In a rural French village, an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, and are dismayed to hear that the man who has inherited it is moving in. They block up the spring and watch as their new neighbour tries to keep his crops watered from wells far afield through the hot summer. Though they see his desperate efforts are breaking his health and his wife and daughter's hearts, they think only of getting the water.
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Yves Montand
César Soubeyran, aka 'le Papet'
Gérard Depardieu
Jean Cadoret, hunchback, son of Florette
Daniel Auteuil
Ugolin Soubeyran, nephew of Papet
Elisabeth Depardieu
Aimée Cadoret, wife of Jean
Margarita Lozano
Baptistine, Piedmontese of the cave
Ernestine Mazurowna
Manon Cadoret, daughter of Jean & Aimée
Armand Meffre
Philoxène, mayor
André Dupon
Pamphile, joiner
Pierre Nougaro
Casimir
Jean Maurel
Anglade, believer
Director
Claude Berri
Screenplay
Claude Berri
Tagline
"For some men, land and water are more precious than flesh and blood."
Status
Released
Original Language
FR
Budget
$4,940,939
Production
DD Productions, Films A2, Renn Productions, AMLF, RAI, TSR
Nutshell
May 22, 2020
sub·tle (adjective) Definition: making use of clever and indirect methods to achieve something. One of the most celebrated French films of the 1980s, and with good reason. I don't think there's ever been a film that better depicts evil so subtlety well as Jean de Florette, specifically in terms of greed, covetousness, and selfishness. It is not at all a "thriller", but an engrossing drama that...
Filipe Manuel Neto
June 16, 2023
**The power of envy and the ineffectiveness of farming by handbooks.** The film is quite good, perhaps one of the best French films I've seen this year, which whets the appetite for the sequel, which is reputed to be even better. Simple, this film begins with the cunning maneuvers of a wealthy Provençal farmer to obtain cheaply the land of a neighboring property. It turns out that the owner is ...
CinemaSerf
May 6, 2024
"Ugolin" (Daniel Auteuil) returns from the war to his wealthy uncle "Papet" (Yves Montant) with some inspiration. He doesn't divulge his cunning plan until he is ready, and then presents the man with some perfectly cultivated carnations. It turns out there's money in flowers, but they also need a great deal of water. Gallons and gallons of the stuff. It occurs to "Papet" that their curmudgeonly ne...
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