Based on Marcel Pagnol's third book in his series of autobiographical novels, Le Temps des secrets, which was published in 1959.
Marcel Pagnol (February 28, 1895 - April 18, 1974) was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française. Although his work is less fashionable than it once was, Pagnol is still generally regarded as one of France's greatest 20th-century writers and is notable for the fact that he excelled in almost every medium - memoir, novel, drama and film.
In 1945, Pagnol remarried, to Jacqueline Bouvier (the actress Jacqueline Pagnol). They had two children together; their second child, Estelle, died at the age of two. Pagnol was so devastated that he fled the south and returned to live in Paris. He went back to writing plays, but after his next piece was badly received he decided to change his job once more and began writing a series of autobiographical novels -Souvenirs d'enfance -based on his childhood experiences.
In 1957, the first two novels in the series, La Gloire de mon père and Le château de ma mère were published to instant acclaim. The third Le Temps des secrets was published in 1959, the fourth Le Temps des Amours was to remain unfinished and was not published until 1977, after his death.
In 1945, Pagnol remarried, to Jacqueline Bouvier (the actress Jacqueline Pagnol). They had two children together; their second child, Estelle, died at the age of two. Pagnol was so devastated that he fled the south and returned to live in Paris. He went back to writing plays, but after his next piece was badly received he decided to change his job once more and began writing a series of autobiographical novels -Souvenirs d'enfance -based on his childhood experiences.
In 1957, the first two novels in the series, La Gloire de mon père and Le château de ma mère were published to instant acclaim. The third Le Temps des secrets was published in 1959, the fourth Le Temps des Amours was to remain unfinished and was not published until 1977, after his death.
Young Marcel is seen ascending in the Notre Dame funicular or incline elevator, which has long since been demolished but the colonial-style departure station was surrounded by a garden and a parking lot where cars and omnibuses (on horseback) could park. The funicular consisted of two cabins each weighing 13 tons when empty, circulating on parallel cogged tracks. The movement was powered by a "hydraulic balance" system: each cabin, in addition to its two floors capable of holding 50 passengers total, was equipped with a 12 cubic meter tank of water. The cabins were linked by a cable; the tank of the descending cabin was filled with water and that of the ascending cabin emptied. This ballasting started the system moving. The vertical distance between the two stations was 276 ft. The advent of the automobile killed the funicular. In 1967, the funicular was shut down as unprofitable. It was demolished after having transported 20 million passengers over 75 years.