Manon of the Spring 1986

     This film is based on L’Eau des Collines (Water of the Hills) by Marcel Pangnol.  Manon takes care of her flock of sheep in the beautiful Provencal countryside.  Her father died and her mother has returned to her career as an opera singer.  Ugolin sees her and immediately falls in love with her.  Cesar, his grandfather advises him that he needs to get married to carry on his family name but he’s not very good about wooing women.  Manon overhears a conversation between two local men hunting on the property.  Ugolin and Cesar cheated her father out of his land and were involved in his death.  They knew of an underground spring but hid the information to get the property cheaply.  Her father was struggling to grow his crops and desperate for water.

     Jean de Florette was released prior to this film and is based on the same novel.  Manon of the Spring continues the story.  You can pick up what happened in the first film from this film.  This is interesting and there are some funny scenes concerning the people in the village.  3 ½* (I liked this movie) 

113 min, Drama directed by Claude Berri with Yves Montand, Emmanuelle Beart, Daniel Auteuil, Hippolyte Girardot, Margarita Lozano, Yvonne Gamy.

Note:  Imdb 8.1 out of 10, 77% critic 93% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 4*.