This line will soon be 100 years old, but it still works just as well to shut anyone up.

An artist with many hats, at the same time a writer, playwright and film director, Marcel Pagnol is above all a sculptor of words, a goldsmith of the French language, which he skillfully knew how to carve to express all the beauty of the mountains. which shook his childhood, all the despair of Jean de Floret, all the fan’s love for Marius.

At the beginning of the 1930s, when his texts gradually made their way to theater boards and then to film productions, Pagnoli gradually turned into a writer of cinema dialogues, lending his words to virtuosos such as Pierre Fresne, Fernand Charpin or Raimoux.

• You’ve probably already brought this line up with your friends! Voiced 22 years ago by Gérard Darmont, this is one of the best missions in Cléopâtre.

Pagnoli, author of the ingenious dialogue

The headliner of the play Marius In 1929, and then its film adaptation two years later, it’s the same Raimu who expertly delivers the line we’re going to talk about today. This irresistible punchline, delivered by Caesar after a minor argument with his son, is soon to be a century old and hasn’t aged a bit.

Marcel Pagnoli’s film is 23 minutes and 17 seconds long.

César, the owner of the Bar de la Marine in Marseille, is preparing to go on a romantic date that he wants to be as discreet as possible. Warmed up by the clairvoyant insinuations of Mr. Bruni, one of his most loyal customers, he is completely exasperated when his son Marius has trouble remembering his instructions for a new order of bottles.

With a smile on his lips, as if irritated by the touch, Caesar gives the famous answer before leaving:

“When we make idiots dance, you won’t be in the orchestra.”

Simple, colorful, influential, this little sentence contains all the talent of its author, whose efficiency and humor nothing could envy Michel Audiard. Whether it’s the perfect line to silence a friend with complete kindness or to cleverly put the last word in a conversation, it always has its own little effect.

Beyond the comic dimension, it also expresses, but cannot hide, all of Caesar’s love for his son.

What is your favorite line from Marius?

(re)discover the trailer for the film…