Monday Double: Jean de Florette + Manon des Sources

A sprawling tale of greed, betrayal, and revenge plays out amid the bucolic splendour of the French countryside in Claude Berri’s masterly two-film adaptation of a literary work by the legendary Marcel Pagnol.

Jean de Florette | PG

The sun-dappled beauty of the Provence countryside belies dark motivations, in the first installment of Claude Berri’s monumental pastoral tragedy. When the naively idealistic tax collector Jean Cadoret (Gérard Depardieu) unexpectedly inherits a family farm, he leaves the city for a new life in the agrarian community where his mother, Florette, grew up—though she moved away decades ago. His neighbours, however, the scheming Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) and his proud uncle César Soubeyran (Yves Montand), have plotted to divert the flow of water away from Jean’s land. Brought to extraordinary life by acting legends Depardieu, Auteuil, and Montand, Jean de Florette draws viewers into a fully realized vision of 1920s rural France in which the culture clash between modern ideas and the rustic older codes of the country takes a heartbreaking turn.

15 min intermission.

Manon des Sources | PG

Shot simultaneously with Jean de Florette, this second chapter in the epic story of the intersecting fates of the Cadoret and Soubeyran families unfolds ten years after the events of the first film, as Jean Cadoret’s daughter, Manon (Emmanuelle Béart, in a César-winning performance), now a teenage shepherdess, learns of the circumstances that drove her family to ruin—and seeks revenge on those responsible. A stirring portrait of a young woman’s awakening to her own agency, Manon of the Spring brings to a close Claude Berri’s sweeping Marcel Pagnol adaptation with a devastating power that approaches Greek tragedy.