My Mother's Castle
Longing to return to the hills he grew to love during a magical summer holiday, 11-year-old Marcel (Julien Ciamaca) finds happiness once again when his father, Joseph (Philippe Caubère), is provided access to a private footpath they can use to easily travel from Marseilles to Provence. Years later as an adult, Marcel purchases a castle and realizes it is the same estate his adoring mother Augustine (Nathalie Roussel) was always terrified to cross along their journey.
Based on the bestselling memoirs of French novelist, playwright and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol (the acclaimed author of Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring), MY MOTHER'S CASTLE is a “carefully boisterous” and “tastefully joyous” (Los Angeles Times) continuation of the story of Pagnol's youth as recounted in the Yves Robert classic MY FATHER'S GLORY.
Cast
- Philippe Caubère
- Nathalie Roussel
- Didier Pain
- Thérèse Liotard
- Julien Ciamaca
- "And now here we are back again in the hills of Provence, in the second of two remarkable memory-films based on the childhood of the great French writer Marcel Pagnol. It is likely that no one, not even Pagnol, had a childhood quite this perfect, and yet all happy childhoods grow happier in memory, and it is the nature of film that we can share some of Pagnol's happiness."
- "Whatever the interval that separates one's viewing of "My Father's Glory" from that of the equally enchanting "My Mother's Castle," it is only an intermission. This second film, like the first, is raised to the heights of voyeuristic pleasure by countless family feasts, happy occasions, warm smiles and intoxicating memories. "My Mother's Castle," a film that is all banquets and bouquets, concentrates as fully on life's smaller joys as on its larger ones, and does so with the kind of panache that has already charmed much of France. "
- "My Mother's Castle maintains an enchantment that paints across its canvas with lyrical watercolor swirls. "
- "Robert catches the book’s reverie, its wistful tenderness. "
- "A sheer delight."
Awards & Recognition
Best Film
Seattle Int'l. Film Festival
Best Foreign Language Film
Chicago Film Critics Assoc. Awards
Best Supporting Actress
César Awards
Best Music
César Awards
Best Costume Design
César Awards
Most Promising Actor
César Awards