They destroyed her father. Now they offered her love. But the only thing she desired was revenge.
Overview
In this, the sequel to Jean de Florette, Manon has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside. She plots vengeance on the men who greedily conspired to acquire her father's land years earlier.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.6/10
Letterboxd: 4.06/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
TMDB: 7.6/10
Director
Claude Berri
Production
DD Productions, Films A2, Renn Productions, RAI
Cast
Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Béart, Hippolyte Girardot, Margarita Lozano, Yvonne Gamy, Ticky Holgado, Jean Bouchaud, Elisabeth Depardieu, Gabriel Bacquier, Armand Meffre, André Dupon, Pierre Nougaro, Jean Maurel, Roger Souza, Didier Pain, Pierre-Jean Rippert, Marc Betton, Chantal Liennel, Lucien Damiani
Curator Review
Verdict
A lush, emotionally charged revenge drama with pastoral beauty, moral complexity, and a devastating payoff. It works best as the second half of a two-part story, but it also stands on its own as a moving portrait of grief, justice, and the cost of withholding the truth.
Best for
Viewers who like revenge stories with moral ambiguity
Fans of sun-drenched rural dramas and French period cinema
Anyone who enjoyed Jean de Florette
People who appreciate strong visual atmosphere and emotional restraint
Skip if
You want a fast, plot-driven thriller
You dislike melodrama or tragic endings
You haven't seen Jean de Florette and prefer self-contained stories
You need a film with a light or uplifting tone
Overview
Manon of the Spring is the rare sequel that deepens everything around it. Claude Berri returns to the same Provençal landscape, but the mood has shifted from fatalistic tragedy to a story of reckoning, where the beauty of the countryside only makes the old cruelty feel sharper.
Worth noting
Emmanuelle Béart gives the film its pulse as Manon, a figure of innocence hardened into purpose. Her revenge is satisfying, but the film is smart enough to let that satisfaction curdle into sadness, because the damage spreads beyond the original guilty men. That moral complexity is what gives the film its lasting force.
Bottom line
The ending lands with real emotional weight, and the film’s patient pace pays off in a way that feels both classical and devastating. It is best watched as the conclusion to Jean de Florette, but even on its own it remains a rich, elegant drama about land, memory, and the price of silence.
Top Letterboxd reviews
sara joy ✿🧚♀️ · 326 likes
nothing will ever compare to my entire french class gasping in horror while ugolin fucking sewed her ribbon to his nipple
David Sims (4★) · 147 likes
fuck them up manon
munta (5★) · 146 likes
emmanuelle béart. That's the review
gregs1999 (4★) · 131 likes
This must have been the quickest 2 hours I have ever felt, I was expecting another hour when there was only 10 minutes left. Those final minutes dropped one of the biggest bombshells in cinema history. It fucking destroyed me. An amazing two-parter that has to be experienced.
Josh Gillam (4.5★) · 99 likes
MILD SPOILERS
This follow-up to Jean de Florette caps off the story elements left hanging before, tying it all together in a heart-wrenching, elegiac conclusion that both expands and adds on to the original along with the characters who inhabit it, the actions of Manon (Emmanuelle Béart) causing ripple effects on wealthy landowner César (Yves Montand) and nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil).
Director Claude Berri uses… more