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.

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Plot Keywords:

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

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Genres:

Drama

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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

Was #4 on Gene Siskel 's list of the "Best Films of 1987."

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Goofs

When Cesar lies 'apparently' dead, a woman enters the room, opens the drapes then checks Cesar. She blesses herself, then there's a zoom in on Cesar's hand wrapped in a rosary. His 'ring' finger twitches a few times until the zoom in stops. Appears to go to still frame thereafter.

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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.

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Connections

Featured in At the Movies: The Best Films of 1987 (1988)

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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 standard for giving a "10"

Whenever I'm tempted to give a movie that I liked a lot a "10" rating, I think of this and Jean de Florette (it's one long story arc). It's a rare film that comes up to this standard.

Strongly recommend that you rent them both at once; watch Jean de Florette on Friday or Saturday, and then watch Manon of the Spring the next day. Otherwise, Jean de Fleurette is just too damn depressing.

But whether apart or taken together, they are as fine a work of art as any of us can hope to ask for.