Product: Jean de Florette (1987)
Rating: 5.0
As powerful, universal and revealing of humanity as any trilogy of Greek tragedies
This story stands on its own write as inevitable Grecian tragedy building on the prideful ignorance of Jean, the main character. He does not know of the spring which was blocked and concealed by the neighbor who desires not only his land to grow chrysthanthemums upon, but one day when she blooms, his daughter Manon. With the conspiracy of friends, this covetous neighbor blocks the spring which would bring life and fertility to the farm. Jean tries everything including tragically dynamite to bring the waters to flow with abundant life.When all is too late we discover unknown family ties which would have made Jean not a rejected outsider intruding upon and rejected by this enclosed and impoverished mountain farming community but embraced as a lost son. At that point the characters can only stand back and lament their realization come far too late. The inevitable development and tragedy of these two films together is as stately as as horrifying as a trilogy of ancient Greek plays, as profound and as universal. Watch them carefully and rivers of understanding will wash you with renewed humanity.