes , its wildlife , the camaraderie between an intellectual boy who would become a writer and a director famous around the world (Orson Welles praised "la femme du boulanger" aka"the baker's wife" )and a country uneducated Gavroche who knows the nature better than he does though.

We could expect another version of (4) ,but it does not seem it will be so ;after a wonderful epilogue which shows the grown-up Marcel walking in his beloved hills and remembering those dearest memories of long ago , the screenwriters reveal the other characters ' fates ,like Robert did at the end of (2).

This film is closer to the book than the films from the beginning of the century (in English My father's glory and My mother's castle) as in the second film the storyline of this film was added despite the fact that it was only from the book the time of secrets. Having read all the books the film is definitely closer to Pagnol's 3rd book than the first two films. To me this is a good version including the Marseille accents. I think the ew version with the new actors is rather good, with Demaison doing a superb uncle Jules. The children are very good actors given that this is their first film. I think that the only thing wrong with the film is the lack of moments in Pagnol's school life, which is actually paramount in the books, but heck this is a film anyway and it was probably too expensive to film too much in the schools.

This is a miserable attempt at a remake of the previous film My Father's Glory. That film was a masterpiece and, together with My Mother's Castle, is highly recommended by this writer. Anyone who has seen the original film would do better not to watch this one at all. Anyone who has not seen the original should definitely watch that one (or better, both) instead.

As others have noted, the sound track is lacking, but that is the least of its problems. Where to begin?

Whoever chose the fragments of the original made poor selections and did a sad job of trying to connect them in a compelling manner. Those pieces that were chosen were given more screen time -- or perhaps it merely seemed so because those excerpts were so poorly and tediously done -- but the biggest problem was the parts that were left out. In the process the magic of the original was destroyed.

Avoid this film.