In recent years, popular and respected French actor Daniel Auteuil (Queen Margot, Caché) has focused on adapting time-honored plays and scripts by the venerable Marcel Pagnol for the contemporary French cinema, starting with The Well-Digger's Daughter, a gem. His latest Pagnol-derived project is Marius and its sequel, Fanny; though released as separate films, they are an entirely intertwined diptych demanding to either be viewed together or at least in close temporal proximity. In early-20th-century Marseilles, Marius (Raphaël Personnaz) is an indecisive and intense youth employed in a pub by his grumpily brusque, but also doting father, César (Auteuil). In his own way, Marius is in love with childhood friend Fanny (Victoire Bélézy), but he also longs to see the world and for adventure on the high seas. The couple's shared story—the betrayals, the embraces, the twists and turns of fate—unfolds over the course of the two films. Presented by Auteuil in an old-fashioned and subdued, but entirely confident style, these are an absolute delight: well-acted, moving, picturesque, avowedly romantic, elegantly scored by the prolific Alexandre Desplat, and quietly haunting in their conjuring of old-world provincial France and its social mores. In the near future, Auteuil reportedly intends to round out his envisioned trilogy with a third and final chapter, César, and I very much hope he does.

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