
            The film "Jean de Florette" (1986) and the one which followed it, "Manon des Sources" (1986), are the screen rendition of Marcel Pagnol's exquisite novel, "L'eau des Collines" ("The Water from the Hills," 1963). It is the story of two competing projects, one carried out by the city-dweller Jean Cadoret, and the other by the peasant Ugolin, set in the rustic and picturesque environment of Provence in the 1920s. It is a story of opposites: the city versus the country, modernity versus traditional, good versus bad, and memory versus oblivion.As "Jean de Florette" begins, Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil), also known as "Galinette," having fulfilled his compulsory military duty, returns to "les Bastides Blanches," his native village. His uncle is César Soubeyran (Yves Montand), "le Papet," who with Ugolin is the last of the Soubeyrans, the most powerful family in the village. "Le Papet," having never married (a bit of a misnomer, since "papet" means "grandfather" in Provençal), has no heirs to whom he can pass his fortune. He sees in Ugolin his only hope for continuing the Soubeyran lineage.Ugolin returned to "les Bastides" with the idea of growing carnations. He sets up a small plot of land, plants his cuttings, and waits for the results. Ugolin keeps his enterprise a secret until the first harvest, when he takes his uncle along to witness the sale of the flowers to the village florist. Impressed by Ugolin's success, César sees in it a way to secure the Soubeyran family's fortune, and he resolves to do everything possible to facilitate Ugolin's success. The enterprise needs more land, and since carnations require lot of water to grow, this land must have a reliable source of water. Nearby, at the domain known as "les Romarins," there is a spring whose existence has almost been forgotten. César and Ugolin know of its existence, and they go to speak to the owner of the land, Pique-Bouffigue, offering to buy his property. Pique-Bouffigue is antagonistic toward César (probably because César never married his sister, Florette) and insults him. A fight ensues, during which César unintentionally causes Pique-Bouffigue's death. The two Soubeyrans arrange his body at the foot of a tree to simulate an accidental fall.César writes to an old school chum, Grafignette, who lives in nearby Crespin, asking to whom he should now address his offer to purchase "les Romarins." Grafignette writes back that the Pique-Bouffigue's heir is named Jean Cadoret (Gerard Depardieu). Cadoret is the son of Pique-Bouffigue's sister, Florette, who had just passed away few days earlier. Realizing that "les Romarins" would be practically uncultivable without the nearly forgotten spring, César and Ugolin plug it up with cement, and then camouflage it. Furthermore, César makes sure that the rest of the village knows that Jean Cadoret comes from the hated village of Crespin, thereby guaranteeing the silence and complicity of the few villagers who could be aware of the existence of this spring.Jean, "le bossu" (the hunchback), his wife Aimée (Elisabeth Depardieu), and his young daughter, Manon (Ernestine Mazurowna) soon arrive at "les Romarins," planning to settle down and raise rabbits. "I'm here to cultivate the authentic!" he tells Ugolin, who interprets the word "othentic" as some sort of exotic vegetable. Jean's project is in direct competition with César 's for the precious, scarce resources of arable land and water. César is convinced that it is only matter of time until Jean, a city dweller, will fail, sell his property, and return to the city where he was employed in the tax collector's office. He advises Ugolin to befriend Jean, to help him and his family as much as possible in their venture, thus insuring that when Jean is finally desperate enough to sell out, it will be to his true friend and good neighbor, Ugolin.The Cadorets spend their first winter at "les Romarins" preparing their project, and the spring heralds their success: the rabbits are growing fat and multiplying, and the kitchen garden gives produce which are the envy of the Soubeyrans. Summer is another story: no rain. Jean's well is now dry, and he, together with Aimee and Manon, must fetch the life-giving water from a spring located more than one mile away, still on the Cadorets' property, at "le Plantier." They endlessly shuttle between their garden and the spring as many as five or six times per day. Despite his efforts, Jean cannot keep up with his garden's thirst, and he collapses exhausted: all the rabbits die, and the garden is burned by the implacable Provence sun.Once restored to health, Jean is not ready to give up, and mortgages his property to César. Jean reads in one of his books about the dowsing technique and proceeds to use it to look for a spring on his land. Thinking he has discovered one, Jean digs until he reaches bedrock, and then dynamites the rock. He is injured in the explosion, and dies on his kitchen table. Aimée sells the property to César and prepares to depart. César and Ugolin, not even waiting until Aimée and Manon have left, rush to the hidden spring and unplug it. Manon, who had followed them, is crushed by the spectacle of the gushing water: her beloved father died just as a spring was "discovered" on the property.César cups some water from the spring and pouring it over Ugolin's head declares him the "King of Carnations."
    

Jean de Florette


            "Un Coeur en Hiver" translates as "A Heart in Winter". The three main characters are: the enigmatic violin craftsman (luthier) Stéphane (Daniel Auteuil); the charismatic violin shop owner Maxime (André Dussollier); and the impossibly beautiful violinist Camille (Emmanuelle Béart). Stéphane and Maxime are men perhaps in their early forties. Camille is a women in her late twenties. The age difference is significant if not unseamly.The overriding questions the movie poses are "Whose heart is 'in winter'?" and "Why?"Stéphane is so unemotional that it is easy to assume that the title refers to him. See the end for a spolier that explains why his heart is this way.In the typical French style, the plot/dialogue is fairly minimalist, leaving long stretches during which the viewer can ponder the existential questions it poses. The fact that it is in French with English subtitles makes it harder for the English viewer to catch all the subtleties, while simultaneously heightening the sense of being unconnected, especially to Stéphane.The plot is almost non-existent. Stéphane works for Maxime in his high-end violin repair shop. Camille is a concert violinist who Maxime woos both as a customer and a love interest. Stéphane watches Maxime and Camille become a couple, with implied jealousy. In a series of interactions over the tuning/repair of the violin, we see Camille's interest in Stéphane grow. Maxime and Stéphane seem to be polar opposites. Maxime is a charismatic bon vivant businessman, and Stéphane seems to be a painfully shy, meticulous craftsman.In a typical formula movie, the plot would go as follows: Girl falls for handsome/rich/athletic/shallow alpha man. Girls meets shy/kind/thoughtful underdog loser. Girl learns to love underdog who vanquishes the alpha male in a final showdown by using his wit to defeat brawn.In this movie, girl (Camille) falls for handsome bon vivant (Maxime). Girl then meets shy underdog (Stéphane). Girl learns to love the underdog. So far, perfectly understandable to American audiences. Then, against formula, Stéphane does not return Camille's affections. He leads her on, then eventually rejects her, breaking her heart.Maxime, knowing that Camille is devastated and would have preferred to leave him for Stéphane (if Stéphane was interested), has a decision to make. Does he reject Camille who has betrayed him? No, instead Maxime is outraged not with Camille but with Stéphane. He curses Stéphane and slaps him in the face, not for stealing his lover but for rejecting her.In the end, Camille returns to Maxime. Maxime accepts this because he loves Camille and is willing to be her second choice. Camille accepts this because her only choices are unrequited love for Stéphane, or being alone. Instead she choses the comfort/respect of a perhaps loveless relationship with Maxime.And what of Stéphane? What has he chosen and why?Except for a short interlude earlier in the move where we see Stéphane visit an old friend/mentor and play briefly with a child, the reader of this review now knows as much as anyone who has seen the movie. This leaves viewers largely intrigued but perplexed, so I'll lay it out for you.Maxime comes across as a good guy even though he left his wife for Camille. Camille is beautiful, young, talented, intelligent, kind, etc. You can't fault Maxime for falling in love with Camille, although perhaps in a French society used to mistresses, he is seen as a cad for leaving his wife. Is his heart "in winter" because he coldly left his wife, or because he knows Camille will never truly love him? No, his heart is warm and generous. He does not abandon Camille even though she has betrayed him. He loves her. If his heart was cold/calculating at the beginning of the movie, he certainly has learned his lesson. His heart is broken, but no longer cold.Camille in the end is "damaged goods." She seems genuinely unaware of the possibility that a man, any man, would reject her. She retreats to Maxime's comforting hug as a child would retreat to her father. Her heart, so vital at the outset of the movie is now broken and cold, perhaps forever. Perhaps she will find eventual love with Maxime, but they have a long, difficult road ahead, and it is unclear if she will ever heal or ever love Maxime. He seems content to wait an eternity, frozen in time if not in temperature.And now we come back to Stéphane. He was aloof and enigmatic at the beginning of the movie. He was calculating and manipulative in the middle. And at the end, he is portrayed as being unbelievably cruel or cold. People assume that any man who could ignore Camille (Emmanuelle Béart) is incapable of love. She is truly a breath-taking beauty. So why is Stéphane's heart "in winter"? It is not in winter because he is unable to love Camille, and viewers who missed this need to go back and watch the entire movie.SPOILER ALERT:Stéphane is in love with Maxime (yes, gay).At the beginning of the movie, he is pining for Maxime who is married and sees Stéphane as solely a platonic friend. Stéphane accepts that Maxime is married and won't leave his wife. When Maxime leaves his wife for Camille, Stéphane is heartbroken, knowing he will likely never be able to love Maxime openly. It isn't even entirely clear if Maxime is aware of Stéphane's love for him. He is aware of it intellectually, but clearly doesn't understand/appreciate a homosexual man's love for another man. (In this way, it is mirrored by Camille not understanding how Stéphane, or any man, could fail to love her.)Stéphane clearly decides that he cannot bear to see Maxime with Camille. He sets out to tear them apart. Stéphane treats Camille as if she is totally disposable, because he only wants to hurt Maxime. This is indeed very cold to Camille, and she is completeely unaware of Stéphane's game. Even Maxime seems to think that Stéphane is in love with Camille. Only in the end when Stéphane rejects Camille does Maxime understand both the cruel manipulation by Stéphane, and the pain that Stéphane must be in. Maxime lashes out at Stéphane for breaking Camille's heart, but in so doing has to recognize that he too broke Stéphane's heart.And there you have it, the inexplicable explained.For evidence that my hypothesis is correct, and that Maxime is neither unaware nor innocent, listen carefully at the beginning of the movie (narrated by Maxime). He says, in essence, that he leads Stéphane on enough to keep this master craftsman working in his violin shop rather than opening his own business. Maxime knows that Stéphane loves him, but being heterosexual, he shows no real understanding of what that means.And with this in mind, it begins to all make sense. Now we understand why Stéphane seduces Camille but rejects her. As any heterosexual male will attest, if you are not gay, you would fall for Camille (Emmanuelle Béart) in an instant. Instead, Stéphane is really after Maxime, and sees Camille as either a rival or an inanimate object (like a beautiful china doll). Stéphane fails to appreciate that Camille is a living person whose heart he will break. His heart is too cold to think of anything but exacting revenge on Maxime.As further proof, there is a subtle parallel thread in which Camille's music coach (a female) is in love with Camille, but Camille just glosses over the issue neither confronting nor rejecting a person she views only professionally/platonically.For the record, I'm straight, so I'm not just reading these themes into the movie for my own sake. I asked a friend who's gay whether he agreed with my take on the movie, and he thought I was crazy.Now go re-watch the movie, and judge for yourself.I'm pretty sure I'm 100% right. No other interpretation is even remotely sensible.
    

Un Coeur en Hiver


            
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Queen Margot


            We watch a street, and in front, a middle-house home. Suddenly, we hear the voices of two people, and the images move back. The comments lead us to know the situation.Georges Laurent (Daniel Auteuil) is the presenter of a literary TV programme. The programme is going well and he's got many fans, especially female. He's married to Anne (Juliette Binoche). The couple has just received a mysterious video tape: for two hours somebody has recorded the street and the front of their home. We can see several passers-by, a biker, and Georges leaving for work. The tape had no other message, it appeared just inside a supermarket white plastic bag.The next day, the couple receives another tape. This time it's a night shot. The same as before, nothing much seems to happen. However, this time the tape was wrapped in a plain paper with a child-like drawing of a boy's face stained with blood. The couple decide to go to the police, but they will not do anything about it, because there has been not actual thread. None of the neighbours of the side street from where the camera must have been placed has seen anything or anybody, in spite of the recording lasting for more than two hours. When they leave the police station, deeply frustrated because of the lack of attention to the problem, Georges crosses the road without looking and has a verbal fight with a biker (Dioucounda Koma) who almost crashed onto him. It's Anne who has to tell them to calm down.Little by little, we see Georges' life: he leads his programme proffesionally; he's got a good social life, and his son Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky) goes to high school and belongs to the swimming team. In fact, he wins the swimming competition Georges and Anne attend as spectators.During a dinner with some of their friends, Georges goes to attend the door. Although it's really late, somebody has just rung the bell. When Georges goes out, there is nobody there. He shouts to the dark empty street "Show up, you coward". When he tries to close the door, he can't, because there is another tape on the floor. Anne tells their friends their present problems, to which Georges responds - really annoyed - by showing the new tape to everybody. This new tape shows somebody driving on a rainy road, through the countryside. The car stops and the camera turns to face a countryside manor mansion. This tape is wrapped in a paper with a child-like drawing of something similar to a hen with its neck bleeding.Georges goes to that manor house: it's the house where he grew up. His mother (Annie Girardot) is old, and needs help because she can't take care of herself. Georges doesn't like the housekeeper (Marie-Christine Orry), but he won't do anything about it.The reception and the vision of the tapes is intertwined with some images, some flashbacks of a boy bleeding through his mouth (Malik Nait Djoudi). Although Georges says that he doesn't know anything about the tapes or why they are being sent to him, little by little the viewers come to realise that these images are flashbacks.We finally come to know that Majid was a child Georges' parents adopted, but somehow he was sent back to the orphanage. Georges' mother doesn't want to talk about Majid, but we don't know up to what point she can't remember.The next tape happens again inside a moving car. Anne discovers the name of an avenue, and Geoges used that to find a particular door, number 049.Georges go there on his own in spite of Anne's disapproval. There, he finds a surprised and sad man. Although Georges doesn't recognise him at first, that man recognises him. It's Majid (Maurice Bénichou), the Algerian boy Georges' parents sent back to the orphanage, now a sad forty-yeared-old man. In the following conversation, the adult Majid denies to know anything about any tapes. He says that once, watching Georges by chance on TV, felt disgusted and about to throw-up. Georges talks to him in a cocky and aggresive way. He storms out.The next day, Anne sees at home the camera images of Georges talking to Majid. Majid was left for an hour, crying devastated, sat on a chair. As usual, everything had been recorded onto a tape. Georges says he doesn't feel responsible for Majid's loser life or for having taken away his possibilities of leading a priviledged life like his. He tells the story: Majid's parents were servants at Georges' parents' home. They went to a demonstration in Paris. At that demonstration, the police killed 200 people and threw their bodies to the River Sena, among whom both of Majid's parents were. Georges' parents adopted Majid, but Georges - at that time 6 years old - (Hugo Flamigni) felt jealous of having to share everything. He tells Majid to kill a rooster and he does so, beheading the poultry with an axe. Georges tells his parents that Majid did that to scare him.The tape was not only sent to Anne. Georges's boss (Bernard Le Coq) received the tape with a postcard with a drawing on the fashion of the rest of the paper drawings. His secretary spot the weird message and gave it to him. Talking about another programme which is taking longer to take off as an introduction, the boss explains the situation to the surprised Georges, who admits he looks really aggressive in that tape. The boss had destroyed the tape because it went against Georges' privacy and he doesn't want any scandals.Another event puts the Laurent family even more on edge: Pierrot has disappeared. Anne phones Pierrot's best friend, but he's not there. Anne and Georges phone the police. The police officers (Loïc Brabant) go to Majid's home, but somebody else, a younger man, opens up the door and lets them in. It's Majid's son (Walid Afkir). Everybody goes to the police station to be questioned.Suddenly, Pierrot appears back home with another woman. It's a nurse (Caroline Baehr). As she works the night shift, she doesn't usually know what his own son -another of Pierrot's friends- is about. Later, Anne tries to talk to Pierrot and asked why he had given them such a scare. Pierrot doesn't want to communicate at all, but one of the few things he says is that he thinks that his mother and one of her friends, Pierre (Daniel Duval) are lovers. Anne rejects that notion.Georges is called by Majid, so he comes back to is flat. When questioned on the reason, Majid says that he wanted Georges to see that. He takes a pocket knife from one of his pockets and cuts his own throat. He falls to the floor completely dead.Georges phones the police. The police believe Georges and realises that it was suicide. The next day, Majid's son visits Georges in his office. He says that he wants to see his guilty face and leaves without more ado.Georges comes back home and is alone. He takes some pills and goes to sleep. In his dreams, or in a flashback, he sees how an orphanage attendant (Paule Daré) and an orphanage driver (Nicky Marbot) who take Majid away to the orphanage by force in spite of the boy screaming his lungs off. Georges's mother (Annette Faure) watches all this nonchalantly.The last scene is a fixed shot of a camera of the stairs outside Pierrots' high school. He is talking and laughing with Majid's son.
    

Caché (Hidden)

36th Precinct

Widow of St. Pierre

Remi, Nobody's Boy

Kalinka

The Well Digger's Daughter


            François Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is a non-entity accountant, divorced two years but still in love with his wife and wanting a better relationship with their 17 y/o son. Then, he is the last in his company to hear that he is to be fired. A neighbour suggests that Pignon creates the impression that he is gay, so that the company executives will find it difficult to fire him or else be thought homophobic. The plan works. Meanwhile, Félix Santini (Gérard Depardieu) is convinced, by joking fellow-executives, that Santini must treat Pignon particularly well or run the risk of charges of homophobia. Santini's bumbling attempts at positive contact with Pignon make the middle of the movie somewhat silly, but Depardieu's straight-faced believability saves this part of the movie. In the end, Pignon "gets the girl" and all is well.
    

The Closet

My Favorite Season

On Guard

A Few Days with Me

Fanny

Marius


            At the start of the 1980s, Pierre Durand abandoned
a promising legal career
and threw himself into his true passion, showjumpin
g. With his fathers
backing, he gambled everything on a young horse who
no one else had any
faith in: Jappeloup. Too small, too stubborn, too i
mpetuous, he had many
faults, but nonetheless had a remarkable jumping ab
ility. From competition
to competition, the pair improved and began to make
their mark on the
showjumping world. But the Los Angeles Olympic Game
s were a disaster
for them, and Pierre had to face up to his shortcom
ings. With the help of his
wife Nadia and groom Raphaëlle, Pierre regained Jap
peloups confidence
and built a relationship that took them to victory
in the Seoul Olympics in
1988.
    

Daniel Auteuil

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