Jean de Florette

Jean de Florette

1986 · 122 min · FR · PG · 7.7 (631 votes)
Dir. Claude Berri · Starring Yves Montand, Gérard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil, Elisabeth Depardieu, Margarita Lozano, Ernestine Mazurowna · Music Jean-Claude Petit · The Water of the Hills Collection

“For some men, land and water are more precious than flesh and blood.”

Drama

In a rural French village, an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, and are dismayed to hear that 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.

VIBE

A sun-drenched, yet starkly realistic portrayal of human nature's darker side. It's a slow, deliberate unfolding of avarice and its tragic consequences against the beautiful, unforgiving landscape of Provence.

bittersweetpastoralmelancholicgrittyslow-burnEuropean arthouseperiod dramanaturalisticgreednaturefamilyfate
▶ Stream on Criterion Channel
francebased on novel or bookprovencegreedbattle for powersourceneighbormarcel pagnolspring (water)
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