Jean De Florette / Manon of the Spring (Double Feature)
by Claude Berri
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Actor: Daniel Auteuil, Elisabeth Depardieu, Emmanuelle Béart, Gérard Depardieu, Yves MontandDirector: Claude Berri
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Cinematographer: Bruno Nuytten
Writer: Claude Berri
Editor: Arlette Langmann
Producer: Alain Poiré
Producer: Pierre Grunstein
Writer: Gérard Brach
Writer: Marcel Pagnol
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 235 minutes
Published: 1987
DVD Release Date: 2007-07-24
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Jean De Florette / Manon of the Spring (Double Feature)
DVD Review: A four-hour French epic.
Summary: 5 Stars
These are two of my all time favorite French films. Adapted from the 1966 two-part novel by Marcel Pagnol, Jean De Florette and Manon of the Springs, Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring (Manon des Sources) are award-winning 1986 companion films. Set in Provence in the 1920s, Jean de Florette tells the story of unscrupulous César "Papet" Soubeyran (Yves Montand) and his nephew, Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil), who are desperate to buy a neighbouring farm for its water supply from a spring. After they accidentally kill the farm's owner, the title character (Gérard Depardieu) then inherits the farm and decides to pursue his naive city dream of growing vegetables and raising rabbits by living there with his wife (Elisabeth Depardieu) and beautiful daughter, Manon (Ernestine Mazurowna). Depardieu's performance as Jean, the hunchbacked tax collector from Paris, brings real heart and soul to this film. Upon learning of this inheritance, César and Ugolin block the spring with concrete to force Jean to sell his land to them. Although he struggles to bring water from the well many miles away to irrigate his farm, Jean fails and ultimately César and Ugolin obtain the farm and force Jean's family off of the land. Always suspicious of the Soubeyrans, the film ends with Manon watching César and Ugolin opening the spring that could have saved her family.
The 1986 sequel, Manon des Sources, follows the events of Jean de Florette by roughly ten years. Jean's daughter Manon (Emmanuelle Béart) is now living in the countryside of Provence near Les Romarins, the farm once owned by her father, where she tends a herd of goats for an elderly Piedmontese squatter couple. She is an educated though feral young woman, who lives off the land by hunting for birds and rabbits. Meanwhile. the Soubeyrans have become successful at growing carnations at Les Romarins, using water from the spring. Dim-witted Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) is lovesick for the beautiful Manon, but she is repulsed by him. While searching for a lost goat, Manon discovers the source of the spring, and decides to block it with mud and rocks to take her revenge on the Soubeyrans. She then publicly accuses César (Yves Montand) and Ugolain of the death of her father, and the Soubeyrans are disgraced. The film ends with two unexpected twists, a death and a discovery, leaving César a broken man, prompting him to return the farm to Manon. Emmanuelle Béart's performance is superb (and although Daniel Auteil's Ugolin may not have won her heart in the film, he won Béart's heart in real life).
These two slowly-paced films are as brilliant as a Greek tragedy or a Thomas Hardy novel (Jude the Obscure (Penguin Classics), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Penguin Classics)). Those who enjoy these films might also enjoy two other films based on Marcel Pagnol's books, My Father's Glory & My Mother's Castle: Marcel Pagnol's Memories of Childhood: My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle.
G. Merritt
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