Saturday, March 10, 2018
434 - Jean de Florette, France, 1986. Dir. Claude Berri.
Gerard Depardieu. Yves Montand. Daniel Auteuil.
What else do you need to know?
How about the hillside landscapes of Provence. With cinematography by Bruno Nutten.
When I first moved to Pasadena there were four art house movie theaters down the street from each other on Colorado Boulevard. The Colorado. The State. The Academy. And the fourth one whose name I do not remember. The Academy is still there, with six screens, but the other three are gone. It was a sad day when each of them closed. I saw great films at all of them.
But the good news is that the Laemmle Playhouse 7 replaced what was lost. I could walk to it. It played great foreign films and hard-to-find domestic films. If a movie was showing in only two places in America--one in New York and one in Los Angeles--then the Los Angeles location was at the Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena. We were spoiled.
I still remember the voice of the trailer man describing this film. It came out in 1986, but they were bringing it back for a revival showing. It was either the late 1990s or the early 2000s. He voice was as thick and rich as honey. The colors on the screen popped out like a spilled Crayola box. And, I believe, he changed the order of the names.
"Gerard Depardieu. Daniel Auteuil. And Yves Montand. . . ." And then he went on to describe the film. They ran the trailer for weeks. And weeks was long enough for me to see quite a few movies. And this trailer quite a few times. It was a film I would have to see.
The Borders bookstore on South Lake Avenue, back when Borders was open, carried Jean de Florette in an MGM World Films edition, along with its companion film Manon of the Spring. I would later buy them in a double Blu-ray edition from Barnes & Noble. The first film is Part I. The second film is Part II. We will watch I today and II tomorrow. We will treat them as separate films. As a film and its sequel.
The films are based on a 1966 British novel by Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974), entitled L'eau des collines (The Water of the Hills), which was in turn based on the separate 1963 French novels Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring. The novels were in turn based on Pagnol's 1952 film Manon of the Spring, which he himself directed from an original screenplay he also wrote. So the screenplay gave birth to the original film, which gave birth to the original novels, which were translated into one large novel, which gave birth to the two films. Got it? Good.
There has not been this much intrigue surrounding water rights since Chinatown (1974).
Cesar Soubeyran is the uncle of Ugolin. Ugolin calls Soubeyran Papet. Soubeyran calls Ugolin Galinette.
The Soubeyran were a rich and proud dynasty. Cesar still has cans of gold coins hidden in stockpiles. He lives in a well-built house on the side of the slopes outside the village.
His nephew Ugolin comes to live with him. Soubeyran is proud. He himself does not have an heir. Ugolin is the last of the line, and the name depends on him. He must get married.
But Ugolin is not interested in getting married. He is interested in farming. Not fruit. Not vegetables. But flowers. Carnations. Bright red carnations.
The only problem is that the landscape is dry. Rain is sporadic and unreliable. They could dig wells. They could dig a reservoir. But then there is this spring uphill. On their neighbor's property. Pique-Bouffigue. They go to him. Make him an offer. He is up in a tree working. He says No. Absolutely not. He would never sell to a Soubeyran.
Cesar pulls him out of the tree. Pique-Bouffigue lands on his head. He dies. Oh, well. No one will know. Now we can buy his property from his heirs when they inherit it.
If only it were that easy.
Pique-Bouffigue's sister was Florette. Someone Cesar knew in a past life. She had a son named Jean. Jean Cadoret. Jean has a wife named Aimee. Jean and Aimee have a daughter named Manon. They come from the city. He knows all kinds of things from books. He does not decide to sell. He decides to move in. To make this place his home. To farm it. Squash. Potatoes. Other vegetables. And rabbits. Lots of rabbits. Jean can do it, because he is optimistic. Enthusiastic. And he knows things from books.
If only Soubeyran and Ugolin had not stopped up his spring with cement. So that his land will dry up. So that his plans will fail. So that he will decide to move back to the city and sell his land to them. At rock-bottom prices.
It all plays out. One way or the other. And it is joyful and outrageous and shocking and sad.
Watch them work together, these three actors, and see them transform the film into something beautiful.
We saw Yves Montand towards the beginning of his career. In The Wages of Fear (1953). Now we see him at the end. He would make a couple more and then pass away five years after this one. He is at the peak of his game.
Now about that spring . . .
* * * * *
The Wages of Fear (1953)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/01/004-wages-of-fear-1953-france-dir-henri.html
The Red Circle (1970)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/090-red-circle-le-cercle-rouge-1970.html
Tout Va Bien (1972)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/118-tout-va-bien-1972-france-dir-jean.html
No comments:
Post a Comment