Foreign film joy

I just idly checked our Netflix queue and saw something that literally had me jump off the couch and run around the apartment.  (Chopper thinks I’m nuts, as usual.)  A while back, I added two DVDs to the yeah-I-know-they’re-not-available-but-I-have-hope category (whatever they call it) and they are now both scheduled for release on July 24.

Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring (more properly Manon des Sources) are the two films made from Marcel Pagnol‘s novel L’eau des collines, which I have read in both French and English.  It’s a magnificent book and the movies (surprisingly for book adaptations) are equally good.  The story is a tragedy — a greedy old man and his stupid nephew are desperate to buy a nearby farm, and when a hunchback inherits it, they close up the spring that is essential to bring water to the farm.  The two films are the story of the aftermath of that decision and the revenge of the hunchback’s daughter, Manon.

I’m actually giddy at the idea of getting to see them again.