Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #703 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-11-21
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 225 minutes

DVD Description
In Jean De Florettes an old man and his only remaining relative in a rural French village cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, so are dismayed to hear the man who has inherited it is moving in. They block up the spring and watch as their new neighbour tries to keep his crops watered from wells far afield through the hot summer. Though they see his desperate efforts are breaking his health and his wife and daughter's hearts they think only of getting the water. In the sequel, Manon Des Sources, Manon (Beart) has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside. She determines to take revenge upon the men responsible for the death of her father in the first film.

Customer Reviews

Spectacular.
These two combined films are simply the best i have ever seen, by some distance. The first story is poignant, tragic and so well acted, written and directed that it is a masterpiece of itself, but not seeing the second denies you an incredible film experience. By the closing minutes of Manon Des Sources, you should appreciate how much better these masterpieces are than anything hollywood has released for many, many years. With wonderful cinematography and its spectacular soundtrack lifted from Verdi's La forza del destino, these films are hauntingly beautiful, thoroughly gripping and unforgettable.

Crime and Punishment
If you are going to watch "Jean de Florette", then you should watch "Manon des Sources" straight after it , as it is less a sequel and more of a direct continuation of the first film. Both films tell the tale of greed, underhandedness, toil ,trouble , love and sacrifice in a rural French setting , where the arrival of an urban hunchback Jean (Gerard Depardieu) and his family upset the plans of the devious landowner Cesar (Yves Montand) and his simple, but loyal, nephew Urogin (Daniel Auteuil). Tragedy strikes at the end of "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources" continues the story with the themes of retribution and justice prominent. The acting ,characterisation and cinematography are all excellent and the storyline is engaging and poignant. Both films are rightly regarded as classics of French cinema.

You really do need to see both...
Released within a year of each other, "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources" (aka "Manon of the Spring") are often viewed and reviewed separately, but the truth is that they're integral parts of a single story which needs to be seen in sequence for its full impact to be revealed.

Set in the 1920's, both explore the stark realities of the tough existence and myopic intrigue that was an integral part of life in the Luberon's stunningly pretty countryside & villages before the march of time transformed them into "must see" tourist destinations. Beautifully filmed and meticulously crafted, their brilliantly effective evocation of the realities of this now lost and very different world elevates each into the category of truly outstanding cinema - visual feasts that re-create what life was really like, good and bad, in what we now see as an "idyllic" time.

And, as entertainment? Well, "Jean de Florette" wins in terms of having the stronger and most obvious "plot", enhanced by Gerard Depardieu's tremendous performance as a man seeking to realise his vision in the face of insurmountable odds. But that is, as "Manon des Sources" reveals, only half the story, for beneath the tragedy of "Jean de Florette" is a much more tragic sequence of events. Slower, more reflective and, in the end, deeply moving, "Manon des Sources" is not simply a "follow-up" but the key to understanding the full story on offer.

Individually each "works" and, as such, stands in its own right as an excellent film, but it is only when seen together that their true power is revealed. You really do need to see both...