Great Film overall

Admirable film.

A Disappointing Continuation

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

As a B Western movie fan, I can't tell you how many films I've seen in which the plot had to do with some villain attempting to secure water rights from a neighboring rancher by hook or by crook. This often included such diabolical deeds as extortion and murder. What I never expected with "Jean de Florette" was for the same idea to be presented in such a compelling and provocative way in a French milieu. The story does have it's villain of course, and I'd have to say that Cesar/Le Papet (Yves Montand) was probably as remorseless as any Western Simon Legree when it came to duplicity and underhandedness. Not only did he airplane spin his neighbor Marius head first into a rock, but thought it might be a good idea to go back and 'finish him off'. His nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) wasn't much better, but had a subtler way of containing his emotions when the new occupants took possession of the Romarin property. One can do nothing but feel pity toward Jean de Florette (Gérard Depardieu) as he trudges relentlessly day by day to provide the needed water for his crops, as the underhanded tactics of Cesar and Ugolin are kept a secret by the town folk of Aubagne. Driven to desperation, Jean loses his life in a bid to release a potential spring beneath an underground rock shelf, thereby resulting in the eventual transfer of land to the Soubeyrans. What I wasn't expecting was for this picture to finish on an undetermined note with the fate of Jean de Florette's wife and daughter Manon (Ernestine Mazurowna) to be taken up by a sequel. Though I felt inconvenienced at the time, it turns out that the story's conclusion may be even better than the one presented here. For that, one's attention must be directed to "Manon of the Spring". I recommend watching both in succession for the full impact of the story to be realized.

This film shows human beings at their absolute worst, greed driven selves. In this film, a man who is respected in his community, destroys the life of another, better man. He and his son want to be able to access a spring which can be used to water their agricultural products, primarily carnations. When they go to negotiate a deal with the land owner, he abuses them verbally and the end up killing him. Since they don't own the property they locate the spring and block it, hoping to get the new owners to be more cooperative. They never bat an eye over the murder. Soon a hunchbacked relative comes to claim the property. He is played by Gerard Depardieu. He is the epitome of optimism. He has a lovely family. He wants to farm the land and have a modest existence. The problem is the water needed to make the farm work is being held hostage by these two jerks. The literally destroy his life by sidling up to him and trying to get him to sell. The dynamics of the relationship are so well done. The acting is superb. The story is so tragic.

A greedy landowner and his backward nephew conspire to block the only water source for an adjoining property in order to bankrupt the owner and force him to sell.Roger Ebert commented on Berri's exploration of human character, "the feeling that the land is so important the human spirit can be sacrificed to it". Is human character in this sense shaped by the land? Of course. Is it always? Maybe not."Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources" have been interpreted as part of a wider trend in the 1980s of so-called 'heritage cinema': period pieces and costume dramas that celebrated the history, culture and landscape of France. And good on them for that.

I just watched Jean De Florrete and it was great, very rare for me to say this but I was not once bored or restless during the entire movie. Jean De Florrete, about this French farmer who moves onto his uncle's land and decides it would be profitable to grow flowers. But in order to grow a enough flowers to make a profit they'll need more water than they have available. Their neighbor has an untapped underground spring. The farmer and his uncle go over to negotiate buying the land with the spring on it. Unfortunately for them their neighbor hates the uncle, and when they offer to buy some of his land the uncle and him get into a fight and during the bustle his head suffers a fatal blow against a rock and he dies almost instantaneously. The whole ordeal took place by a tree, so the farmer and his uncle make it look like the old man fell from the tree and hit his head. They think the land will be theirs but a relative of the neighbor, a hunchback, moves onto the property. The uncle offers to buy the land from him but the hunchback wants to use it for raising rabbits and growing squash. Fascinating to watch the triumphs and failures of the hunchback as he goes about trying to fulfill his dream, always with a happy upbeat attitude. The thing that amazed me about the movie would be just how simple the actual plot feels. There are no huge twists, no distracting sub-plots, not much happens for most of the movie until the last 15 minutes; despite that it manages to grab the viewers attention wonderfully and it doesn't let it go until the credits roll either. Unless you hate French movies. I highly recommend Jean De Floret.