“Manon of the Spring” by Marcel Pagnol and the Justice of God | Dreaming Beneath the Spires
I had first watched 4 Pagnol movies with Roy about 20 years ago. We watched them all this year this equal delight, My Father’s Glory, My Mother’s Castle, Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring.
We watched Manon yesterday.
It is gorgeous visually, of course, but on one level appears to be about mankind’s thirst for justice. In our hearts and spirits, stories somehow seem incomplete unless the good are rewarded, and the evil punished.
(As at some level, I believe they are in real life.)
In Jean de Florette, an optimistic downsizing city dweller turns farmer. His academic approach to farming might have succeeded, if not for the fact that his neighbours, the Soubeyrans have plugged the springs on his property with concrete, hoping to buy the farm cheap when he fails.
He does fail, exhausted by daily round trips to get water from a spring in the hills.
At the end of the film, Manon sees them unblock the spring they had plugged.
She cannot leave, and remains there, working as a goatherd.
She stumbles upon the source of the spring, plugs it with concrete. The village and its agricultural businesses go dry. Thoughts turn to God and why he might be punishing them.
The villagers confess that all of them knew that there was water on the property, but none of them helped the outsider with that information.
They repent. Manon, encouraged by her new love, a new school-teacher, unblocks the stream. Both of them are accepted into the community.
Through various plot twists, her persecutors die of suicide and a broken-heart.
It was satisfying and Biblical. Of course, in real life, the wicked do prosper, at least externally, at least as far as the eye can see, and we can but echo the Psalmist’s complaint, “Why do the wicked prosper?” #
And perhaps get some comfort from his answer in Psalm 73.
When I tried to understand all this,
it was oppressive to me
17 till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny
Psalm 73.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
3 For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong. a]”>[a]
5 They are free from the burdens common to man;
they are not plagued by human ills.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity b]”>[b] ;
the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.
8 They scoff, and speak with malice;
in their arrogance they threaten oppression.
9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
10 Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance. c]”>[c]
11 They say, “How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?”
12 This is what the wicked are like—
always carefree, they increase in wealth.
16 When I tried to understand all this,
it was oppressive to me
17 till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.
18 Surely you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to ruin.
19 How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!
