Years ago, when it first came out, I saw
Manon of the Spring, and it was a wonderful movie. The only trouble was that I had never seen
Jean de Florette. Big mistake. You can't watch the one without seeing the other.
Manon of the Spring is not the sequel to
Jean de Florette - it's the continuation of it. The two are one long narrative. And while each movie can stand alone, it is only when seen together that you grasp the full impact of the tragedy that unfolds before you.
Warning! Spoiler Alert!
The titular character of
Jean de Florette (Gerard Depardieu) is a hunchbacked tax collector who inherits a run down farm in
Provence. All of the locals figure he'll sell the farm, but Jean has a dream. He moves there with his wife, Aimee (Elisabeth Depardieu), and his daughter, Manon (Ernestine Mazurowna) to raise rabbits. This doesn't set to well with the local big shot, Cesar Soubeyran (Yves Montand), and his nephew, Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil). They want the land, which is the richest in the province, and the spring that's on it so they can raise flowers. In order to force Jean to sell out cheap, they block up the spring before he arrives, but Jean is determined to see his dream become a reality. When told that the only water is another spring a mile and a half away, Jean goes ahead and builds his rabbit farm. Then he begins the arduous task of hauling water from the distant spring on his mule and on his back. He does this for two years, as his crops and his rabbits die. Then using the farm as collateral, he borrows money from Cesar to dig a well. While dynamiting rock in the well, Jean is critically injured and dies a few days later. Aimee sells the farm to Cesar at a ridiculously low price. As she is preparing to leave, Manon sees Cesar and Ugolin unblocking the spring, releasing the water that would have saved both the farm and Jean.
In
Manon of the Spring, we find Manon (Emmanuelle Beart), now grown to a beautiful young woman, herding goats in the hills near Cesar Soubeyran's farm. One day, she discovers the source of
the water that feeds not only the spring on her father's old farm, but also Cesar's spring and the town's well. Having finally found a way to take revenge on the people who caused her father's death, she blocks up the spring, cutting off the water supply for the entire valley. Chaos ensues as the farmers and villagers fight over who's going to get what little water there is and who's to blame for the shortage. Meanwhile, Ugolin has become obsessed with Manon, whom he saw skinny dipping in the woods. He swears his undying love for her, even offering to pay her to be his wife, but she hasn't forgotten that he caused her father's death. Besides, she only has eyes for the new young school teacher, Bernard (Hippolyte Girardot). In despair, Ugolin hangs himself, and Manon unplugs the spring, letting the water flow back to the thirsty valley. As she and Bernard wed, Cesar learns that Jean was his own son from a tryst he had as a young man with a woman named Florette before he joined the army.
Jean de Florette and
Manon of the Spring are beautifully filmed in the rugged hills of Provence. Director Claude Berri makes us feel the heat of the relentless sun beating down on the arid landscape. I found myself longing for a glass of cold water, as I watched Jean hauling the heavy water cans up and down the steep path to water his thirsty crops and rabbits. In fact, this is a story about thirst - the land's thirst for water, Ceasr's thirst for land that isn't his, Ugolin's thirst for Manon, Jean's thirst for his dream, and Manon's thirst for her father's revenge. In the end, water flows again, in both the literal and the spiritual sense. Before he dies, Cesar wills his entire estate, which includes Jean's farm, to Manon, the last of the Soubeyrans. So the first end up being last, and the meek truly do inherit the earth.
Jean de Florette and
Manon of the Spring are both rated PG.
challenges him to produce his friend. This sends Francois scurrying around Paris in search of someone who likes him. Sadly, he finds not a single soul willing to admit that they are his friend, except for a jovial, trivia spouting cab driver named Bruno (Danny Boon) that he keeps running into. Unbelievably, Bruno genuinely likes Francois, and goes out of his way to help him. Finally, Francois concocts a scheme to get Bruno to steel a priceless vase from his own apartment so that he can collect the insurance. Bruno agrees and sneaks into Francois' apartment, where he finds all of Francois' acquaintances waiting in the dark. Francois turns on the lights and introduces Bruno as such a true friend that he would even be willing to steal for him. When Bruno realizes that Francois was only using him, he smashes the vase and storms out. Francois has lost the bet. Later, Bruno wins a spot on the French version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. When a question about art comes up that Bruno doesn't know the answer to, he is faced with a dilemma. Should he guess and risk losing, or should he turn to Francois as his "lifeline"?
end. Bruno would and Francois would make up, Bruno would win millions of dollars, and the two would retire to a tropical island together, surrounded by beautiful women, where they would live happily ever after. But French movies don't follow the same predictable patterns that American films invariably follow, and that's one of the reasons I love watching them. French filmmakers seem to understand that real life seldom has a true happily ever after to it. My Best Friend ends, as most French comedies do, on something of a bittersweet note. But, in my humble opinion, it's a richly satisfying one.
