Some of the charming aspects of MY MOTHER’S CASTLE are the boyish Pagnol’s eleven-year-old pre-adolescent awkwardness as he recounts a submissive infatuation with a haughty “jeune fille” (Joris Molinas) as well as a tendency to be overcritical of his father. Indeed, the “castle” was a place set apart, a sanctuary, where the family was permitted to frolic in a manner not allowed in the city by the officious, civil-servant father.
In fact, to Pagnol, the “castle” was a life-giving spring, a font where the family regenerated and renewed its closeness.
Typical of most long-ago remembrances, no doubt MY MOTHER’S CASTLE tends to be somewhat exaggerated thus, the “castle” turns out to be a modest summer house filled with the essentials of life for a sensitive young boy. The focus here is on the pre-teenage Marcel and his relationship with his mother, Augustine. MY MOTHER’S CASTLE is a continuation of MY FATHER’S GLORY and the second part of popular French author Pagnol’s memoirs.
“The beloved shadows of the past,” is the way author Marcel Pagnol fondly remembers the delightful holidays spent with his family in the hills of Provence, in turn-of-the-century southern France.
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