Which Original Works? Tracking Sophocles' Narrative in "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources"

Pagnol's two-part novel, L'Eau des collines ( 1962), was inspired by his own films, Manon des sources and Ugolin, released ten years before (1952). Much better known are Berri's 1986 films bearing the novel's titles Jean de Florette and Manon des sources. In this essay I want to examine the architectural and thematic transformations between the three types of "texts:' I will show that each piece is referring to a different diegetic universe. Pagnol's film is a celebration of provencal verbal activity, ` joie de vivre," and of the Christian notions of redemption and forgiveness. The musical motif of L'Arlesienne by Bizet is a direct reference to the Christian Epiphany. The overwhelming, pervasive theme in Pagnol's novel is the unalterable life of the seamless feminine goddess whose multiple body flows in all women, in the earth, and in the water. Her special dwelling is in the hills where the priestess Manon operates. In Berri's films, the emphasis is clearly on fate and on the blindness of the tragic hero(es), and the soundtrack includes Verdi's Forza Del Destino as a haunting motif. Rather than giving us one more psychoanalytical reading, Bern's interpretation brings into focus the very moments and characteristics of the "story" of Oedipus, retold, redistributed, and hidden in Pagnol's filmic and literary texts. Firstly, we will look at ten comparable elements in the narratives of Marion's legend and Oedipus's myth. Secondly, the major implications of Pagnol's works will be presented. Finally, we will look at some aspects of Berri's montage, and the choices he made that either transformed or revealed particular aspects of the original texts. Here is what one may read in the Oedipus myth and the Manon's legend. Sophocles's Oedipus: 1. An unwanted child is born to the king and queen of Thebes. Attempts to kill him will result in a life-long mark and a name: "Oedipus" means "swollen foot." 2. The child will be taken away from his parents' town and will grow up in Corinth (a rival city of Athens and Sparta), without knowing his origins. 3. An oracle warned his parents and then Oedipus himself about his fate without giving him any meaning or means to avoid it. 4. Three geographical locations are crucial to the narrative: Thebes, where the child was conceived and born, Delphi, where the oracle was consulted but not received properly by Oedipus, and Corinth, where he grew up in ignorance. A fourth would be the sacred "Gods" space where Oedipus is finally admitted. 5. The young man goes back to his parents' town thinking he is avoiding his fate. 6. Because the young man is able to decipher the Sphinx's riddle, the monster dies. 7. A father offends the gods and a son kills him unknowingly. 8. Ignorant criminals have an incestuous relationship. 9. An old blind seer, Tiresias, reveals the truth to Oedipus when the oracle's prediction has been accomplished. 10. Upon learning that she married a son she had tried to kill, Jocasta hangs herself. MANON'S LEGEND: Jean de Florette & Manon des sources 1. A child is born to a mother in spite of her attempts to interrupt her pregnancy. The marked child will be called "le Bossu ' (hunchback). The unwitting father, Cesar Soubeyran, is the most powerful and feared owner in the Bastides Blanches. 2. The pregnant mother runs to Crespin (a rival village of the Bastides) to get married and to raise Jean who does not know who his biological father is. 3. ORACLES: a.) An unreceived message: A letter was sent by pregnant Florette to Cesar in Africa. b) Most names serve as oracles, foreboding unavoidable roles that only spectators are able to decode: As Rebecca Pauly remarked, "Papet," the nickname given to Cesar who laments for being childless, means either "little dad" or "grand'pa." "Florette" means "little flower" and "confer fleurette" is to court a lover. …