Jean de Florette

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George S May 16, 2018 Very powerful drama with such colorful performances and mesmerizing cinematography that captures beautiful rural landscapes of France. Each of the four main performers did their jobs well, even the little girl who will be the main force in the sequel. My heart was breaking as I watched poor Jean and his family try to succeed, this amiable and harmless man didn't deserve the fate he eventually got, as he said: the ugly on the outside have the purest souls. See more

Albus W May 16, 2017 It almost makes us feel guilty that we are rooting for the villains, who conspire so greedily to force a man off his own land, and is elevated even more by Jean-Claude Petit's wonderful score and two excellent performances by Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil. See more

George S Jan 14, 2017 In Jean de Florette Gerard Depardieu plays something of a Clark Griswold character, a father with a bold vision for his family and himself, and driven to the brink of insanity to fulfill it. Claude Berri's film is a fascinating and believable character study. See more

Rey W Jan 3, 2017 A prestige picture, no doubt, and the images are "painterly" with a masterful use of light. The French countryside may have never looked better. The acting is also superb -- by Daniel Auteuil, Gerard Depardieu, and Yves Montand -- as you would expect. Auteuil plays a none-too-bright farmer who, under the sneaky guidance of his uncle (Montand), covets the land inherited by Depardieu which has fertile soil and a hidden water source, a spring, which Auteuil and Montand manage to stop up before he arrives. So, Depardieu has a Herculean task ahead of him, to create his envisioned rabbit farm (150 rabbits per month) and sustainable "kitchen garden" with marrow enough to feed that many hares - without water. Or without water independent of the rain that he hopes will fall, but doesn't because of an epic heatwave and drought. Such is the plot and it creates enough suspense and tension to carry the film. However, I felt that we were looking at these characters and their predicaments from the outside and never really from the inside; even the relationship between Auteuil and Depardieu, which grows closer and creates tension that threatens to undermine the Montand/Auteuil plot, never feels particularly "real". But these are minor quibbles if one observes this film as the art object it was meant to be. Engaging but not enthralling - but I say this before seeing "Manon of the Spring", the sequel and second part of the story, which is clearly anticipated and which may resolve the arc of the story more satisfactorily. See more

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Jean de Florette

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