Wonderful Movie

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Claude Berri did it again with the sequel to "Jean de Florette." Both films are master classes in direction. I can't say anything bad about "Manon." Like its prequel, the cinematography, acting and story was top notch.Rare for me, I really felt the anguish and pain of Cesar's nephew, Ugolin. (Ugolin has a fitting name considering he's, well, ugly). His spurning by Manon, who he is deeply in love with, was too difficult for him (and I) to bear. When I first started watching foreign films, there were so many, I didn't know which ones to see, so I used to go by which ones had won the Academy Award for best foreign language film or were nominated. Usually, the Academy got it right ("The Tin Drum," "Pelle the Conqueror," "Journey of Hope," "The Virgin Spring," etc.) Sometimes, though, they didn't. "Jean de Florette" and "Manon of the Spring" were both hideously and tragically overlooked by the Academy. Oh well. Like they say, you can't win 'em all.

This is the sequel to "Jean de Florette". Manon (Emmanuelle Béart) lives off the land as a goat herder. Her father hunchback Jean died failing to find water on their land. Her mother was forced to sell the worthless farm to Cesar Soubeyran (Yves Montand) who actually blocked and hid the spring that would have saved Jean. He and his nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) become rich growing flowers. Manon's mother is away playing Aida. Manon falls for young teacher Bernard Olivier. Cesar is pushing Ugolin to marry since they are the last of the Soubeyrans. Ugolin is obsessed with Manon and willing to give it all to her for her hand in marriage but she wants nothing to do with him. When Manon overhears two villagers confessing the village's reluctant collusion with Cesar's scheme, she blocks off the spring as revenge against Cesar and the village. It all comes to head and old blind Delphine returns to reveal a shocking secret of Jean's mother and Cesar's lost love Florette.It's not quite as great as "Jean de Florette". There is something poignant about the devastation of the first movie. There is something poetic about the sad ending. The second movie has the bad players have their comeuppance and it's not quite as satisfying. There is a poetic twist at the end and it's a reminder of the first movie. This is a solid sequel and I would suggest watching it back to back with the first movie.

Having adored Jean De Florette, of which Manon of the Spring(or Manon Des Sources) follows on from, I found this film every bit as amazing. Once again the cinematography shimmers and the scenery is some of the best I have seen in any film. There is also a haunting score, a compelling story and a genuinely moving script, and Berri's direction is paced perfectly to suit life under the scorching sun. The performances are every bit as impressive, Emmanuelle Beart is alluring and very believable, and Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil are once again outstanding, particularly Auteuil when he tries to atone. Overall, an amazing and I think poignant film. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I have many favorites, and this is one of the crème de la crème. This is a visually stunning film more like beautiful photographic montage. It is simple, tragic story well told, unlike many of today's plots - implausibly lame, suffering on a CGI crutch for 85 minutes. The simple story is about enduring truths which have been the mainstay of the Greek classics and Shakespeare: Our human strengths, our failings, our virtues, and our vices. The story may be a fiction, but its kernel is not. It is stories and story telling like this which has kept our rapt attention for four thousand years.First we should understand that this film is NOT A SEQUEL, but the second half the novel by Marcel Pagnol which would have been too long as a single film, and out of necessity, was shot as two. The first half is titled, Jean de Florette. Neither film stands alone as satisfactory because, obviously, it would be incomplete, and naturally, is also important that the two halves be viewed in sequence. For a fairly dispassionate précis of the plots, I suggest reading the ones on Wikipedia and the discussion boards, so I won't be repetitive here. JdF & MotS were both shot at the same time in 1986 with a budget of $17 million making it/them the biggest budget French films up to that time. JdF grossed $86M worldwide, and of that sum, only $4.9M was from the USA. MotS grossed $56M worldwide, of which only $3.9M was from the USA. In other words, culture films are not a good fit for the American viewing audience, and the gross revenue numbers bear this out. The rest of the world seems to bear out this conclusion.Foreign language films rarely do well in the USA for the simple reason that the vast majority of the viewing audience are unilingual anglophones who do not wish to burden themselves with having to work at "understanding" their entertainment - they wish to merely consume it. If it requires the work of reading subtitles or thought, it becomes unpalatable. This film requires your attention and thought!But to be fair to the US viewers, the subtitles are at times incomplete or inaccurate, and unlike the spoken word, they do not convey the emphasis or importance of certain bits of dialogue well. The plot is woven steadily throughout the film, so the viewers with no understanding at all of the French language are missing essential dialogue, and therefore plot.The bottom line is this: You will either be entranced by these two films and love them, or you will be bored by the first 15 minutes, and you'll translate that into "bad film." If your highest quality level of reading is Marvel comics then I suggest you stay away from this one.However, I recall years ago walking into a video store where this was playing on all the monitors. All the patrons in the store, ranging in age from 5 to 75 years, were standing transfixed watching this film. There was something magical about it!