Short Schiff

MOVIES

To see or not to see

Jean de Florette: Claude Bern's adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's novel is a plump woodsy melodrama in the tradition of Tess and Barry Lyndon: the hills and dales look

Depardieu, down on the farm.

sumptuous; the city-slick stars ham it up as rumbustious bucolic types; and the forces of passion, greed, and revenge surge tempestuously against the God's-country backdrops. Yves Montand, chewing happily on a ripe Provencal accent, plays a landowning reprobate who covets the farm next door, and Daniel Auteuil is all inbred bugginess as his slavish nephew. But Jean de Florette, like nearly every other French picture that washes up on our shores, belongs to Gerard Depardieu. As the title character, a robust hunchback who descends from the city to take over the very farm Montand has his eye on, Depardieu gives an avid, smitten performance: in the rugged land where Montand sees only money, Depardieu discovers poetry—and obsession. Unfortunately, Berri's directorial style never matches his explosive characters: it's poky, pretty, and tame. Worse, Jean de Florette is only half a movie. For the more stirring conclusion, Manon des Sources, fans will have to wait at least until

the fall.

STEPHEN SCHIFF