Claude Berri’s masterful, multipart adaptation of “The Water of the Hills,” the two-volume novel by Marcel Pagnol, is one of the towering achievements of the French cinema. Spanning three generations in the lives of two rural families, these twin tragedies weave an absorbing, slow-burn epic of greed, deception, and revenge amid the Provence countryside, where the sun-dappled bucolic beauty belies dark motivations. Featuring unforgettable performances from Yves Montand, Gérard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil, and Emmanuelle Béart, JEAN DE FLORETTE and MANON OF THE SPRING harken back to the rich, humanist tradition of French film at its finest.