JEAN DE FLORETTE
A film review by Wayne Citrin
Copyright 1987 Wayne Citrin
I'm surprised that nobody has posted a review of this excellent film, which won the major award at Cannes this year. [Actually, there was one by Jeff Meyer, available as r.a.m.r./89. -ecl] JEAN DE FLORETTE is a vivid adaptation of the Marcel Pagnol novel about peasant life in southern France between the wars. Papet (Yves Montand) wishes to acquire a neighbor's land in order to establish his nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil). However, the neighbor dies and his heir, Jean (Gerard Depardieu), a city dweller, arrives intending to settle down and farm the land according to the systems described in his books. Papet and Ugolin conceal the spring on Jean's land (which is what makes the land valuable in this dry landscape) and sit back to watch Jean fail. They hope that he will give up and sell them the land.
This description does not do justice to this extraordinarily rich film. Papet and Ugolin are not standard cardboard villains, but sympathetic characters with understandable (though not necessarily admirable) reasons for doing the things they do. Jean is a sympathetic character, but also rather pompous and ludicrous in his faith in his "manuals." The film shows how closed to outsiders village life can be, and how primitive life there was before the war.
All the performances in the film are excellent, and the photography is beautiful. The script is intelligent, with many subtle motivations and connections between characters hinted at but not explained.
JEAN DE FLORETTE is the first part of a two-part film. The second part, MANON DES EAUX (MANON OF THE SPRINGS) was released in France at the same time as JEAN DE FLORETTE, but I have heard that MANON DES EAUX will be released in the United States around Christmas. Although MANON DES EAUX is the natural sequel (see the first film and you'll see what I mean), JEAN DE FLORETTE is itself a self contained film and filmgoers should not go expecting an incomplete, open-ended story. I give JEAN DE FLORETTE 3-1/2 stars out of 4, and eagerly await MANON DES EAUX.
Wayne Citrin (ucbvax!citrin)
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