Manon des Sources [Manon of the Spring] ***** (1986, Yves Montand, Emmanuelle Béart, Daniel Auteuil) – Classic Movie Review 5283

Emmanuelle Béart stars as Manon, who has grown up to be a lovely shepherdess, in director Claude Berri’s haunting, compelling 1986 climax to author Marcel Pagnol’s two-part movie saga that began with Jean de Florette.

Manon determines to avenge herself on the farmer called ‘Le Papet’ (Yves Montand) and his pitiful nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil), whose scheming led to the death of her father (played in the first film by Gérard Depardieu). Auteuil’s Ugolin falls in love with her, but she still seeks her revenge.

Again, as with Jean de Florette, the chief pleasures are the superb performances, the film’s great visual beauty in cinematographer Bruno Nuytten’s images, and Berri’s strong control over the riveting narrative. A gorgeous French classic, it is stirring stuff. It does full justice to Pagnol’s conception of the story, which he himself filmed as producer and director in 1952 as a Provençal modern Greek tragedy.

Also in the cast are Hippolyte Girardot, Margarita Lozano, Gabriel Bacquier and Elisabeth Depardieu.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5283

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