Manon of the Spring

Director Claude Berri plays the story out steadily, beautifully and thrillingly. [25 Dec 1987, p.F20]

It moves with a majestic pacing over the affairs of four generations, demonstrating that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children.

The whole four hours or so of the two films is as handsome a package as France has produced in years. [30 Dec 1987, p.D6]

This tonal shift transforms Manon of the Spring from a caustic morality play into something more reflective, an elegy to a way of life whose residents did not fully appreciate until they themselves had helped to end it.

Though appealing in its wispy way, "Manon" is only a continental soap opera.

Berri remains a boring director, dotting every i and crossing every t with nothing much on his mind but platitude.

The events in ''Manon of the Spring'' are no more wildly melodramatic than those in ''Jean de Florette'' but, without the indoctrination provided by ''Jean,'' the second film functions as a mean-spirited review of the first.