Jean de Florette

Certainly one of the best examples of French cinema. A searing powerful story of greed, and its effects. All the actors are excellent, Yves Montand is especially heartbreaking. This movie and its sequel are two of the best films of the 1980's. By the way it's about time they were re-released on DVD i want to add them to my collection.I do not understand why such films are released and the go out of print these are important wonderful films that deserve new audiences, and a new generation of admirers. If it is a business decision that they don't create as much revenue as most of the garbage that comes out of Hollywood, they should be ashamed of themselves.

This film captures another world, and makes you a part of it. The acting is superb, the scenery breathtaking, and a huge amount of skill and effort has gone into evoking the heat of summer and the details of village life in a harsh, pre-industrial world. If you cannot stand watching a film in a foreign language, or you only watch films with special effects and non-stop action,then you may find something to object to in this one, but otherwise it is perfection. The story is heart-wrenching, all the characters (both good and bad) demand sympathy, and the story is both credible, and beautifully told. That is the true quality of this film - it tells a simple, gripping story in a way that grips any viewer with a heart from start to finish.

Jean de Florette is a magnificently acted, superb film with fine music and excellent cinematography. The colors used are vibrant and the red carnations are a stunning adjunct of the movie. Its sequel, Manon of the Spring, is even better, and its dramatic ending is quite well written and enacted. Together, these two films are amongst the finest to come from France.

Marcel Pagnol was rightly admitted into the Acadamie Francaise, just about the highest honor a French writer can receive. No less a major force than Orson Welles described Pagnol's own movie 'La Femme du Boulanger' (The Baker's Wife) as the greatest movie ever made. For someone with a limited canvas - Provence, its small hamlets, the port of Marseilles, and the people who lived there - he sure extracted the maximum mileage. Jean de Florette and its sequel Manon des Source has now arguably become the highest profile of all Pagnol's work eclipsing even the great trilogy 'Marius', 'Cesar' and 'Fanny' featuring the great Raimu, and his two autobiographical works My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle. It is very gratifying for someone with a healthy streak of cynicism in their makeup to read such glowing tributes to this movie. If French cinema NEEDED an ambassador, which it doesn't, then these two titles - shot back to back as Montand's wife, Simone Signoret, lay dying - could not be bettered. To add any superlatives to those already posted here would be superfluous so just let me say that Montand is at the top of his game and that is saying something. Superb entertainment with terrific ensemble playing. An all-time great. 11/10

This is a marvel of story-telling. Rarely have I felt so much pain for a fictional character. The "force of destiny" (great sound track motif selection!) is nowhere as evidently crushing as in this movie. I'm astounded and stunned by the beauty of human suffering, not, of course, out of sadism but out of melancholy. Great, great movie (though the Southern French accent is very hard to understand).