Topaze

Marcel Pagnol anniversary & introduction by Pasquale Iannone

Albert Topaze, a serious schoolteacher addicted to “rote” morality, works at a private school run by supremely money-grubbing M. Muche, whose daughter, also a teacher, makes cynical use of the knowledge that Topaze loves her. Alas, Topaze’s naive honesty brings him unjust dismissal…and makes him fair game for the “aunt” of his private pupil, really the mistress of crooked politician Régis, who needs an honest-seeming “front man.” Can artful Suzy Courtois keep Topaze on a string? With steadily escalating disillusion comes moral crisis…

This was Pagnol’s second attempt at putting on the screen his 1928 stage hit. Schoolmaster Topaze clings to his sense of right and wrong, despite being exploited at work and then tricked into becoming the front for a crooked businessman. Finally seeing himself as others do – a dupe and a dope – he changes character, seizes control and takes revenge on bullies past and present.

“Pagnol exposes the pliability of the human conscience…” New York Times