Cinema: Time, Space and the Joy of Evil JEAN DE FLORETTE

Directed by Claude Berri Screenplay by Claude Berri and Gerard Brach

Shrewd, grasping, rich old Cesar Soubeyran (Yves Montand) and his simpleton nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) covet their neighbor's land. Each has his reasons, but they are not good enough. Not enough, that is, to justify their terrible plot to force the decent, innocent newcomer known as Jean de Florette (Gerard Depardieu), his patient wife and lovely child to sell their holdings at a distressed price. The Soubeyrans' idea is simple: stop up the neighbor's spring. But the execution is grim and protracted; the plotters stand by, offering sympathy but no practical assistance as Jean descends first to exhaustion, then to madness,...

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