Manon des Sources
Dir: Claude Berri
1986
*****
Released a couple of months after Jean de Florette,
Manon des Sources was in fact shot
back-to-back with the first film. In 1953, Marcel
Pagnol wrote and made his film Manon
des Sources but it was four hours long and
subsequently cut by its distributor. This left Pagnol dissatisfied, and led him
to retell the story as a novel. The first part of the novel, titled Jean
de Florette, was an exploration of the background for the film; a prequel
of sorts. Together the two volumes made up the work Pagnol called L'Eau
des collines (The Water of the Hills). Many
years later, Claude Berri came across Pagnol's book by chance in a hotel room,
and was captivated by it. He decided that in order to do the story justice it
had to be made in two parts and after the huge success of the first film, they
took a bit of time before releasing the second, but not too long. Both films
collectively were seen as 'heritage cinema' pieces that had been pushed by the
then French President François
Mitterrand and particularly his Minister
of Culture Jack Lang.
This was to help promote these kinds of films through increased funding of the
ailing French film industry. Berri's films almost did it single-handedly. The
films and Peter Mayle's book A
Year in Provence (which was published in
1989) saw an increase in British home
ownership in southern France, indeed, I holidayed quite a bit around there at
the time and still do to this day. Some have said that the treatment given the
outsider Jean de Florette by the locals was symbolic of the growing popularity
of the anti-immigration movement,
led by politicians like Jean-Marie Le Pen. I
don’t know how true that is but I sort of hope it was, because as beautiful
as Provence is, and as much as I love it, there is still a high
level of racism and bigotry. Following
the events of Jean de Florette a few years later, Manon, the
daughter of Jean now all grown up, is living in the countryside of Provence near
Les Romarins, the farm that her father once owned. She has taken up residence
with an elderly Piedmontese squatter couple
who teach her to live off the land, tending to a herd of goats and hunting
for birds and rabbits.
Ugolin, has begun a successful business growing carnations at
Les Romarins with his uncle Papet - thanks to the water provided by the spring there
that they kept secret for so long. After seeing her bathe nude in
the mountains (in a scene that got many a young man into French film back in
the late 80s), Ugolin develops an interest in Manon. When he approaches her,
she seems disgusted by his vileness and almost certainly by the memory of his
involvement in her father's downfall. But Ugolin's interest in Manon becomes
obsessive, culminating in sewing a ribbon from her hair through his nipple.
It’s fair to say that the sequel takes on a very different tone from
the first but I’ve always thought this scene quite clever, very French in its
similarities to Van Gogh cutting off his own ear, something he did
just down the road from where the film is set. Unfortunately for
Ugolin, Manon becomes interested in Bernard, a handsome and educated
schoolteacher recently arrived in the village. As a small child, Manon had
suffered the loss of her father, who died from a blow to the head while using
explosives in an attempt to find the water source. César and Ugolin then bought
the farm cheaply from his widow, Manon's mother, and unblocked the spring.
Manon witnessed this as a child. The two men profited directly from his death. When
she overhears two villagers talking about it, Manon realises that
many in the village knew of the crime but had remained silent, for the
Soubeyran family was locally important. While searching for a goat that fell
into a crevice above the village, Manon finds the underground source of
the spring that supplies water to the local farms and village. It’s a
heartbreaking scene. To take her revenge on both the Soubeyrans and the
villagers, who knew but did nothing, she stops the flow of water using the
iron-oxide clay and rocks found nearby. The villagers quickly
become desperate for water to feed their crops and run their businesses. They
come to believe that the water flow had been stopped by some Providence to
punish the injustice committed against Jean. Manon publicly accuses César and
Ugolin, and the villagers admit their own complicity in the persecution of
Jean. They had never accepted him, as he was an outsider and was physically
deformed. César tries to evade the accusations, but an eye-witness, a poacher
who was trespassing on the vacant property at the time, steps forward to
confirm the crime, shaming both César and Ugolin. Ugolin makes a desperate
attempt to ask Manon for her hand in marriage, but she rejects him. The
Soubeyrans flee in disgrace. Rejected by Manon, Ugolin commits suicide by
hanging himself from a tree, apparently ending the Soubeyran line. The
villagers appeal to Manon to take part in a religious procession to the
village's fountain, hoping that acknowledging the injustice will restore the
flow of water to the village. With the assistance of Bernard, Manon unblocks
the spring in advance, and the water arrives at the village at the moment that
the procession reaches the fountain. Meanwhile, César has been
broken by his nephew's suicide. Delphine, an old acquaintance of his, returns
to the village and tells him a secret, the film’s last and devastating twist.
The film touches just about every emotion but its sadness prevails. It’s incredibly
beautiful, poetic and poignant that it is still remembered today as one of
France’s greatest modern classics.
