My Father's Glory Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

My Father's Glory Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 18, 2023

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Film Movement's Marcel Pagnol: 2-Film Collection.

Marcel Pagnol's name is rather strangely largely unknown or at least unremembered these days, though the fact that the back cover of Film Movement's "double feature" release of two films based on Pagnol's writings mentions Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring may help to spark some recognition. I'd personally also add in other Pagnol based efforts such as Fanny and the much earlier Marius, Fanny and César that tell more or less the same story as the Joshua Logan "non musical film version of a stage musical". It's salient to note that Pagnol was a filmmaker himself as well as being a writer, and in fact César was one of his directorial efforts, but in terms of his writing, Pagnol had a unique ability to capture both a specific time and place, setting many of his pieces in a general timeframe of the late 19th to early 20th centuries, and with at least an occasional emphasis on rustic rural types. The rural element is very much in play in both My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle even if the socioeconomic side of things might suggest a considerably more middle class existence. Neither of these films is long on melodrama, which is actually one of the more refreshing things about both of them, but they're both unbelievably evocative and heartfelt, and they have the added benefit of providing a virtual travelogue of some of France's most stunningly beautiful locations.

Pagnol offered what have been described as "poetic versions" of his childhood in both 1957's La Gloire de mon père and Le Château de ma mère, which were themselves just the first two installments in a quadrilogy that was in fact unfinished at the time of Pagnol's death in 1974, with Le Temps des secrets arriving in 1960 and the final "chapter", Le Temps des amours, relegated to a post mortem publication in 1977. Pagnol might be charitably accused of viewing his childhood through veritable rose colored glasses, and anyone looking for any more "family drama" than two squabbling brothers-in-law had best keep looking, as neither this film nor its follow offer much of anything in that regard. To which, again, I offer a hearty huzzah.

Instead, this is a vignette driven story of little Marcel (played by Julien Ciamaca and Benoît Martin at different ages) growing up under the semi-watchful eye of his teacher father Joseph (Philippe Caubère) and doting mother Augustine (Nathalie Roussel). What seems to finally be building to some kind of near tragic conclusion involving Joseph learning to hunt once he's a certified "country gentleman" and an unwise decision on the part of Marcel to secretly tag along actually ends up being another relatively inconsequential "slice of life". The film may be short, or in fact absent, any overarching "conflict", but it's a quiet and I'd argue rather wise depiction of a sweet child's eye view of early 20th century life in an isolated French countryside, and I found it perfectly charming if admittedly "uneventful" in the traditional sense.

My Father's Glory Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

My Father's Glory is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Film Movement with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Film Movement tends not to have a ton of technical information included with their releases, and once again the insert booklet offers only a brief "new 4K restorations" as a data point. This is an often ravishing looking presentation, though both this film and its follow up can have a just slightly jaundiced looking timing on occasion. That said, both this film and My Mother's Castle offer a nicely robust palette and none of the gamma and/or luma oddities that I've noted in some of Film Movement's releases of Asian productions in particular. There are certainly some noticeable ebbs and flows of both clarity and grain structure, but the overall impression left by this transfer is one of considerable organic qualities combined with a nicely suffused palette and generally excellent fine detail levels.

My Father's Glory Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

My Father's Glory features a nicely expressive LPCM 2.0 track in the original French. Both of the films in this set offer abundant use of outdoor locations, where ambient environmental sounds help to establish the scene, but both also benefit from the incredibly lush scoring offered by Vladimir Cosma, which sounds full bodied and problem free throughout the track. Dialogue (including some narration) is always rendered cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.

My Father's Glory Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Question of Tribe (HD; 36:01) features Jean-Denis Robert, son of Yves Robert, along with Martin Drescher and Robert Alazraki discussing Yves and the film. In French with English subtitles.


• My Father's Glory Trailer (HD; 1:40)

As with most Film Movement releases, the disc also offers an About Film Movement option on the Main Menu which leads to text about and a trailer for Film Movement.

My Father's Glory Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're as sick as I am of cookie cutter entertainments, or perhaps even more troubled by the endless onslaught of portrayals of families in the throes of some kind of major dysfunction, My Father's Glory will be an appropriate palate cleanser. To quote a certain famous sitcom, this is a film "about nothing" more or less, other than the vagaries of day to day existence for a little boy in rural France. Technical merits are solid and the main supplement very appealing. Recommended.