Jean de Florette

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Movie Details

• Genre: Drama
• Release Date: 0000-00-00
• Running Time: 122 min.
• Director: Claude Berri
• Cast: Yves Montand, Gérard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil, Elisabeth Depardieu, Margarita Lozano, Ernestine Mazurowna, Armand Meffre, André Dupon, Pierre Nougaro, Jean Maurel
• Producer:
• Writer: Claude Berri, Gérard Brach
• Distributor:
• Official Site: Jean de Florette Official Site

Based on Marcel Pagnol's two-volume novel, this old-fashioned, straightforward French drama evokes a harsh nostalgia. In the rocky hills north of Marseille in the 1920s, an urban-bred hunchback named Jean (Gérard Depardieu) arrives to reclaim some forlorn farmland he has inherited. He has high hopes, but they're dashed by the combined forces of bad weather and conniving neighbors. Jean's land contains a valuable spring he knows nothing about, because the evil Soubeyran (Yves Montand) has dammed it up before his arrival. As a result, after early success, the weather changes, Jean and his wife and daughter haul water from a faraway source, and the plot plods its way to a sad, sad finale. I'm afraid I can't swoon over this movie--it's too much like a book written on transparent paper. Nevertheless, writer-director Claude Berri lays on enough decorative detail to make the revenge payoff in the sequel, Manon of the Spring, worth waiting for. Get 'em, Manon. (Phil Anderson)