Fanny is directed and adapted by renowned French actor Daniel Auteuil from Marcel Pagnol's classic Marseilles trilogy. Daniel Auteuil made his international career in the mid-1980s with roles in the highly-successful adaptations of Marcel Pagnol's Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources. Now he has undertaken a remake of Pagnol's Marseilles Trilogy, which begins with Marius and continues in Fanny. Picking up the story where Marius left off, Fanny finds herself pregnant and abandoned by Marius who is sailing the seven seas. She is persuaded to accept the romantic advances of an older, kind-hearted and rich widower. Only a figure of Auteuil's stature could have managed the task of bringing this French national treasure back to the big screen; he contributes colour, lush production values and a degree of faithfulness to the much hallowed 1930s film adaptations, as well as his own performance in the role of César, Marius' dockside bar-owning father.

Chapters 10

Audio comes in the Dolby options of a 5.1 surround or 2.0 channel stereo - both in original French. The film is mostly dialogue-driven with few, if any, demonstrative effects. The score is by Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, The Ghost Writer, The King's Speech). Unfortunately, the English subtitles are burned-in and the only extra is a trailer.

Fanny is wonderful. The continuation from Marius maintains the same charisma and warmth. I have not seen Marc Allégret's 1932 film version to compare (however, I have seen Joshua Logan's, adapted from the Broadway musical, adaption), but like Marius I could appreciate the subtleties. I could now bond closer with the characters already introduced in part 1.