Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring (1986) ~ ***

This is a classic dual French movie that I believe any one interested in Foreign movies watches. These two films are "starter" foreign flicks. From Netflix:

Claude Berri directs this pair of award-winning French dramas. In Jean de Florette, two men (Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil) scheme to acquire a neighboring farm by preventing a natural spring from flowing, a water source that the new owner, Jean (Gérard Depardieu), needs for his crops. In Manon of the Spring, Jean's grown daughter (Emmanuelle Beart) goes after the two men with a fierce vengeance worthy of her proud and courageous heritage.

Length:
234 minutes
Director:
Claude Berri
Cast:
Yves Montand
Gérard Depardieu
Daniel Auteuil
Elisabeth Depardieu
Margarita Lozano
Ernestine Mazurowna
Armand Meffre
Emmanuelle Béart
Hippolyte Girardot

After I watched Camille Claudel, I decided to try another Gerard Depardieu movie. To my delight, I met Emmanuelle Beart. When people say that a person has arresting eyes, eyes that express more eloquently than their spoken words, Ms. Beart is that type of person. In the first movie, this cankerous old man bitterly tries to destroy his new neighbor Jean de Florette (Depardieu). His dastardly deeds do destroy Depardieu.

Why does Cesar Soubeyran (Yves Montand) want to destroy de Florette? Because he is the son of his past lover . . . a woman he was so sure he would marry after the war. He hates this man with a passion because it is the son of another man with the woman that should have been his. In addition, he mocks de Florette with his obvious physical deformaties.

In the end, when he is gloating over the destruction of de Florette, he speaks with an older woman from the villa. In this discussion, he mutters about the betrayal of his sweetheart. She in return questions why he is so cruel when his sweetheart begged for him to return to her in a letter during the war. She had written to him because she found out she was pregnant and wanted to know if he would claim her as his wife. If he felt that she was not the one, he could just not reply back.

Now, I hate communications like this. I don't care if the answer is a no. There should be no assumptions. Answers should be replied, Yes or No. Then you definitely know what the answer is to your question. Well, this is the classic scenario where the letter never made it to Cesar Soubeyran. So the woman had no choice but to marry another man to save her reputation. She tried to abort by hurting herself. It didn't cause a miscarriage; it only deformed the baby.

So now Cesar Soubeyran knows, that the woman he loved was lost due to a missing letter. And his bitterness and revenge only kills his son. The revelation almost does him in. And then they end the movie. Of course this is a French movie. No Happy Ending!

In part two, Manon, daughter of de Florette and granddaughter of Cesar Soubeyran returns to the property her father purchased. Ms. Beart does an excellent job of ignoring and deflecting any friendship that Cesar Soubeyran strives to create between the two. She only sees him as the man that killed her father. The hatred in her eyes shines through at the beginning of the movie. She is determined to right the wrong done to her father.

This is a sad story of miscommunication and a family fueled by hatred, revenge, misunderstanding and tragedy. At the end of the these two movies, it makes me glad that I don't have familial relationships like this. I do recommend both movies for the emotions it pulls from a person. The glee, outrage, disbelief, angry and then great sadness is a whirlwind of a ride.