Presentation for Jean de Florette

1. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. This film is often considered to be overtly nostalgic. What
is nostalgia? What elements of the film might be considered to
be nostalgic? What elements of the film might not seem
nostalgic? Assuming the film is nostalgic, what in 1980s
France might have made the idealization of the past desirable?
2. One of the dominant themes of the film seems to be the
relationship between “insiders” and “outsiders.” Who are the
insiders in the film? Who are the outsiders? What defines the
insiders and what defines the outsiders? If the film meditates,
as critics have suggested, on the changing composition of the
population of France, what it is saying?
3. The film also openly meditates on the relationship between
tradition and modernity. What elements of the film suggest
tradition? What elements suggest modernity? What
commentary does the film make about tradition and
modernity? Which of the two does it seem to favor, or does it
critique both? Why?

2. JEAN DE
FLORETTE
Claude Berri
1986

3. SETTINGS

4. TRADITIONAL, RURAL,
SOUTHERN FRANCE
The farm
The home
The village square
The bar
The fields
The bakery

5. OPEN VS. CLOSED
SPACES

6. THEMES

7. THE DARK SIDE OF
TRADITION
Conflict over scarce
resources
Community vs.
individualism
Hostility towards outsiders
Inability to judge based on
appearances
Fear of outsiders/ outside
influences
Greed vs. moderation
Family vs. patriarchy

8. THE DANGER OF
NOSTALGIA
Misreadings of the past
negatively impact the
present
Desire to rebuild or
reproduce past glories
as dangerous
Naïve attachment to
tradition as deadly
Resistance to change
Fear of outsiders
Community threatened/
impoverished by desire
to remain unchanged