The Clark presents a series of films celebrating the paradox of the idyllic, with films that inevitably introduce some kind of conflict into peaceful landscapes in the rural United States, France, and Ireland.

The series concludes with Jean de Florette (1988). Based on a novel by the legendary Marcel Pagnol, Jean de Florette is a rich, engrossing epic of greed and deception set amid the bucolic splendor of the Provence countryside. Gérard Depardieu gives one of his great performances as the hunchbacked city slicker Jean, who is determined to make a success of the farm he has inherited—unaware that his new neighbor César (Yves Montand) and his nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) have launched a ruthless scheme to take control of the land for themselves. The film is also rooted in the French visual tradition, closely evoking the social and visual universe of Jean Jacques de Boissieu's The Entrance to a Forest with a Cottage on the Right (1772), which you can see in the Pastoral on Paper exhibition. (Run time: 2 hours)

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524.



Image: Jean de Florette, Claude Berri, 1988