Germinal (1993)
Drama | Romance
In mid-nineteenth-century northern France, a coal mining town's workers are exploited by the mine's owner. One day, they decide to go on strike, and the authorities repress them.
Starring: Miou-Miou, Renaud, Jean Carmet, Gérard Depardieu, Judith Henry, Jean-Roger Milo, Laurent Terzieff
Director: Claude Berri
Manon des Sources / Manon of the Spring / Jean de Florette II (1986)
Drama
This sequel to 1986's Jean de Florette stars Emmanuelle Beart as Manon (the daughter of Jean de Florette's protagonist). Manon has grown up to become a beautiful woman, a shy and resourceful shepherdess who lives in relative seclusion from the townspeople of her provencal village, haunted by the tragic death of her father (played by Gerard Depardieu in part one). An outsider, like her father, Manon stays high up in the rugged hills preferring the company of her sheep to her nearby neighbors Cèsar (Yves Montand) and Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil). One fateful day, Manon discovers the real reason why her father's spring ran dry and comes up with a powerful revenge to exact on the men responsible for her father's downfall. Manon's action changes her life forever and uncovers long-hidden family secrets that powerfully affect the local villagers.
Starring: Yves Montand, Emmanuelle Béart, Daniel Auteuil, Hippolyte Girardot, Margarita Lozano
Director: Claude Berri
Jean de Florette / Jean Florette (1986)
Drama
The first of two parts of the classic Marcel Pagnol story set in southeast France in the mid 1920s. In a small provencal village, where water is scarce and the earth dry, only one piece of property possesses an underground spring to irrigate the soil–and the wily, greedy Cèsar (Yves Montand) will do anything to get hold of it. His dreams seem on the verge of coming true when the owner (with a little help from Cèsar) dies unexpectedly. But then Jean Cadoret (Gerard Depardieu), an outsider who inherits the farm, arrives with the intention of settling down and cultivating the land with his good-hearted wife Aimee (played by Depardieu's real wife, Elisabeth Depardieu) and young daughter Manon (Ernestine Mazurowna). Jean, a hunchback and sensitive dreamer, glories in his new life while Cèsar and his nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) secretly decide to stop up the spring so his plans will fail. The good-hearted Jean, too naive to imagine that anyone would sabotage him, struggles fruitlessly to make his garden bloom. His continual failure erodes his spirit, setting the stage for a tragedy with consequences for all.
Starring: Yves Montand, Gérard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil, Elisabeth Depardieu, Margarita Lozano
Director: Claude Berri
