FANNY

US, 1960, 133 minutes, Colour.
Charles Boyer, Maurice Chevalier, Leslie Caron, Horst Buchholz, Lionel Jeffries.
Directed by Joshua Logan.

Fanny is a lavish production by Joshua Logan. Logan, a Broadway director, had brought to the screen Picnic, South Pacific - and was to make such films as Camelot and Paint Your Wagon.

The screenplay is by Julius J. Epstein (screenwriter for over 40 years) with credits ranging from Casablanca to Reuben, Reuben) and was based on a play by S.N. Behrman and Logan himself. The origin of the play was the famous Marseille Trilogy, filmed by Marcel Pagnol in the '30s with French actor Raimu: Fanny, Marius, Cesar.

The film has an interesting international cast with Leslie Caron as Fanny, Horst Buchholz as Marius and Charles Boyer as Cesar. There is a sympathetic performance by Maurice Chevalier as Panisse.

The film is set on the Marseilles waterfront. It shows the fortunes of Cesar and his daughter Fanny, the seafaring Marius and old Panisse and his devotion to Fanny. The result is a big-budget film with plenty of colour - but, perhaps, not so much of the dramatic intensity of the original. The colour photography by Jack Cardiff enhances the stylish presentation of characters and story.

1. Colourful and lavish entertainment? in the 1930s?

2. A romantic picture of Marseilles? Colour photography, the panoramas of Marseilles and the sea? Cesar's bar? Panisse's home? An atmosphere of Marseilles? The musical score?

3. The title's focus on Fanny? Leslie Caron and her charm? Her place in Marseilles? her relationship with her mother? Her family? Her devotion to Marius? His wanting to sail away? leaving, her pregnancy? Her relationship with Cesar? The friendship with Panisse? Panisse and his devotion, his proposal to her? Her decision to marry him? the birth of the child? Panisse's happiness? Pannise longing for Marius's return? The long absence? His return? Panisse and his death? her being reunited with Marius? Fanny and her charm, her love, her devotion?

4. Charles Boyer's style as Cesar? The father figure, the bar, playing cards with his friends, drinks? His wanting to influence his son? His inability to do so? Marius's sailing away? Cesar's concern about Fanny? Friendship with Panisse? Marius's return? The family reunited?

5. Horst Buchholz's Germanic style as Marius? In Marseilles? relationship with his father? His love for and desire for the sea? his dreams? His departure, the long years away? Their effect? His disillusionment with his dream? Discovering Panisse and the child? Reunited with Fanny?

6. Maurice Chevalier as Panisse, his genial manner and style? Friendship with Cesar? His shop, his desire to see a son taking over the shop? His courting of Fanny? Her decision to marry? His awareness of her love for Marius? The child? The happy years with her? Marius's return? His illness and dying? The deathbed confession and the humour? His bequeathing Fanny and the child to Marius?

7. The characters around Marseilles, the port? Cesar's friends, and their playing cards? Their observations on life? Influencing one another? Concern about Fanny?

8. The pathos of the story? The intimate drama of family and friends? How did this mesh with the long and colourfully lavish treatment?