Manon des sources (1986)'s activity

Named after Pagnol's original film which spawned the "Water of the Hills" novel than then gave us Berri's two-part Provencal epic starting in Jean de Florette, Manon of the Spring (Manon des Sources) jumps ahead about a decade to see the consequences of the previous chapter's land grab. It is the New Testament to part 1's Old, with the landscape that, while beautiful, felt hellish now a colorful pastoral setting. Manon, the wronged hunchback's daughter, is a shepherdess who punishes the sinful, but also seems to provide a miracle when the village is hit with drought. Daniel Auteuil's character has become obsessed with her, and is again on the verge of repenting his sins, but he may be in too deep. His father (Yves Montand) is in greater need of redemption, or if unavailable, punishment, and this comes about in a most melodramatic way. This, and the fact that Manon lacks the agency that summary blurbs would give her as an avenger, makes me affect this second part less than the first, but I'm only slightly disappointed by the film's novelistic epilogue.