- Marcel Pagnol(based on the work of)
- Claude Berri(adaptation)
- Gérard Brach(adaptation)
- Stars
- Marcel Pagnol(based on the work of)
- Claude Berri(adaptation)
- Gérard Brach(adaptation)
- Stars
- Manon
- (as Emmanuelle Beart)
- Le Spécialiste
- (as Tiki Olgado)
- Pamphile
- (as Andre Dupon)
- Marcel Pagnol(based on the work of)
- Claude Berri(adaptation)
- Gérard Brach(adaptation)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaYves 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.
- GoofsWhen Manon visits her father's grave, a gravestone falls over on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
- Quotes
[last lines]
[dialog in French, lines from English subtitles]
Cesar Soubeyran: [voiceover] Dear little Manon, the notary will tell you that I'm leaving you my whole estate. It may surprise you, but it's the truth. The lawyer will give you all the documents because your father was my son. He was the Soubeyran I'd hoped for all my life, whom I tormented to death because I didn't know who he was. If I had told him about the spring, he'd still be playing his harmonica, and you'd all be living in our family home. No one knows it, but I'm too ashamed to face anyone, even the trees. In the village, there's a person who knows. She will tell you everything. It's Delphine, the old blind woman. She'll explain that it's all because of Africa. I don't deserve to kiss you, and I never dared speak to you, but maybe now you can forgive me and even say a little prayer for poor Ugolin and me. I'm so pathetic, I even pity myself. Out of sheer spite, I never went near him. I never knew his voice or his face. I never saw his eyes, which might have been like his mother's. I only saw his hump and the pain I caused him. Now you understand why I want to die, because next to my torments, even hell would be a pleasure. Besides, I'll see him up there. I'm not afraid of him. Now he knows he's a Soubeyran. He's no longer a hunchback because of me. He knows it was all a foolish mistake. I'm sure that instead of blaming me, he'll defend me. Farewell, my darling girl. Your grandfather, César Soubeyran.
- ConnectionsFeatured in At the Movies: The Duxorcist/Walker/Manon of the Spring/The Dead (1987)
We feel sad and sorry for Papet and Ugolin, whose weaknesses and "crimes" are so like our own.
Daniel Auteuil, who plays Ugolin, is a actor with great range and sensitivity. He is unforgettable here as a not-too-bright peasant who suffers an excruciating and hopeless case of unrequited love. And Yves Montand, who plays his uncle is flawless, like an Olivier, as he experiences a very cruel turn of fate. Emmanuelle Béart, who plays Manon, is very beautiful, but she is also strange enough to be believable in an unlikely role as a solitary shepherdess of the hills of Provence.
Claude Berri's direction is so perfectly paced, so full of attention to detail and so unobtrusive and natural that the film just seems to happen without effort. Nothing fancy, just show what needs to be seen, no more. Use no more words than necessary, but all that are necessary. It's almost like magic, how easy it looks. The scene near the end when the blind woman reveals the cruel turn of fate to Papet is exquisite in its simplicity and its effectiveness.
In a sense this movie is a throw back an earlier era in cinema when careful attention to the construction of a character-driven story was the essence of the art.
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)
- DennisLittrell
- Dec 22, 1999
Details
Box office
- 1 hour 53 minutes
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