Armand Meffre

In this Christmas classic from France, Santa Claus must secretly rescue hostages with the trusty help of child soldiers, a fairy princess and an ogre.

The sun-dappled beauty of the Provence countryside belies dark motivations, in the first installment of Claude Berri’s monumental pastoral tragedy. When the naively idealistic tax collector Jean Cadoret (Gérard Depardieu) unexpectedly inherits a family farm, he leaves the city for a new life in the agrarian community where his mother, Florette, grew up—though she moved away decades ago. His neighbors, however, the scheming Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) and his proud uncle César Soubeyran (Yves Montand), have plotted to divert the flow of water away from Jean’s land. Brought to extraordinary life by acting legends Depardieu, Auteuil, and Montand, JEAN DE FLORETTE draws viewers into a fully realized vision of 1920s rural France in which the culture clash between modern ideas and the rustic older codes of the country takes a heartbreaking turn.