Manon of the Spring (1986)

A beautiful but shy shepherdess plots vengeance on the men whose greedy conspiracy to acquire her father's land caused his death years earlier.

Director:

Claude Berri

Writers:

Claude Berri (adaptation), Gérard Brach (adaptation) (as Gerard Brach)

Stars:

Yves Montand, Emmanuelle Béart, Daniel Auteuil

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 4 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Yves Montand	...	Cesar Soubeyran dit 'Le Papet'
Daniel Auteuil	...	Ugolin
Emmanuelle Béart	...	Manon (as Emmanuelle Beart)
Hippolyte Girardot	...	Bernard Olivier
Margarita Lozano	...	Baptistine
Yvonne Gamy	...	Delphine
Ticky Holgado	...	Le Spécialiste (as Tiki Olgado)
Jean Bouchaud	...	Le Curé
Elisabeth Depardieu	...	Aimee Cadoret
Gabriel Bacquier	...	Victor
Armand Meffre	...	Philoxène
André Dupon	...	Pamphile, le menuisier
Pierre Nougaro	...	Casimir
Jean Maurel	...	Anglade
Roger Souza	...	Ange, le fontainier

Storyline

In this, the sequel to Jean de Florette, Manon (Beart) has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside. She determines to take revenge upon the men responsible for the death of her father in the first film.

---

Plot Keywords:

spring | revenge | goatherd | sequel | countryside of provence | 

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

Switzerland Italy France

Language:

French

Release Date:

4 December 1987 (USA)

Also Known As:

Manon of the Spring

Filming Locations:

Ansouis, Vaucluse, France

Box Office

Gross USA:

$3,940,542

Company Credits

Production Co:

DD Productions, Films A2, RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Yves Montand was raised in the area where the story takes place and had been a friend of Marcel Pagnol. Nevertheless he rejected the role when it was first offered. Montand was ultimately persuaded to take his role by wife Simone Signoret, who died during production.

---

Goofs

When Manon talks to the teacher in the field, she says the rocks 'are Cretaceous, they're all from the Quaternary'. These are two separate geological time periods.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
[dialog in French, lines from English subtitles]
Le Fleuriste: Voila!
[pause]
Le Fleuriste: Next time I won't pay this much. The competition from Italy is ruining me.
Cesar Soubeyran: This barely pays for the fertilizer for the flowers. Next year we'll grow chickpeas.
Le Fleuriste: I'll miss our aperitifs together.

---

Connections

Spoofed in Date with an Angel (1987)

---

Soundtracks

Le Mariage de Manon
(Manon's Marriage)
Chanté par Gabriel Bacquier & Eve Brenner
Lyrics by David McNeil
conducted by Jean-Claude Petit with the Orchestre de Paris

User Reviews

The best film ever

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!