Fifteen years have passed since Sylvain Chomet gave film lovers something to watch but thankfully, he’s back. This time around, he gives us A Magnificent Life, a biopic of writer Marcel Pagnol (Matthew Gravelle’s voice). Marcel is rethinking his life after a visit from Helene Lazareff (Flora Montgomery, who, like everyone, plays other various roles). He remembers back in the 1920s, when he was slumming it, following in his father’s footsteps as a Latin teacher (he also taught English).

Moving to Paris, Marcel was so ‘country’ that he didn’t know that Gare du Lyon was actually in Paris. Paris becomes a second home to him but his first home of Marseilles beckons for valid representation. He listens to those voices and he hires regional actors like Raimu (Jonathan Keeble), Fernandel (Celyn Jones), and Orane Demazis, his wife (Jess Nesling) in his plays and eventually, his films. The film, then, follows his life from the 1920s to the 1940s, after the liberation of France.

Being a biopic, Chomet’s new film has its share of narrative devices who follow Marcel around, one of them being a younger version of himself (Claire Morgan), serving both as a bully and guardian angel. We all need a younger version of ourselves calling us flops and expecting us to do better. The other is his mother Augustine (Lu Corfield), a loving figure telling him to never forget the place where he’s from. Sure, those figures may feel heavy handed to some but their influence feels like osmosis sometimes. Viewers can see that influence during the film’s straightforward moments like Marcel watching Raimu for the first time. And of course I am going to bring up that A Magnificent Life shows Raimu’s drag beginnings.

Marcel Pagnol may be a famous figure for French people or Francophiles but he’s a stranger to Anglophiles. As much as viewers may tire of biopics, A Magnificent Life is different because Pagnol’s a deep cut. My personal knowledge of him is through Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring from Criterion. There is the assumption that rural Marseilles is always his thing and is something all of France accepted. The film, then, clarifies how different tastes were back then. As I write this, the film is smart enough not to vilify Paris and its citizens, showing the city as magical. Parisian windows here light up the same way it did for The Illusionist and I can’t help but like these visuals.

Some critics accuse A Magnificent Life of hitting the biopic beats instead of innovating within the genre. Those criticisms are fair, and yes, the story seems familiar, but it captures the echoes of history. Artists everywhere living at any time have the same struggles as Marcel and more so because of WWII. If anything, the third act, depicting his struggles against the Vichy puppet government makes him more relatable. White supremacists were bullying artists then and their twenty-first century equivalents are doing something similar right now. Despite the pressures that Marcel’s generation faced, they didn’t give in, fought back and kicked them out successfully. A new generation can learn from this film, and it teaches its viewers without being too didactic. Also there’s a 67 joke in this movie that I hope is accidental.

Film lovers can watch A Magnificent Life in select Canadian theatres.