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Information
- Year
- 1986
- Runtime
- 120 min.
- Director
- Claude Berri
- Genres
- Drama, Comedy
- Rating *
- 8.1
- Votes *
- 17,069
- Checks
- 3,880
- Favs
- 370
- Dislikes
- 26
- Favs/checks
- 9.5% (1:10)
- Favs/dislikes
- 14:1
Top comments
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ClassicLady
Greed and the inhumanity of man for his fellow man. Know your friends because your enemy looks just like him. 8 years 4 months ago -
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Siskoid
Native French speaker or not, I was happy to have subtitles for Claude Berri's Jean de Florette, as the accents and patois of rural Southern France felt almost completely opaque to me. But the story is entirely absorbing. Farmers, a ruthless father and hapless son (Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil), have their eye on their neighbor's land and therefore sabotage his heir's chances of making a go of the property, in particular on the question of water and irrigation. That heir, a hunchbacked family man from the city, is played by Gérard Depardieu with enthusiasm to succeed despite the harsh, arid conditions of the region, and there's also a sense that the film is pitting science and modernity against folk knowledge as an additional stake. The former will win unless the latter cheats. We absolutely do not want the scoundrels to win, and prey for Auteuil to relent as he always seems on the cusp, and so if the film leaves one unsatisfied by the unfolding tragedy - a kind of redress of the Fall of Man, in a way - it's because this is a four-hour epic split in two. The next chapter, out the same year, would resolve things. But even without it, I liked Jean de Florette a lot. Berri takes Pagnol's novel (itself an expansion of one of his films) and creates a rich, detailed, lived-in world from it, where even the venal characters are interesting. 3 weeks 6 days ago
Friends
Login to see which of your friends have seen this movie!In 8 official lists
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This movie ranks #31 in IMDb's 1980s Top 50
IMDb's 1980s Top 50
31 -
This movie ranks #42 in BAFTA Award - Best Film
BAFTA Award - Best Film
42 -
This movie ranks #64 in Empire's The 100 Best Films of World Cinema
Empire's The 100 Best Fi…
64 -
This movie ranks #102 in The Times's 100 Best French Films
The Times's 100 Best Fre…
102 -
This movie ranks #116 in FOK!'s Film Top 250
FOK!'s Film Top 250
116 -
This movie ranks #387 in Halliwell's Top 1000: The Ultimate Movie Countdown
Halliwell's Top 1000: Th…
387 -
This movie ranks #699 in Doubling the Canon
Doubling the Canon
699 -
This movie ranks #1153 in TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films: 1001-2500
TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest F…
1153