i watched two films which are part 1 and part 2 of the same story,
Jean de Florette -
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091288/reference/
and
Manon des Sources -
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091480/reference/
which were shot together, and they are the result of a two-film adaptation of the 1952 original Manon des sources.
In the first, a young farmer returns from the war with buds of carnations, which grow prodigiously in his field, prospecting a great fortune selling flowers. He does have a shortage of water, which his uncle plans to solve by buying a neighbor's land, together with the "source" (sping) that comes with it.
Things go horribly sideways, and the neighbor is killed by the uncle during a heated discussion. The uncle ignores the fact that he straight up murdered the guy, and goes on with the plan. He blocks the spring with cement, and when the son of the neighbor (a young Gerard Depardieu) shows up to take up the inherited land, fails to tell him about the spring, hoping that he will give up on farming the land and sell it to them cheap.
This too goes wrong and the son winds up dead as well. Uncle and nephew finally manage to get their hands on the land, with the spring.
In the second, years later the farm is successful. Manon, the young daughter of (Depardieu) who still lives in the area, finds the source of the spring, deep within a cave. Having witnesses as a young child that the Uncle and nephew knew about the spring, she wants revenge, and closes the spring, leaving the entire village without water. Because all the villagers have a dirty conscience, with none of them having told Depardieu of the spring that was on his property (they didn't like this city boy wanting to become a farmer), they believe that they are being punished by God.
The girl uses this trick to get the villagers on her side and to cast out the uncle & nephew, and then by a trick the spring comes back to life.
Both very traditional film, i found the first script more interesting, because the need for water that both the nephew and the son have, carries a sense of urgency - they need water NOW. So there is a current of pacing that pushes the film along, which the second script doesn't have. And while the second film has even a brief nude scene with the absolutely gorgeous Emanuelle Beart (who was 23 at the time but looked barely 17), the story is far less engrossing. And, wholly dependant on the plot of the first film.
The .. well, main character, being the Uncle, played by Yves Montand, is more subtle of a character in the first film. The guy kills his neghbor by throwing him on a rock, but sees it as an accident. He tries to destroy the son's livelyhood, but sees it as a simple ruse, a normal business trick. He's a terrible person with no remorse, but is also oblivious to being so.
The nephew plays to contrast, being weak willed enough to go along with the scheme, but also being substantially more innocent and remorseful.
The real protagonist is, in fact, the land. The water, the spring.
The first film is fairly good, if you are ok with it being quite relaxed in telling its story. It still keeps going because of the aforementioned urgency for this water, but the style is quite "visually descriptive", with individual scenes taking quite long, instead of concentrating the action as more modern films would.
7/10
the second film is .. unfocused. The main plot is the love story between Manon (Beart) and a hitherito unmentioned scientist, who is studying the soil in the area. There is supposed to be a triangle with Manon also being the interest of the older-and-uglier nephew, being pushed to marriage by the Uncle, to restore the family name to greatness, which the Uncle schemes to do by allowing Manon, through marriage, to re-acquire the farm with the spring. But this is not really interesting, and neither is a veeery on-the-nose plot twist, with the main plot of the film being how the two young, hot blonde kids become a young, hot blonde couple and fool all the old, ugly and not blonde farmers because young, hot and blonde humans are inherently superior to anyone who isn't young, hot, or blonde. Like that famous Austrian painter guy said.
6/10 including the nude scene and Beart's general hotness.