Manon of the Spring

A shepherd girl in the parched hills above a Provençal village discovers that the spring on her dead father's land was blocked on purpose, and that the whole village knew and said nothing. When she finds the source that feeds the town and seals it, the fountains run dry and the guilt surfaces name by name. Pagnol shot the story at close to four hours and released it in two parts, Manon des sources and Ugolin. The order is usually remembered backwards. The film came first; the novel arrived ten years later, and its opening volume, Jean de Florette, exists only because Pagnol wanted to give the barely glimpsed father a life of his own. Berri's celebrated eighties diptych descends from that novel rather than from this film. Jacqueline Pagnol, who plays Manon, was the director's wife and the part was written for her.