Jean De Florette

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: Greed as a long term investment. For the short term version talk to Enron executive.

Rating:
Summary: Splendid
Review: Great performances. Terrific script. Get it with Manon of the Spring (the sequel).

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Foreign Film
Review: Jean de Florette is filled with several twist and turns. It's full with emotions and greed. It shows what people are capable to do when they are filled with selfishness. The performance of Gerard Depardieu is excellent. Foreign films are the best because they don't revolve around comedy all the time but focus on events that happen in real life.

Rating:
Summary: An outstanding film/ truely a must see
Review: This is one of the best films. It of course must be seen with Manon of The Spring. Seen together the story is complete. It is the best story put to film I have seen to date. If you do not speek French and do not like reading subtitled films this is one that will change your mind.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT FILM/A MUST SEE
Review: IN ANSWER TO THE FIRST REVIEW ABOUT THIS MOVIE, MOST PEOPLE (IN THE UNITED STATES) ARE REALLY IGNORANT OF WHAT GOOD FILMS ARE ALL ABOUT. THEY ARE BLINDED BY TODAY'S "HOLLYWOOD" INDUSTRY WHICH IS LESS THAN PERFECT, TO SAY THE LEAST...
EVERYONE...: DO YOURSELFS A FAVOR: START WATCHING MORE FOREIGN FILMS..., MOST OF THEM ARE NOT PRETENTIOUS, NOT SHALLOW, NOT HOLLYWOOD..., EVERYONE MIGHT LEARN A THING OR TWO.
GREAT FILM, FULL OF GOOD CONTENT AND MEANING!!!

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful but unbelievably sad
Review: This is a very good and moving film and, with it's sequel "Manon des Sources" is truely excellent. It is not necessary to watch the sequel to appreciate Jean de Florette, but you will have to watch this first to make any sense of the the characters' motivations in Manon.

I just wanted to comment on the review that suggested that the film-maker's motivation in splitting the two parts was financial. Look closely - the sequel takes place some 10 years later and uses the same cast. The story had to be broken up to allow everyone - especially the child Manon - to age sufficiently to continue.

These are a couple of amazing films.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Sad Tale of Rural Provence
Review: It's difficult to be a big movie fan in America because most of the movies that get spoon fed to us through the media are American movies, and the vast majority of those--even those that come with good reviews--are predictable, unbelievable, and dull.

It is such a great pleasure, therefore, to stumble across a film like this, which is smartly told, wonderful to look at, original, and unpredictable. Needless to say, it is not an American film.

The first joy of this film is the cinematography. It takes place in Provence, in the rural, farming area of this region. Between the rolling hills and the flowers and the trees and the ancient-looking farmhouses, it is just lovely to look at. It is a place which seems to draw you in, like a beautiful dream. You find yourself wishing you could be there, to live there, to grow carnations or raise rabbits there, as the characters do. The soundtrack conveys this as well, with the always and ever present sound of bees and crickets and songbirds in the air. It is very evocative, and truly plays a part in the events of the plot as well.

For the plot has to do with a man, a city-dweller, who inherits a farm in this area, and with his wife and young daughter, decides to make a go of it. He is, however, frustrated by his neighbor, who secretly covets the farm because of the spring on it he wishes to have for himself. The neighbor blocks up this spring before the city man arrives, in the hopes that he can drive him out for lack of water. This is the story. We watch as the city man relentlessly attempts to survive in this place with its neverending short supply of water, and knowing that the solution to his problems is on his own property. It is a sad, beautiful, heart-breaking tragedy.

The acting all around is superb, but that of Depardieu, the city man, is magnificent. His indefatigable, cheerful optimism in the face of adversity is uplifting and infectious, enveloping his wife and child and ultimately ourselves. He refuses to give up: futilely digging wells, walking for miles daily in order to get water from a far away cistern, praying for rain in the darkness, and scheming with his wife to find ways to get money in order to make it for one more month, one more week, one more day. We empathize with him whole-heartedly, able to see, through the magic of cinema, the beauty of the place through his eyes.

But alas, he loses. It almost comes as a shock, so used as we are to the typical, tie-up-the-loose-ends, sugar-coated, phony-baloney Hollywood ending. It seems very sad, and unfair, but unfortunately, life is often this way. It is greatly to this film's credit that it treats us as thinking adults, as opposed to childish adolescents on a roller-coaster ride. Very refreshing. By the way, I would disagree with those reviewers who feel it is necessary to see Manon of the Spring in order to appreciate this film. In my opinion, it works perfectly well on its own terms.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: I had seen the movie years ago - now, I can see it anytime I want!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best two films I have ever seen!
Review: Jean de Florette and the sequel Manon of the Spring are two of the best films I have ever seen! The story is so powerful and beautifully depicted by the actors involved! The basic emotion of greed drives Yves Montand to do things that ultimately end in tragedy---in more ways than one! Watch both movies! You will not regret it!

Rating:
Summary: Yves Montand is superb in this great film.
Review: Yves Montand's performance in this film and the conclusion of the story, "Manon of the Spring," dramatizes the complexity of what it means to be a person. The full range of human thought, feeling, and emotion are brought to life in his characterization of an old man who wants to insure that his line continues after his death. He is willing to destroy a man whom he considers to be an outsider to achieve his aim of adding wealth and stature for the person he thinks is his only living relative.

The viewer is strongly advised to see "Manon of the Spring" to complete the story so well begun in "Jean de Florette." Both of these films are classics and deserve the five stars they have received.