Bar of the Navy

It is about the bar in which take place the majority of the scenes of the Marseilles Trilogie of Marcel Pagnol. It is in this bar that the famous part of manille will be disputed or César and Escartefigue play against Mr. Brun and Panisse ( “You split me the heart! ” ).

The imaginary Bar

The “Bar of the Navy” is before a whole imaginary place created with decorations on the scene of the Théâtre of Paris in March 1929 for the part Marius. Pagnol thus describes it in the preamble to the act first:

“interior of a small bar, on the Old man-Port, in Marseilles. On the right, the counter. Behind the counter, on racks, bottles of all the forms, decorated bigarées labels. Two large nickelled percolators. On the left, along the wall, a bench of moleskine which stops with one meter of curtain to leave the place to a closed door. Rectangular marble tables, chairs. On the right counter a spiral staircase leads on the first floor. At the bottom, all the glazed doors were removed, because heat. There are several tables on the pavement, under a tent in hood. It is guessed that this species of terrace extends enough far from each side from the bar. In the medium, just at the edge of the pavement, draws up a éventaire where shells are sold. It is seen back. It is painted in Plus green far that the éventaire, at the bottom, an accumulation of goods. Cases which carry in large letters of the names of cities: Bangkok, Batavia, Sydney. Barrels of iron, and on the line, a groundnut mountain, under a bright sun. Lastly, with the top of the goods, one sees masts which are balanced. ”

Transposed to the cinema, under the direction of Alexander Korda, the interior of the Bar of the Navy appears reversed. The counter is now on the left, the bench on the right.

This Bar has you it existed?

At the same time, there existed really a “Bar of the Navy” in the district of the Panier (which is thus not that of today), without it being known if Pagnol attached memories to it. It was dynamited besides by the German army a few years later.

It is however in this district, close to the church of Accoules, that the imaginary Bar was supposed to be, since the scenario on several occasions mentions “the place of Lenche, behind the bar. ”

However, in films of the trilogy, whereas the majority of the interior scenes were turned in the studios of Joinville, it seems the external scenes were turned about to the site of current Bar of the Navy, on the Old man-Port, i.e. on the left of the Place to Oils, when one looks at the port since the door of the coffee. This assumption is based on the angle formed between the door of the Bar and the landing stage of the " fériboite" , angle which one on several occasions sees in film.

On the chart, the site of the Bar of film would be thus in the D5 box, with the limit with C5, about under the V of the word " rive" new Bank Quay.

The filmed scenes showing the Bar of outside locate it on the left framed by a store of articles of fishing and, on the right of the éventaire of Fanny, by a bar with the angle of a street where the store of Panisse is.

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