Product: Manon of the Spring (1987)
Rating: 5.0
A movie to make you reflect
Manon of the Spring is an exquisitely told story that grabs your heart and doesn't let go until the movie ends. To truly appreciate it, you must see the first part, Jean De Florette. In that movie, two greedy neighbors trick and cheat Manon's father, who is a kind and generous man, in order to gain his property, but the cost is even higher than they planned, since the deception also leads to his death. In this sequel, his now-grown daughter learns of the plot which caused the loss of her father, and takes revenge on them. Although you depise those greedy neighbors for what they did to that family, they are not portrayed completely as evildoers, rather as humans with their own flaws and failings. So when Manon's revenge results in more tragic consequences, it really makes you think about the cycle of pain and revenge that people perpetrate against one another. The greedy neighbors suffer harshly for their deeds, and although to a certain extent they deserved it, it is also very sad. There is a message here that "what goes around, comes around", and "you reap what you sow", and that those consequences happen naturally in time, and don't need human intervention to make them happen. This is a movie that will make a permanent impression.