Brett Bowles to Speak at "Passion Pagnol"

French conference on filmmaker Marcel Pagnol this month

Posted: Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Associate Professor of French Brett Bowles is an invited speaker at the Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen’s colloquium “Passion Pagnol” January 27-28, 2012 in Nice, France. Bowles, who has just published a monograph on Marcel Pagnol with Manchester University Press, will join other scholars of Pagnol’s written and cinematographic work in round-table discussions on Pagnol’s various spheres of influence, as well as his depiction of southern French (Provençale) culture.

Playwright, screenwriter, film director, and novelist Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974) was the first French filmmaker to be inducted into the esteemed Académie Française. His films include Regain (Harvest, 1937), Topaze (1951), and Manon des Sources (Manon of the Spring, 1952, remade based on his screenplay in 1986). He is also known for his novels that were later made into successful films, such as Le Château de ma mère (My Mother’s Castle) and La Gloire de mon père (My Father’s Glory), both written in 1957 and released as films in 1990.

Professor Bowles joined the Department of French and Italian in Fall 2011 after several years as Associate Professor at the University of Albany (SUNY). He has published numerous articles and book chapters on French cinema, focusing on cinema and society during World War II and shortly thereafter. He is co-editor of the journal Modern and Contemporary France, associate editor of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, and he serves on the editorial boards of French Historical Studies and French History.

Bowles is looking forward to participating in this, fourth annual literary colloquium presented by the CUM. The event will be presided over by Pagnol’s grandson Nicolas Pagnol, and will be enhanced by a festival of Pagnol’s films at the Cinémathèque de Nice.

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