Jacqueline Pagnol (née Bouvier), wife of Marcel Pagnol, was the first Manon des sources in the eponymous film released in 1952. However, four years later, she stopped her career and moved away from cinema. She explained it several years ago.
Jacqueline Pagnol is Manon des sources
Almost 70 years ago to the day, Manon of the sources (and Ugolin) by Marcel Pagnol was released in theaters. An original story, which he will adapt eleven years later into a romantic diptych (Water from the hills).
The film takes place in a small village in Provence, near Aubagne In the 1920’s. Manon, a beautiful shepherdess living apart from the inhabitants, decides to avenge the death of her father by diverting the source which supplies the village with drinking water. The main role of the film was held by Jacqueline Pagnol, muse and wife of Marcel Pagnol.
In 1986, Claude Berri made a remake of the film with Emmanuelle Béart in the title role, alongside Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil.
Why did Jacqueline Pagnol stop her acting career?
Born October 6, 1920 (and died August 22, 2016), Jacqueline Pagnol (née Bouvier) began her acting career in 1942 in the film The House of the Seven Maidens by Albert Valentin. Three years latershe holds the title role of Nais of Marcel Pagnol (and becomes his wife). She will play under the direction of her husband four times. He will say of her that she was his “bit of poetry and tenderness”.
But four years after the release of Manon of the sources, Jacqueline Pagnol stops her career. Why ? She explained it to the microphone of Yves Calvi on France Inter A few years ago. Thus, to the question “why did you stop the cinema?” she replied:
Because it worried me to play, and to leave Marcel, who was so funny, to go and play at the theater with people who didn’t really interest me very much. I preferred to stay with him, in his wake. In this atmosphere that was much more intelligent and lively and true, rather than my personal little vanity. I preferred my life with him, with my family, my children. It was all much more interesting. It was real, it was true. I have no regrets.
Thus, after the death of her husband in 1974, Jacqueline Pagnol devoted the rest of her life to promoting her work, until his death in 2016. She now rests alongside Marcel Pagnol in the cemetery of La Treille, in Marseille.
