Nicolas Pagnol and Vincent Fernandel talk about their respective grandfathers, “two sacred monsters with two impossible characters”

Nicolas Pagnol and Vincent Fernandel have names that resonate strongly in our collective memory. Pagnol being one of the most notable writers in the history of French literature with The glory of my father, Manon des Sources or Jean de Florettethe member of the Comédie-Française that he was also marked the history of cinema as a director with films like Angela (1934), Naïs (1945), Regain (1937).

Fernandel, meanwhile, attracted more than 200 million viewers to theaters at a time when social media didn’t exist, with classics like Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1954) or even The Cow and the Prisoner (1959). OUR Don Camillo is still there, somewhere, with this iconic voice that Vincent has as a heritage, because he is the grandson of Fernandel and Nicolas, that of Marcel Pagnol.

Both are now publishing a CD book: Marcel Pagnol, read by Vincent Fernandel at Fleurus.

franceinfo: Marcel Pagnol, read by Vincent Fernandel is a great idea. How was she born?

Vincent Fernandel: It’s an idea that was born in the head of my producer Fanny Tempesti who told me: “As a Marseillais, one day you should play Marcel Pagnol”. I replied: nothing could be simpler. I called Nicolas and told him that I had something to offer him. I went to his house and then ultimately, we didn’t talk about work at all. We talked about lots of other things. We met on lots of subjects and at the end of this long afternoon, Nicolas said to me in ten seconds: “Listen, for your record book project, very good, I agree”. So it happened with disconcerting ease because we were lucky enough to have a real meeting, quite simply.

They have always been very close and at the same time, they remained angry for a very long time, around ten years because of the film Topaz (1951). Tell us this story which is quite incredible!

Nicolas Pagnol: Indeed, Fernandel wanted the film Topaz ends with a close-up of him. Marcel said: “Yes yes yes, of course, don’t worry.” And he took a close-up of Pierre Larquey. Fernandel took it very badly. When Marcel wrote a film for Gaumont called Carnival, Fernandel says: “I won’t play in it if Pagnol directs”, it goes quite badly and my grandmother tells me one day that Fernandel is coming to their house for lunch. Marcel had had a bit of an aperitif and told him that he’s just a clown, then he’s going to take a nap. Fernandel returns home and receives a letter. He said to himself: “Ah, my Marcel apologizes, that’s wonderful”. He opens the letter and there’s a cold shower. Marcel wrote to him: “I was on set, I told you, you are a big star, even if you have become a bad actor. And I wish this film a lot of success, even in the absence of talent”. The two men will remain angry for ten years.

How would you describe Marcel Pagnol, Vincent Fernandel?

Vincent Fernandel: Pagnol, when you come from the South, it’s something that is integrated from childhood, a bit like rugby in New Zealand for example.

“Marcel Pagnol is still the first in years without social networks who, thanks to cinema and literature, made Provence known to Europe and the whole world. is still extraordinary.”

Vincent Fernandel

at franceinfo

Nicolas, I would like us to talk about a person, your grandmother Jacqueline, about whom we talk very little. And yet she was the Manon of the sources original. Did she convey to you, precisely, the essential?

Nicolas Pagnol: Oh yes ! I have immense love for my grandmother. She of course told me a lot about my grandfather, but beyond that, she taught me to love him even though I didn’t know him. I met her through her two big blue eyes full of love for him and she gave me the flame. And when I was an assistant director, she told me: “Well, either you take over the family companies or we sell.” It took me a little time to think, but I said yes very quickly because she had passed the virus on to me. Every Sunday, I went to pick her up from her beautiful mansion on Avenue Foch where she lived with Marcel, nothing had changed, and like all kids, when I was 25, 30 years old, I went opening desk drawers to see what was inside. And as soon as I opened a box, a binder, I came across letters from Guitry, from René Clair, from Zanuck, from Korda. These were not old papers, they were the history of French, even world, cultural life. Part of this history, in any case, which was stored in the attic.

Just after Fernandel’s death, which occurred 50 years ago, Marcel Pagnol declared: “He was one of the greatest and most famous actors of our time, and can only be compared to Charlie Chaplin“. Pagnol unfortunately followed him three years later. Is this what we should remember about their links, their friendship?

“Marcel will immediately perceive in Fernandel this way that he had in his dramatic roles of touching the public. And Fernandel will be eternally grateful to him… to the point of anger!”

Nicolas Pagnol

at franceinfo

Nicolas Pagnol: They were two sacred monsters with two impossible characters, very different, but who found each other professionally. And it led to an incredible friendship because we must not forget either that when Pagnol gave the role of Saturnin in Angela in Fernandel, he is a comic trouper, a singer.

Vincent Fernandel: Yes, before meeting Pagnol, he was a music hall man who made a few films, but nothing remarkable.