Best movie of this year hands down!

Redundant and unnecessary.

Best movie ever!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Set in Provence shortly after the First World War Ugolin Soubeyran, a returning soldier, dreams of growing carnations; unfortunately his land doesn't have enough water. His uncle César knows that there is a blocked spring on the neighbouring farm. After the untimely death of the man who owns the land they hope to buy it cheaply from the new owner; a hunchbacked former taxman named Jean. Jean, who arrives with his wife and daughter, dreams of farming the land. He plants crops and starts breeding rabbits; at first things go well but when the rain stops Jean and his family must travel miles a day to collect water from another spring. All the time his César and Ugolin watch waiting for Jean to give up and sell them the land.This film is an utter delight with moments of humour as well as a degree of tragedy. Gerard Depardieu does a really fine job as the eponymous Jean; he makes you really feel the effort and heartache of his character as he toils away never knowing how close he is to a spring that could save his enterprise. Yves Montand and Yves Montand also impress as César and Ugolin; they make the characters amusing without them tipping over to being pantomime villains. The film also provides some beautiful but rugged scenery and captures rural French life at the time. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to anybody wanting a beautiful, character led drama... now I need to watch part two; 'Manon des Sources'.

I saw this film during my foreign film phase. American films had started to become too bland and predictable so I decided to give the foreign ones a shot. Subtitles didn't bother me because I already had a history of viewing flicks like those. When I was a kid, my Chinese grandfather used take us to the Saturday matinees at Ascot Cinema on Eastern Main Road in Sangre Grande where Chinese subtitled imports were playing, so I got used to them."Jean de Florette" stunned me, took me by surprise. At first I thought it, and its sequel, "Manon of the Spring," were going to be the most dreaded of all genres - love stories. They weren't. Everything about this movie was perfect - cinematography, acting, direction, everything. I can't recommended this movie and its sequel enough.

Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring are more closely related than an original and sequel; they are really parts 1 and 2 of the same film, and in fact were filmed back to back.Set in Provence around 1920 (most people still use horses, donkeys and mules, but there are a few autos around; telephones exist but are rare, the mayor is very proud to have one), the first film tells of Jean de Florette (Gerard Depardieu,) a rather intellectual bourgeois civil servant from the city who, having inherited a farm in Provence, moves his wife Aimee (Élisabeth Depardieu, Gerard Depardieu 's real life wife at the time) and ten year old daughter Manon there, with the intention of applying scientific principles to raise vegetables and rabbits. But in the arid climate of Provence, everything depends on water: there is a plentiful spring on the property but Jean doesn't know it because his neighbors, local worthy Cesar "Le Papet" ("Gramps") Soubeyran (Yves Montand) and his rather dim nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) have blocked it up, hoping that the lack of water will cause the farm to fail, so they can buy it cheap. This tactic has tragic consequences for Jean's family. The second film recounts how ten years later Manon, now a beautiful young woman, finds both the spring and a way of revenge for what was done to her family. In the end, everyone gets more or less their just desserts.The films have an interesting history. French writer and director Marcel Pagnol, whose play Marius was latter turned into the French film trilogy Marius/César/Fanny, which was itself remade into the 1962 Hollywood film Fanny with Leslie Caron and other big stars, made a film in 1953, Manon des Sources, telling the second part of the story; his final cut of over four hours was so drastically cut by the distributor that Pagnol disowned it, and later redid the same story as a novel, adding a prequel novel, Jean de Florette; these two books together became the basis for these films.Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring were a huge success both commercially and critically, and it's easy to see why. The Provencal settings are meticulously detailed and the landscape photography luscious. The acting is all around excellent: Gerard Depardieu and Yves Montand especially are as good as they've ever been.These films are not perfect works of art: they are not free of sentimentality, some viewers may occasionally be confused about exactly who some of the minor characters are, and the surprise ending ties together all the loose ends so neatly that it may see rather artificial. But these are minor flaws. All in all, this is a production that I think everyone will like: it's one of those rare films that leave you with memories that seem to be of people and places you've experienced rather than seen on a screen.

When Voltaire says something like " I disagree with what your saying but would die for your right to say it" I feel, in the context of these linked 2 beautiful movies that really are one, like saying I disagree with what you're saying and will shout you if you say it again" Yes after raving homage to this work there are some people who can't see anything about it, some who have only seen part one! I can't even begin to comprehend why they bother to say so. There you are i'm not a Voltairian! Once again, perhaps after 15 years I have enjoyed immensely J d F and M des sources that I consider to be only one movie in two parts and not a movie and its sequel. The first time I saw it a the cinema and was so impressed with part one that my wife and I purchased the ticket for MDS on the way out that we did not take but 2 hours later mesmerized by what we watched. My earliest knowledge of Marcel Pagnol must have been a X'mas record something like "Noel with the santons de Provence" a beautiful X'mas tale a la Pagnol (ave l'acceng du midi qui n'en fini pas) yes with the French southern accent that seems to never end! I read here a comment about inappropriate subtitles, I must admit for this movie I felt highly privileged to understand French, French rural area and French accent. Definitely these 3 ingredient give again another dimension to this work and I would believe getting the appropriate subtitle to emulate the accent would be a phenomenal task. I guess four hours can be a little taxing on some, but like many have reported it's really worth it and I can only feel sorry for the few who are or will be displeased with such a master piece.