Manon delle sorgenti

Manon of the Spring is the sequel to Jean de Florette, released the same year. By no means should Manon be rented without having first seen Jean. By no means, in either case, should one glance at the movie notes on the reverse side of the video box.

Almost nothing can be said safely about Manon without giving away the overall plot or this or that twist or turn. Suffice to explain that Jean concerns an urbanite hunchback who relocates to the Provencal countryside with his wife and daughter, intent on raising rabbits. Manon picks up some years after the Jean conclusion, with the daughter having grown to young womanhood. (More prudish prospective viewers need to know that this will be explicitly evident.)

This is superb movie-making. Other reviewers accurately call it a masterpiece. The story line dominates, not the acting. Even so, Yves Montand continues his excellent performance from Jean, and Daniel Auteuil as the unsightly nephew is more impressive after one sees him clean-cut and sophisticate in something like Un Coeur en Hiver (1992). Emmanuelle Beart and Hipployte Girardot say very little, yet it doesn't detract from their respective essential portrayals. Anyone who becomes a Beart fan is advised to rent Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (1995).

The two movies, prequel and sequel, work as a team. By virtue of its powerful denouement, however, Manon of the Spring is the standout of the pair. For the same reason, in my opinion, it is one of the very best films of the 1980s.

After spending 2 hours with Manon, I'm still in shock, but in a way I saw it coming. The film proves that greed only last for a certain time, but love and being a good person is what lasts forever. That's where happiness lies.

Our crimes pay, it will eventually catch up with you, and this picture tells us best.

I won't say anymore.

The picture is as amazing as the first, Jean de Florette.

"Manon des Sources" finishes where its previous film, "Jean de Florette," left off. It takes up the tale of Manon, the beautiful young daughter whose father is gone due to the evil deeds of their neighbors.

It is 10 years past "Jean de Florette," and Manon is reduced to being a lone shepherdess in the hills for a small goat herd. Meanwhile, Ugolin, one of the men who wronged her family, has fallen in love with her.

As the movie progresses, the dark secret from "Jean" is fully revealed to all. The crime involves not only the two Soubeyrans behind the plot of the first film, but it even extends to implicate the entire town. As more is uncovered, Manon is driven to consider dark plans of a fitting revenge on them all.

The film binds all the people in town in a wonderfully spun knot of love, hate, crime, guilt, vengeance, repentance, and the possibility of forgiveness. And just when you think you've seen the completion of a superb story, there is one rich twist at the end that ties it all up into a perfect masterpiece.

Besides the wonderful story, the scenery is again gorgeously photographed. The acting is wonderful -- you end up feeling deep sympathy for all the characters in the film, no matter what their wrongs.

The first film was a solid 8, but this is definitely a rare 10.

This (and Jean de Florette) is the most moving, well thought out film I have ever watched. The countryside makes me long to go to France, to where it was filmed, to see "Les Romarins" and "Les Bastides". The music is like an eerie prayer that reminds my soul of "pauvre Galinette et ses rouges oeillets, et Papet Soubeyrans, et Manon Cadoret". The red carnations are a haunting image...

Both books are as good as the movies; I recommend anybody who likes this film to buy them (if you can read French, that is!). I would give everyone, Marcel Pagnol, Claude Berri, etc etc a gold medal for these works- well done!

By the way, have a look at the earlier version of "Manon des Sources". An actress called Jaqueline Pagnol is in it -she is the wife of Marcel Pagnol who wrote both books!

I have been showing Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources in my French classroom for the past ten years. What I find most fascinating about this process is that for many of the students, it is their first experience in watching a foreign film with subtitles, and initially they are not too receptive to the experience. But very frequently, after having seen Jean de Florette ( I show it in first year French), they are so anxious to see what happens that they go and rent the sequel on their own and want to discuss it in class.

This film and its sequel are studies in human nature, in addition to being traveloges of some of the most beautiful countryside in the world. Some of the observations that the students have made about the characters is that they refer to the land and the water with reverential terms. The characters' downfalls are brought about usually because of their inability to accept their restrictions.

If you want two films to use in a French classroom where the scenery is beautiful, the dialogue is usually understandable and the storyline is acceptable to the general public (since we all have to answer to the school boards and the administration), these are the films to use. In addition, if you haven't seen them and you want to just lose yourself in two remarkable films just for the love of good films, these are the ones.