Product: Manon of the Spring (1987)
Rating: 5.0
Beautiful, Enjoyable, and Gets at Some Essential Truths
"Manon of the Spring," (1986), a French drama, is a sequel of sorts, and a tale of revenge. It's also a mouth-watering, award-winning color film, set apparently, in the early 20th century, in Provence, in the gorgeous, fertile south of France. With its prequel,Jean De Florette, -- well, actually, it's not so much a prequel and sequel, it's more just a direct continuation of the story -- it tells a bittersweet tale of life among the peasantry of the time. It is based on a novel, with which I am not familiar, by Marcel Pagnol, with whose work, I regret, I am also not familiar, tho I believe he was a screenwriter of note; was adapted for the screen and directed by Claude Berri.You can watch "Manon" without seeing "Jean de Florette" first, but I don't know why you'd want to. At any rate, the movie picks up the story of the locally-prominent Soubeyran family, who have been scheming for their own advancement, with little consideration for others. Cesar Soubeyran, known as "Le Papet" locally, is the wealthy, almost last survivor of a dynasty of hard-working, successful peasants, and treated with great respect in his village. As played by the magnetic, older Yves Montand, (The Wages Of Fear - (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray];Diabolique (The Criterion Collection) Spine #35)), he is as hard a man as his long life has made him. Then, his possibly not all there nephew Ugolin, played by Daniel Auteil, always so successful at playing not particularly bright characters (The Closet) had come home from his stint in the army. The older man is anxious to see his nephew married, with children, settled locally, and making a living before his illnesses end his life. Accordingly, Cesar has his eye on a plot of land that adjoins his holdings, and several healthy looking girls in the village.But the land the Soubeyran family covets had been inherited by an outsider, a tax collector civil servant; a luckless hunchback played by the magnificent Gerard Depardieu, (Green Card),who had come to the village bearing some regulation outsiders' French name, a wife and young daughter. However, if Jean had been called by the name he should have been in the village, had they known who he really was, he would have been known locally as Jean de Florette, the title character of the first installment. At any rate, the Soubeyrans, Cesar and Ugolin, pretended to befriend and help the naive and generous hunchback, who was inexperienced in farming, but had many ambitious plans, some entirely unsuited for the location. Nevertheless, the Soubeyrons secretly worked against the would-be farmer, most importantly by depriving him of water.Greedy, cruel behavior to be sure, with tragic consequences. We begin "Manon" with a glimpse of the title character, the daughter of Jean de Florette., in the person of the beautiful Emmanuelle Beart (Nathalie). After the death of her father, which she believes was caused by the Soubeyrans, she has grown up largely on her own, as her mother has had to seek work elsewhere. Manon is rather an uneducated wild child as a result: she has kept herself alive by being a shepherdess, and hunting small birds for sale. She decides to take revenge against the village that allowed the Soubeyrans to behave as they did, and deprives the village of its water, causing great chaos and consternation. Ugolin is greatly in love with her, but she, of course, will have nothing to do with him: she rather fancies the handsome young local schoolteacher, who is, however, miles above her in the village's social order.The film is moving, powered by the work of its stars, as these characters work out their destinies, and reach a somewhat surprising conclusion: not the one for which Cesar had hoped, but one he can appreciate. "Manon" may be thought to have dated a bit, to be a bit too reliant on coincidence. Still, it seems to me grounded in reality. We watch the first telephones and automobiles creep into town, the appearance of new styles of dress. And I believe that French peasants, any peasants really, have historically wanted only certain things: land, with water on it; real gold, not paper scrip, and the success and survival of their families. A memorable piece of film-making that deals with great issues and essential truths in its way, and an enjoyable one, too.