It was to be Marcel Pagnol’s last film; like Mankiewicz, he did not make any movies (apart from a short) in the last twenty years of his life; probably busy writing his memoirs (“le Château De Ma Mère,La Gloire de Mon Père ” which were successfully tranfered to the screen by Yves Robert in the late eighties.).
Alphonse Daudet’s short stories were tailor made for a Provençal director such as Pagnol;if you go to Provence,you can visit the windmill where Daudet was supposed to write his “letters” ;actually he never lived in this place,but in the castle of some of his friends near the legendary mill.But it’s true that most of the stories which were included in “LETTRES DE MON MOULIN” are true stories: Daudet was told about Maitre Cornille ,MR Seguin’s goat and others by peasants and shepherds he used to meet when he walked across the hills.Read More »