| Product: |
Jean De Florette (DVD) |
| Date: |
01/08/05 (271 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Great performances and gorgeous scenery, a nice character tale
Disadvantages: Spawned a nostalgic cult that just won't give up
Jean de Florette sees Gerard Depardieu taking a part in an ensemble cast of French cinematic heavyweights. Daniel Auteil, Yves Montand and Gerard were all well-established screen actors by the time that Claude Berri cast them in this lavish adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's novel of provincial French life.
But we'd better clarify the source, hadn't we. 'Jean de Florette' is based on the first part of Pagnol's 'Eau des Collines'. That novel was in two parts. The second part of the novel was in turn based on Pagnol's earlier film 'Manon Des Sources'. So when Berri came to film the second part, he was filming both an adaptation and a remake. Yuk.
A film made about land disputes might seem about as exciting as The Phantom Menace's plot, but the spectacular location filming and humourous elements liven it all up nicely. Cesar, an old farmer, wants to acquire a piece of farmland in order that his nephew can grow carnations on it. To hide the land's value, he blocks up the land's water source, a small spring. His ambitions are thwarted, however, when the owner of the farm dies, and her son comes from the city to try his hand at farming. Jean, Depardieu's character, is a hunchback who wants to escape urban life. He is taken aback by the beauty of the landscape, which is treated with indifference by the practical farming folk. He is an eternal optimist, which is eventually his undoing, and tries to see only the best in people. He is completely oblivious of his neighbours' attempts to ruin his schemes.
Jean's arrival at the farm is important to Berri. As Jean acts like a tourist, glorying in the beauty of the Provence hills, so the camera takes in every single detail. Jean is the central figure of audience identification in his tourist attitude, as well as in his modern outlook. Make no mistake, the real star of this film is the French countryside, and every opportunity is taken to show it to its best advantage.
Nostalgia is this film's agenda. It evokes a past (and probably mythical) France, full of jolly peasants proud of their bond with the soil. Strong rural communities, all helping each other out and playing boules in the village square with a glass of red wine. Sometimes this dressing up of the past distracts from the plot. When Jean is in a fever transporting water from a distant well, the audience should be concentrating on him, not on the breath-taking hills behind him.
On the other hand, Berri does his best to betray the expectations of the Heritage Cinema genre. For all the strong sense of community that is present in village scenes, the vicious attitude of the villagers towards Jean is not particularly cosy or nostalgic. And although Jean shares the audience's sense of awe at the beauty on display in nature, he is made to look like an idiot on several occasions. Ugolin's deadpan reaction to Jean gesturing at the hills like a ponce, for example, sides the audience with the peasant idiot character briefly. Jean also appears to be insane as he outlines his plans for rabbit breeding. He imitates his rabbits as he leaps around like a maniac, illustrating his plan to make them free-range rabbits.
The occasional use of melodrama also makes Jean appear more than a little stupid. The best example is undoubtedly him yelling at the sky when a storm fails to water his parched crops.
So Berri's position on the characters in the film is ambiguous. Cesar is clearly supposed to be an evil scheming git, but the dignified portrayal by Yves Montand prevents us from ever thinking this for a second. The moronic Ugolin eventually reveals a shabby sense of honour. It doesn't stop him from persisting in his attempts to ruin Jean, but it adds pathos to the character.
In other words, this is a beautiful film, with interesting characters that require the audience to do some work to decide how corrupt they are. The use of Verdi's theme, 'The March of Destiny' has been criticised, but people need to realise that the Stella Artois adverts are referencing this film, not the other way round. The focus on the countryside may occasionally be distracting, but the narrative is never completely skewed by it. The subtitles are often only an approximate translation, but are usually more than sufficient to understand what is being said (it's a very visual narrative, which helps there). And the ensemble cast all give fantastic performances.
Enjoy.
Summary: A beautiful film, with interesting characters that require the audience to do some work.
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