Chomet’s gift for deftly caricatured faces, expressive movement, and clever compositions hasn’t deserted him, and there are many flat-out beautiful bits scattered throughout, but this is altogether a work that’s best appreciated with the sound off.

Sure, it’s a way of extending an olive branch to English-language viewers, but who, if not a Francophile, would enjoy such a meticulous recreation of Pagnol’s life and times?

Sylvain Chomet provides only a scant sense of Marcel Pagnol’s creative inklings, such as the ideas and themes that fuel the films that he fights so vehemently to make.

There is much to admire about "A Magnificent Life," both as a work of spectacular art and as a compelling biography.