Jean de Florette

Orion Classics | Release Date: August 28, 1987

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

75	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

James Berardinelli

The twists taken by the narrative, the quality of the performances, the superlative cinematography, and Berri's masterful direction make this one of the best motion pictures ever to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Read full review

100

Hal Lipper

One of the finest pictures released this year. [13 Nov 1987, p.1D]

Roger Ebert

The point of the film is not to create suspense, but to capture the relentlessness of human greed, the feeling that the land is so important the human spirit can be sacrificed to it. Read full review

Ted Mahar

Slowly, inexorably and fascinatingly, Jean de Florette glides to a seemingly inevitable ending -- and to scenes of the next installment. [14 Sep 1987, p.C05]

Vincent Canby

Jean de Florette has the delicacy or something freshly observed. It's so good that one needn't be ashamed of escaping into its idealized if harsh and rocky world. Read full review

Nigel Floyd

It is Depardieu who supplies the heart and soul of the film with a performance of towering strength and heartbreaking pathos. Read full review

Sheila Benson

Jean de Florette is like good peasant bread: honest, chewy, unsurprising and heavily satisfying. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Berri’s sympathetic work with his small cast, and his subservience to Pagnol’s story and dialog are key factors in the film’s robust dramatic appeal. Read full review

Desson Thomson

Beneath the sylvan trappings is a whodunit as riveting as any. Read full review

Bill Cosford

The result is a kind of quiet epic of rural life, redolent of the Taviani brothers' Tuscan reveries. And though Jean de Florette is whole enough to stand on its own, there's unfinished business at the end -- enough to hook us. [25 Sep 1987, p.D5]

EmpireDavid Parkinson

A simple, elemental tale that makes breaking the heart seem like the easiest and most natural thing a filmmaker can do to his audience. Which, of course, it isn't. Read full review

The GuardianDerek Malcolm

What Pagnol wrote about his book was much more affecting than anything in this cliche-ridden film, full of cardboard characters and pretty views. Read full review

Pauline Kael

The director, Claude Berri, who did the adaptation with Gerard Brach, aimed for fidelity to the novel; he said it was his task to give the material "a cinematic rhythm," but "there was no need for imagination." That's what he thinks.