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?

JEAN DE FLORETTE

Claude Berri1986

SETTINGS

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

OPEN VS. CLOSED SPACES

THEMES

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

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