Manon of the Spring (1986)

"Manon des Sources" finishes where its previous film, "Jean de Florette," left off. It takes up the tale of Manon, the beautiful young daughter whose father is gone due to the evil deeds of their neighbors.

It is 10 years past "Jean de Florette," and Manon is reduced to being a lone shepherdess in the hills for a small goat herd. Meanwhile, Ugolin, one of the men who wronged her family, has fallen in love with her.

As the movie progresses, the dark secret from "Jean" is fully revealed to all. The crime involves not only the two Soubeyrans behind the plot of the first film, but it even extends to implicate the entire town. As more is uncovered, Manon is driven to consider dark plans of a fitting revenge on them all.

The film binds all the people in town in a wonderfully spun knot of love, hate, crime, guilt, vengeance, repentance, and the possibility of forgiveness. And just when you think you've seen the completion of a superb story, there is one rich twist at the end that ties it all up into a perfect masterpiece.

Besides the wonderful story, the scenery is again gorgeously photographed. The acting is wonderful -- you end up feeling deep sympathy for all the characters in the film, no matter what their wrongs.

The first film was a solid 8, but this is definitely a rare 10.

Fmovies: Whenever I'm tempted to give a movie that I liked a lot a "10" rating, I think of this and Jean de Florette (it's one long story arc). It's a rare film that comes up to this standard.

Strongly recommend that you rent them both at once; watch Jean de Florette on Friday or Saturday, and then watch Manon of the Spring the next day. Otherwise, Jean de Fleurette is just too damn depressing.

But whether apart or taken together, they are as fine a work of art as any of us can hope to ask for.

After spending 2 hours with Manon, I'm still in shock, but in a way I saw it coming. The film proves that greed only last for a certain time, but love and being a good person is what lasts forever. That's where happiness lies.

Our crimes pay, it will eventually catch up with you, and this picture tells us best.

I won't say anymore.

The picture is as amazing as the first, Jean de Florette.

Manon of the Spring fmovies. Following the death of her father, Manon (Emmanuelle Beart) has remained in the farm house tending goats. Galinette (Auteuil) and his uncle Cesar (Montard) have greatly prospered from the fresh spring water and their carnations grow well. Galinette begins to turn towards ideas of love and steadily falls for the distant Manon. Meanwhile she has discovered the treachery that once befell her father and begins her plan to uncover the culprits.

This follows on from the open-ended story of "Jean de Florette". Time has passed and Manon is now a beautiful young woman. This film will satisfy those who felt the bleak ending of the first film was not satisfying. This sees those who acted in greed receive their deserves. As a conclusion to the story it is satisfactory - the film begins quite relaxed and is quite humorous throughout. However the "punishment" of both Galinette and Cesar is moving. Cesar's fate is particularly impacting and you feel sorry for him and his greediness.

The performances are not as strong as before. In the first film both Montard and Auteuil had set characters to play. Here they are less set and act out their roles rather than their characters. Beart is good as Manon, but she is too different in heart from the angel of the first - it's understandable why she has changed but where she was since the last film is not clear, it's unlikely that her mother would have left her at the farm or that she would have let her leave to return. But this is a minor complaint over a moving tale of deserves. I would say this rather than revenge - because both Galinette and Cesar bring their pains upon themselves.

My only problem with this is that it follows the story of the first film. However to me the first film was more about human nature (greed & hope specifically) rather than the story of the farmland and the spring. Although the end of Jean de Florette was bleak it was perhaps understandable that things should end that way. That said this is a good conclusion to the story if that's what you want - although as a further look at human nature it doesn't convince as well as the first did.

Manon des Sources is a good film that has all the visual beauty of the first film and continues the strong emotive story - as a pair of films they are an excellent piece of work. However for me, the first film is so strong in all areas that it leaves too much for the second to live up to.

A moving sequel that almost manages to live up to what went before.

I always felt that the week I needed to show the two films was worth the time for the students: they heard other-than-Parisian accents and they saw truly fine films! I enjoyed watching them as well, but I always went to the front of the room toward the end of Manon so I could watch the reaction of the students at the "revealing" scene near the end. One year, a young lady whom I did not particularly like was glued to the TV closest to her: her eyes widened, her mouth gaped, and perfectly silent tears started to flow down her cheeks. Not a motion, not a sound...just tears. I decided I liked her quite a bit more than I previously had!

This (and Jean de Florette) is the most moving, well thought out film I have ever watched. The countryside makes me long to go to France, to where it was filmed, to see "Les Romarins" and "Les Bastides". The music is like an eerie prayer that reminds my soul of "pauvre Galinette et ses rouges oeillets, et Papet Soubeyrans, et Manon Cadoret". The red carnations are a haunting image...

Both books are as good as the movies; I recommend anybody who likes this film to buy them (if you can read French, that is!). I would give everyone, Marcel Pagnol, Claude Berri, etc etc a gold medal for these works- well done!

By the way, have a look at the earlier version of "Manon des Sources". An actress called Jaqueline Pagnol is in it -she is the wife of Marcel Pagnol who wrote both books!