At the end of 2017 the Grévin Museum in Salon-de-Provence closed for good and auctioned off 54 famous Provençal wax figures...Paul Cézanne, Marcel Pagnol, Fernandel, Mireille Mathieu... They have all been adopted and 3 of them have naturally joined the shores of Marseille's Vieux-Port at the Musée du Savon de la Savonnerie de la Licorne!
All the statues from the Musée Grévin de la Provence were snapped up at the auction, including the wax doubles of the museum's patrons, Jean-Pierre Foucault and Mireille Mathieu.
For Corinne Lambon, the director of the Musée Grévin in Salon, it was time to say goodbye to each of the effigies with a touch of emotion: " It's quite hard, but I know that they will be revived elsewhere, in another museum, a tourist office, a castle... I've seen to their restoration. she declared in the press.
Denis Gauthier, director of a museum in the Ardèche, bought Mireille Mathieu for a total of 25 figures. A retired enthusiast from the Vendée bought Fernandel for one of the highest sums of the sale. He also walked away with the poet Frédéric Mistral and Pope Clement VI.
As for the character of Manon des Sources, played by Emmanuelle Béart, the mythical Papet played by Yves Montand and finally Ugolin, memorable for the acting of Daniel Auteuil, all three have joined the Soap Museum from the Savonnerie de la Licorne, with a goat too!
The film Jean de Florette was written and directed by Claude Berri in 1986. It is an adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's book of the same name, itself based on the film the author made in 1952. Claude Berri's version will have a second part, Manon des sources. Critically acclaimed, the film won numerous awards, including the César for Best Actor for Daniel Auteuil for both films in 1987 and the BAFTA for Best Film in 1988.
To be discovered at Marseille Soap Museumevery day from 10am to 6pm.
Jean de Florette...the story
In the mid-1920s, in a small fictional village in Provence lost in the garrigue, Les Bastides Blanches, Ugolin returns from military service. This young peasant has a dream: to earn money by growing carnations. His uncle, César Soubeyran, known as "le Papet", is an old bachelor who will do anything to ensure that his nephew succeeds and marries, so that his name, of which Ugolin is the sole heir, can be passed on.
The success of these projects requires a spring on its land, an extremely valuable asset. The "Ferme des Romarins" would be perfect. Le Papet proposed to Marius Camoins, nicknamed Pique-Bouffigue, the owner of the farm, that he buy it. But the discussion turned sour and Pique-Bouffigue was knocked to the ground by Le Papet and died when he hit a stone on the head.
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In order to buy the farm and the land containing the spring for a modest price, Ugolin and Papet plug up the spring with cement. Without water, the place is worth very little. The farm seemed to be available, but the heir to the property arrived one day with his wife and daughter to look after it. His name is Jean Cadoret, he has a hunchback and comes "from the city" where he was a tax collector.
He is the son of a former resident of Les Bastides, Florette Camoins, sister of Pique-Bouffigue, whom Le Papet once knew well before she left to marry Lionel Cadoret, the blacksmith in the neighbouring village. An idealist, Jean's ambition is to lead the life of a prosperous farmer close to nature. Le Papet pushes Ugolin to cultivate the newcomer's friendship in order to make him fail, and manoeuvres to ensure that the village does not reveal to Jean de Florette the existence of the spring on its land that the two of them have blocked up.
After a while of worry, Jean de Florette is not doing so badly in his new life, but the drought and the scheming of the two Soubeyrans lead the hunchback to desperate attempts to find a spring that would allow him to cultivate his land and make a living from it. After mortgaging his property to Le Papet, and determined to build a well, Jean de Florette detonates dynamite on his land.
But carried away by his enthusiasm, he rushed towards the hole without waiting for the rock to settle. One of the stones hit him in the back and the hunchback died.
Le Papet and Ugolin become the owners of Les Romarins, and after pretending to look for the spring they finally unblock it. But what they don't realise is that little Manon has seen them before running off, in despair at the death of her father and what she believes to be bad luck.
