Product: Manon of the Spring (1987)
Rating: 5.0
Mlle. Beart, you are distracting me...
This is not a sequel to "Jean de Florette", but the concluding part of the same story, "Water of the Hills" by the French master story-teller, Marcel Pagnol.Basically, it is an epic played out in that typically French way of drama-making: close relationship between the antagonists and the force beyond their control driving the story to its inevitable end. A sort of modern take on Greek tragedy. The film also features Verdi's "Force of Destiny" as its theme tune.As with "Cyrano de Bergerac" by Rappeneau, the director here had a great story and great cast (Yves Montand shining through). One uncharitably wonders what little he had to do in terms of creativity in such an ideal situation for any director to be in.All in all, this is a great piece of French film making. Highly recommended to anybody who loves good film, but especially for those whose idea of France does not go beyond Paris city boundary or "Freedom Fries". You will have some idea about the French farmers by the end of this film.By way of postscript, I believe this was Beart's film debut and she is unbelievably beautiful in this, which somewhat disturbs the film as a whole. If I am not mistaken, she married Auteil, who plays poor Ugolin in the film, in real life (now divorced). They have a twisted sense of humour over there in France...