César

César (1936) : Brief Review -

A sweet and fulfilling end to The First Ever and One of the Finest Trilogy of world Cinema. Cesar came after a gap of 4 years since Fanny and this was the only film in the Marseille Trilogy that was directed by writer Marcel Pagnol himself and wasn't adapted like earlier two films. One interesting thing i noticed about these 3 films is, these films are named after 3 characters but in the films the main focus is on other character. To elaborate a little, Marius (1931) was named after Marius but the film was more about Fanny's sacrifice. Next it was Fanny (1932) named after Fanny, but it was more about Cesar and Panisse and then came this film named after Cesar but it was more about Marius and his redemption. Cesar is about Fanny and Marius's son Césario who realises about his real father after the death of Panisse. The film is little longer unnecessarily where the first half doesn't really warm any things up. Then, the second half is all about emotional mess which makes couple of intelligent speeches on the family affairs. Like they said in the film, "Family Scene", actually the film ranks up there only. The character of Marius finally gets justice even though he doesn't clear the earlier mistake but the way he puts himself as a victim is nothing short of unexpected intellectual writing. Yes, the film could have been much better with sort of painful ending just like Marius had and that's why it became a Cult Classic, however, Cesar is a sweet send off to the trilogy with the mainstream idea of fulfilling the positive mindset of audience. Performance wise, Raimu outshines everyone despite less screen space, rest are fine. Pagnol's writing and direction both had minor faults but overall it was very good. In short, Cesar wraps up the trilogy nicely but with little more finesse it could have been a Classic.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest