Fantastic!

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Joshua Logan's film of "Fanny" began life as Marcel Pagnol's Marseilles Trilogy, (Fanny, Marius and Cesar, the three films that made up that trilogy), later condensed to a Broadway musical which Logan directed. This film version arrived in 1961, keeping the musical's structure but minus the (not particularly memorable) songs and it's a sentimental triumph. It's set in Marseilles and tells the story of Fanny, the 18 year old daughter of a fish-seller, Marius, the boy she loves, Cesar, Marius' father and Panisse, the old sail-maker who marries Fanny to give her illegitimate child by Marius, a name after Marius has gone off to sea, unaware that he is to be a father.For this version Logan was canny enough to cast Charles Boyer as Cesar, Maurice Chevallier as Panisse and Leslie Caron as Fanny and a largely French supporting cast. The German-born Horst Buchholz is Marius and although he never sounds French, for once he doesn't disgrace himself. However, Caron, Boyer and especially Chevallier are outstanding. Boyer picked up an Oscar nomination for Best Actor though personally I think it should have gone to a hardly ever better Chevallier. Caron, too, was unlucky enough to miss out on a Best Actress nomination although the film was nominated for Best Picture.I've always felt Logan was among the most underrated of great American directors, (Truffaut was a big fan). He worked largely in musicals and melodramas but never achieved the critical adulation heaped on Minnelli; not that he was ever in Minnelli's class. Still, he produced some sterling work, if no actual masterpieces. "Fanny", long unseen, is definitely one of his best films.

I have been reading all these raves about this movie which I just saw on TMC this morning, 11/4/10, and thought I would write my thoughts. Certainly felt there was an overuse-age of the same song over and over again. I kept asking myself could not the composer think of another? What was with all the close ups? We can see a person's expression without a head shot filling the screen. Leslie Caron wasn't dancing with Gene Kelley and Horst Buchholz wasn't following the other '6" in the Magnificent 7. I liked him better in that movie than this one. There was the 2 older actors, Charles Boyer and Chevalier who I suppose were passing the reins onto the younger generation they were pleasant enough but the reins never passed as both of the actors never did much after this movie, unless you liked Father Goose or How the West was Won.Bottom line is its about a small village, a teenage one night stand that turns into a nightmare when she finds out she is pregnant. Basically after she let's him follow his dream, her mother, his father and the local rich man keep the 'secret' by a quick marriage and a 'pre-mature' birthing which made the rich man's family very happy. Of course you could not get away with that nowadays, someone would be screaming for a DNA testing. It's really just a soap opera in Technicolor, why an R rating? I have no clue, it should have been a PG-13. There was no bad language, no violence, no nudity and sex was mildly implied compared to today's standards. The only thing I could think of is it gives the impression that if a girl gets pregnant and her boyfriend heads out she can still get support for her child without government getting involved. Actually, I like that idea but it only happens in the movies so don't try this at home.

You can tell that the story of "Fanny" was written by a man because the female title character is there for no other reason than to serve the needs of all the men around her, while remaining emotionally faithful to a man who doesn't deserve her devotion.Fanny is a young girl, living in a fishing village. Her only friends are old men, one of whom, a very recently-widowed Panisse, is relentlessly courting her. Fanny has been in love with Marius, the son of the local bar-owner, since they were children, but apparently Marius is oblivious to her feelings.Marius longs to go to sea and the morning after Fanny finally professes her love for him -- and they spend the night together -- he leaves, but only after Fanny tells him she doesn't mind that he leaves her.When Fanny finds out that she is with child her mother suggests that she accept Panisse's proposal of marriage to avoid scandal and disgrace, and when Panisse finds out about the baby he is overjoyed that he will finally have a son and his family's name will continue. Fanny is happy that her baby will have a father, even if she doesn't love the man she will marry.Marius comes back on the baby's first birthday and demands to have his son but Panisse is adamant that he is the baby's father because of all the love he has given the boy. The debate between the natural father and the adoptive father continues while the mother, Fanny, remains quietly in the background. She eventually opens her mouth, but only to tell Marius that she still dreams of being with him.Several years later the boy, Cesario, becomes curious about this man Marius, the mere mention of whose name creates all kinds of discomfort among everyone. Cesario tells his parents that he would love to go to sea like Marius did. By chance he ends up meeting Marius, who has been living just a few miles away all this time, yet never let anyone know where he was.Panisse is on the verge of death and with his last bit of strength dictates a letter to Marius, asking him to marry Fanny and take care of his son when he is gone, and Fanny is happy that she will finally be allowed to be with the man she always loved.Fanny is used by every man she encounters. Marius loves her but he takes advantage of her knowing full well that he will be leaving her a few hours later. When he goes to sea he never writes to her, and when she confronts him with this fact a year later he tells her he wrote letters but tore them up and then gets angry with her for not being the one to write to him. She tells him that she was trying to be noble in telling him it was okay for him to leave, but that she secretly thought he would turn around and come back to her. He doesn't apologize for not realizing what she did -- indeed he has no answer for her at all -- yet it doesn't change her feelings for him.At first glance Panisse seems to be the answer to Fanny's dilemma, but he is more concerned with his own reputation and business than her feelings, and on his death bed he confesses that he had affairs with his employees rather than bother his wife in bed. He is devoted to his son yet seems to all but ignore the woman who gave him that son. Yes, he has given her a fine life, full of big houses and nice clothes, but we get the impression she is nothing more than his son's caretaker.Even Fanny's son, Cesario, gives a hint that he will be no more considerate of his mother than any other man has been. He has apparently inherited his natural father's wanderlust, and we are left to believe that one day soon he too will abandon her.Yet Fanny remains true to all these men. Even after ten years of being ignored by Marius, she is still, amazingly, emotionally devoted to him. Even after being married to Panisse for ten years she never questions why he has never been bothered by the lack of physical intimacy between them or where else he might be finding sexual solace.Believe me, only a man would think that a woman would behave like this.Other than the male fantasy aspect of this film I was distracted by the score. Never having seen the stage play, I kept expecting someone to break out in song as the music swelled in the background and was slightly disappointed when they didn't. Perhaps if it had been a musical instead of a straight drama I might have been able to overlook how unbelievable the story was.The film deals with the rather shocking (at the time) problem of an unwed mother, yet even in that regard the woman's feelings about it are glossed-over and dismissed by the men around her. They use her problem as their solution; she's not even allowed to choose a name for her own child!Leslie Caron was lovely, but did we really need that many Vaseline-smeared close-ups of her face? Horst Buchholz was appropriately brooding as Marius but the best part of the movie, for me, was the interaction between Maurice Chevalier and Charles Boyer; you could tell these were two characters who had been friends for many, many years and loved each other, even as they were constantly bickering and arguing.I'm glad I finally got to see this film since it is a classic, but once is enough for me.

This story of a young Frenchman, Marius, who makes an anguished decision to pursue his personal passion for sailing the open seas at the expense of foregoing the love of the beautiful Fanny (Leslie Caron) would have played well as a straight drama, but it is undermined by scenes hardly worthy of a situation comedy. This is unfortunate since there are quality actors on board and some truly dramatic scenes.Consider the game that the older folks play while sitting outside Marius' father's bar. They set out a large rock and cover it with a hat and wait for passersby to kick it. For one thing I don't think it is a normal reaction to want to kick a hat that is sitting alone on a busy sidewalk. Secondly, serious injury could result if someone were so inclined to kick it. The poor priest who took the bait is seen limping off after his experience - I felt sorry for him and irritated with the perpetrators who found this so humorous. It is astonishing how many things are wrong with that scene, but the main problem is that it sets an inappropriate tone for what is to come. This low tone is continued in the scene where the seventy-year-old Maurice Chevallier puts the moves on the young Caron provoking a melodramatic response of jealousy in Marius - that scene indeed could come right out of a situation comedy, as could so many others. In spite of the significant themes that are to come we get the feeling that nothing serious is really going on here.We very quickly arrive at the crucial scene where Marius decides to sign on to a seagoing scientific ship for a five year tour. This just after he and Fanny have consummated their love on the previous night. This key scene is poorly motivated - we have little appreciation for Marius' passion for the sea and a minimal understanding of the relationship between Marius and Fanny. There might as well just have been a voice-over saying that Marius loved both the sea and Fanny.There are many plot inconsistencies. In one of the final scenes Marius is called on an emergency mission while at work as a grease monkey. He arrives dressed in a suit.Meaningful themes are dealt with such as the relationships between parents and children, conflicting desires, difficult decisions, pragmatism versus passion, friendship, failure to communicate, and sacrifice. Great material whose potential is only occasionally realized.The filming is quite beautiful. There is one scene that lingers in the mind that has the young lovers embracing in an alleyway lighted by an amber street-lamp. The Marseille setting is used to great effect and probably has accounted for some increased tourism.Leslie Caron alone makes this worth the time and it *is* fun to see Charles Boyer and Maurice Chevalier play off each other. Horst Bucholz was a handsome young man - quite a shock to see him thirty-six years later in "Life is Beautiful." No one escapes the effects of aging.