Build a movie plot around this: Which family was locally important? Soubeyran
The film "Manon des Sources" (1986), together with "Jean de Florette" (1986), which PRECEDES IT, are the screen rendition of Marcel Pagnol's exquisite novel, "L'eau des Collines" ("The Water from the Hills," 1963). It is the story of two competing projects, one carried out by the city-dweller Jean Cadoret, and the other by the peasant Ugolin, set in the rustic and picturesque environment of Provence in the 1920s. It is a story of opposites: the city versus the country, modernity versus traditional, good versus bad, and memory versus oblivion."Manon des Sources," takes place some ten years after "Jean de Florette", also in the village of "les Bastides" and the surrounding hills. Ugolin's carnation-growing business is prospering, as inferred when he sells his flowers to a retailer who complains about their high prices. Manon (Emmanuelle Beart) is now a beautiful, wild shepherdess, spending her time in the hills and valleys of the area, tending her flock of goats. She totally ignores "les Bastides," and the villagers aware of her presence, reciprocate, calling her "la sauvageonne" - the wild child. She lives with her mother and Baptistine (Margarita Lozano), at "le Plantier." A new character is introduced, the new village school teacher, Bernard Olivier (Hippolyte Girardot) who is also an amateur mineralogist.One day while hunting in the hills, Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil), comes across Manon who is dancing nude, playing a tune on her father's harmonica. This is the proverbial love-at-first-sight. Too shy to approach Manon directly, he continues to spy on her, following her in the hills. He sets traps to capture birds and rabbits, which he then places in her traps as gifts. From then on, Ugolin is obsessed with Manon. Cesar Soubeyran (Yves Montand), "le Papet,", who had been pushing a reluctant Ugolin to marry in order to continue the Soubeyran line, is thrilled when Ugolin finally confesses, although in a rather unusual manner, his matrimonial intentions. Ugolin decides to "move in" and propose to Manon in a most...