Jean de Florette

Jean de Florette (1986) is Claude Berri's French drama, adapted from Marcel Pagnol's novel and ready to watch online on iFILM. In the sun-bleached hills of Provence, a spring of fresh water is worth more than any neighbor's life.

Aging farmer César Soubeyran, known as Le Papet (Yves Montand), and his nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) want the property next door for its hidden source. When a city man inherits it instead — Jean Cadoret (Gérard Depardieu), a hunchbacked idealist who arrives with his wife and daughter to raise flowers and rabbits — the two quietly block the spring with stone. Then they wait, watching him haul water from miles away through a punishing summer while his crops wither and his health gives out.

This is the first half of a story completed by Manon des Sources. Berri shot on location, and the landscape isn't scenery here — it's the force that grinds these people down. A slow, exacting tragedy about greed, made for anyone who loves unhurried European cinema. Stream Jean de Florette (1986) online on iFILM.