Dallas Film Now.

Sylvain Chomet’s latest animated film follows the life of Marcel Pagnol, French playwright and filmmaker. 

His films are few and far between. Yet each reflects the handcrafted care and deep personal interest in bygone ages that marked his breakout hit The Triplets of Belleville more than 20 years ago.

In A Magnificent Life, writer/director/storyboard artist Sylvain Chomet relates the fascinating story of Marcel Pagnol, who began as a schoolteacher in Marseilles, France, before moving to Paris and becoming a playwright in the mid-1920s. After enjoying some success as a playwright, his artistic soul yearned for another challenge. 

Reading about a sound film in the late 1920s, he traveled to London to see the movie and became convinced that cinema would be an exciting medium to explore. After adapting his hit play Marius for up-and-coming Alexander Korda to direct, Marcel Pagnol soon began making his own films, becoming a pioneer in French cinema. 

The biographical structure is certainly familiar. What elevates A Magnificent Life beyond a routine bio-pic is that Sylvain Chomet intersperses fantastical imagery throughout the picture. It’s structured as an extended flashback; Chomet has been offered an article series by Elle Magazine to tell his life story, and so his artistic imagination inevitably commingles memories with imagery that reflects what he was feeling and thinking throughout his life. 

Long before he was a schoolteacher, Marcel Pagnol was a dreamer. To capture some of what he dreamed up, he wrote stories, stories that became plays, plays that became films, and, later, novels that became films, perhaps most notably in Claude Berri’s two-film adaptation, Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring, the latter of which was my introduction to Pagnol’s work. (More information on his films is available to watch on The Criterion Channel.) 

Watching A Magnificent Life is a magical experience, in that it brings history to life through Sylvain Chomet’s hand-drawn 2D animation style, which feels old-timey yet is immediately fresh in its vibrant colors. It’s the kind of film that may appeal more to ‘viewers of a certain age,’ what with its device of telling the story through the eyes of “an old man” — who was all of 60! — and its measured pace. 

That pace is akin to walking through a museum rather than running. It slowly envelops the viewer, creates a nostalgic mood, and then develops into a firm rebuke to anyone who thinks that creativity dies after a certain age. 

In brief, A Magnificent Life is highly recommended, both for those who are highly-caffeinated morning people and those of who prefer an afternoon cup of tea. 

The film opens Friday, March 27, only in movie theaters, via Sony Pictures Classics.  For more information about the film, visit the official site.