Marius

Marius loves Fanny – but he’s infatuated even more with dreams of the sea. When Honoré, a widower of wealth and respect, proposes to Fanny, Marius knows that decisions have to be made. An instant classic of regionally rooted realist French cinema.

Marius dreams of adventures on shores beyond the seas he sees from the bar on Marseille’s waterfront owned by his father, César. This is Marius’ destiny. But there’s also his childhood sweetheart and undeclared love, Fanny, selling cockles at her little stall just in front of the bar, day in, day out. Never could Marius reveal the depth of his feelings to Fanny, for he doesn’t want her to end up a sailor’s wife: always waiting, always worried.

When César’s old friend Honoré, a widower of some wealth and respect, proposes to Fanny, Marius knows that decisions have to be made – and that the moment for dreaming and yearning is over… Marius became an instant axiom of French cinema – a paragonal example for a whole idea(l) of regionally rooted realism. That it was made by a Hungarian, who till then had mainly worked in German- and English-language cinemas, says a lot about the era’s cosmopolitan mindset, as well as the production’s international designs. A true gem!

– Olaf Möller

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