L'eau vive (1958) - full transcript
Old Félix, a prosperous land owner in Haute Provence, will be expropriated because a dam is being built on the River Durance and his estate is to be flooded. He receives thirty million francs in compensation but dies soon after. Hortense, his only daughter, inherits the money but the trouble is that Félix has hidden the loot somewhere and it is nowhere to be found. All of Hortense's next of kin suddenly take an interest in the "poor orphan" and those greedy ones - with the exception of kind-hearted uncle Simon - put pressure on the girl, and try - through wile, threat and even murder, to inveigle her inheritance. But however young and frail Hortense is, she is nobody's fool.
From the Alps to Avignon,
the Durance never sleeps in its bed.
She is beautiful,
but her angers devour fortunes.
She is now struggling
with people who speak
an apocalypse language.
It is no longer a question of
being subjected to her fancies
but to bring her to the factory.
Demanding from her
not her beauty but her work.
All along this Durance
live human families.
For these families,
the company poses and will pose
many problems.
Where some only see
material to be worked,
the others represent the
river as it is in allegories,
similar to a young girl.
Look at the water,
I'm damming the Durance!
Here it is, it is dammed!
You aren't damming anything!
Come on, wipe yourself!
Don't you know that you
should never wash your feet?
Especially when we
have a long way to go?
I don't want to carry you on my back,
neither do men.
Come on, we're not laughing today!
I still have 300 kilometers to go before
being in Crau, me with the animals.
I'm only going to Ubaye, I have time!
That's it, arrive with a cold in Ubaye,
you'll see how your father reacts!
He is already as happy
as a lark, the Félix!
Go ahead!
Same grace, same youth
as the young Durance!
And probably the same whims.
The comparison is
within everyone's reach
if it is only a matter
of rejoicing the heart.
She is not quite
a mountain girl.
After her mother died,
her father sent her to a boarding school.
She was left to her own devices,
devices that can often
lead to surprises.
What is at the bottom of her heart?
The young prepare their
loves and anger in secret.
This village
is going to be buried under water.
These are not just houses
grouped around a bell tower,
it is a capital of money and feelings.
There, one has the joy of one's habits.
Sometimes it's the quality of the air,
or a special way
for the night to fall.
- You're not too tired?
- No.
You said it too quickly.
I've made your bed,
if you're sleepy, snooze.
Simon, Simon!
- Who's there!
- It's me, Josephine.
Ah, it's you, dear!
Come!
I heard the herd earlier,
I said to my neighbors:
"It must be my brother-in-law!"
- You weren't mistaken.
- I said to myself,
who knows if he wouldn't know something
in the country below.
- Something, why?
- Well, to settle down!
We're all going to have to move.
The village is going to be drowned,
you know that.
And I wanted to tell you,
that one of these days,
we're going to exhume my husband,
Arthur, your brother.
And Paul, my son,
who already came from Verdun.
And I'm going to have to
take coffins under my arm,
- I'll have to get away!
- Oh, under the arm,
we'll give you a helping hand!
Anyway, it's not for tomorrow!
Not for tomorrow...
By dint of saying it's not for tomorrow,
it's today!
And you, in Ubaye,
What about your father?
Oh, at home,
it's going to be drowned too.
My father is looking for a house near Aix,
He came, someone offered us one.
Oh, to offer, people come,
but what do you
want them to offer us?
We're used to these mountains.
You, maybe,
but your father, he coughs, he spits.
Oh well they'll be happy
near Aix!
When they see him.
Go to bed,
I'm going to drive Josephine back.
Oh, I understand you,
I understand the others,
I understand everyone.
You have habits,
and one can't put a figure
on habits.
You,
you're going to knit every
afternoon at Céline's.
Will you always knit
in the afternoon at Céline's?
- Where do you want me to go?
- Well!
Well me, for example,
I would sit on this
bench to smoke my pipe.
This is precisely what
can't have a figure put on.
How much is it worth?
10 cents, or 10 million?
For my pleasure, it's worth 10 billion.
But at my age,
I can't change my habits!
I would be bored everywhere!
We have little pleasures Joséphine,
and we are not alone!
When you read your magazine stories,
and you see kings, emperors
who go to the theater,
who go to China,
well it's not true!
They go there because it looks good
but what they don't tell you,
is that when they
really want to have fun,
they go to a corner to smoke a pipe,
like me!
I suppose they smoke a cigar,
being that they are emperors!
And the empress
she knits a sweater, like you.
- Yes, but those people don't have
their house sunk into a lake! - Oh no!
But sometimes they burn it.
Hey, it's progress, poor thing.
I don't really care about their progress,
if that's it!
It’s always been the same!
If the brother-in-law
from Mérindol was here,
he who's always joking,
he would give us a sermon on the Flood!
Huh, sermons are only good
for swallowing purges!
Come on, good evening Simon!
Good evening, Joséphine!
Flooding,
engulfment,
hmm, it's coming!
I will go no further!
- Come on!
- No.
Come on,
you are preventing the sheep from passing!
They'll crush them!
But we don't crush sheep,
we eat them!
They will brake, you will see!
Come on!
No, I'm going back to Ubaye.
Oh, come and see for yourself,
this is what concerns you in Ubaye!
This is where the dam is made.
This is where the lake will start.
Here we are already at
the bottom of the water!
Go ahead!
Come!
I'm afraid!
Of what?
Of everything!
You lived with me on the summits
and now we're in the depths.
- Walk, froggy! - No!
But we are still dry!
Here, look!
When you see the water rising
to the height of the
little red things up there,
then I'll understand
that you're go away!
Farewell uncle.
Are you saying farewell to me?
Weren't you happy with me?
So tell me goodbye!
You saw, I'm not mean, huh!
You are the nicest of all!
Tell your father.
He won't hurt you!
I know,
it's the others!
Go get your backpack.
Oh, boss!
- I stop for 5 minutes!
- It's always the same ones that stop,
- I buy tobacco!
- It's always the same ones that work!
Get on with you!
Oh Casimir!
Here! Uncle Simon!
And the herd will be stopping below,
in the square.
Are you making me dinner?
Gladly!
But it will not be happy, eh!
Why won't it be?
- Well, don't you know the news?
- No?
Uncle Félix is dead.
My brother from Ubaye?
Shit!
Hortense came back just in time
to see her father die!
- But what did he have?
- Oh nothing!
Well, that's good news you bring me!
And what to do,
leave the herd? It's not possible!
What would you do? He is dead.
He no longer needs anything.
But it's not for him,
it's for the little one!
But! We are all going
up to Ubaye tomorrow!
You indeed! But you, that's not me.
Come on, let's go back.
Hello Hortense.
Hello, uncle.
So there you are all alone.
It didn't drag on, did it?
You saw him die?
No.
It's a beautiful end.
Maybe for him.
I'm the oldest now
that your father is dead.
I may have had too much water,
but I shouldn't have had any at all.
- I don't care!
- Oh!
- Look at your son!
- What my son?
At his uncle's funeral!
Here!
And then you believe that the new Durance
will take my land
to give it to you?
It's been 100 years since the Durance
took my land from me to give it to you!
100 years, what am I saying,
a 1000 years, an eternity!
When President Loubet
received the Tsar of Russia,
he gave him a dinner.
And on the menu there was:
Asparagus from Mérindol.
Mine, 5,000 kilos.
Megalomania!
And do you think the Tsar of Russia
ate 5,000 kilos of asparagus?
Harvested 5,000 kilos!
But now that the Durance
will pass away from my land...
She may pass far from your land,
but she will not expend it all
at my place, in Cavaillon!
And what will I water with?
With your tears, with your tears!
The lake will stop there.
My lands are above.
Three more meters, I would have
hit the jackpot like Josephine!
We at Rochebrune,
we are at the foot of the dam.
We were told to get lost for compensation.
But you don't care,
because your village and your vines
will not be affected by
the construction of the dam!
But what am I going
to do with my land
which will be at the edge of a lake?
At our place too,
they are going to make a lake.
So you are plundering
this whole river!
What will you do with a lake?
Magic...
I sum up.
She has a million.
She has a million,
and as you owe her four more, following
the acknowledgment of the IOU
signed to the deceased,
and that you will have to pay her
when she reaches the age of majority,
she has 5 million.
- Yes, but I thought...
- Oh it counts like the rest.
She also owns the Rochebrune house
that you live in
and the lands of Rochebrune,
which you exploit!
Oh, exploit...
This is the term!
Let us not delay the justice of the peace.
But I have something to ask for.
My brother had land,
farms and his house in Ubaye...
You mean the land and the
buildings that are to be submerged.
Yes, drowned.
These lands and this house
were expropriated by the state.
The Félix received the indemnity.
And where is this compensation?
Ah, that my friend...
Your father never told
you about this allowance?
No.
You know if he did,
you have to say it!
This compensation
is part of the estate
and you have to pay the fees.
And on a sum of this importance...
How much was this allowance?
I'm not talking about it at random,
I saw the check.
This compensation was 30 million.
What are you saying?
I don't even know!
He got that check.
A check for 30 million?
Here.
Here...
Well.
Under article 415 of the Civil Code,
I agreed to hold this meeting
at your notary's
to appoint the family council.
It will consist of uncles,
and aunts here present
and... present (feminine form)...
Okay.
One is missing,
Simon Saber, shepherd...
A criminal record, poaching,
assault and battery on two gendarmes.
Really?
The guardian is already designated,
it is you.
Me?
Uh, no, sir.
Since the deceased departed,
- have you become the older brother?
- Yes.
- So the guardian... - Yes.
Why? Me, I...
- My husband has always been very
honorable! - Hush! Silence! Silence!
- And what about me?
- No, no, no, silence!
If there is an objection,
I will appoint a guardian
from outside the family.
Well.
Let's move on to the substitute guardian.
- What?
- How?
Subrogated, that is,
who supervises the guardian,
- who assists him, who watches him...
- But I have...
- What?
- Nothing.
Good.
The subrogated legal guardian
must be a family member
from the mother of the orphan.
Sir, I believe...
Me?
Élie, the Lord.
I cannot accept, Your Honor.
My wife and I have, for 20 years,
always refused Artaxerxes presents.
So, the subrogated...
Subrogated? You?
- You do accept?
- Yes, Judge, yes.
- Very good - There is no
risk that he says no, come on!
He's thinking about that 4 million!
Who are you,
to this charming child?
His uncle by marriage,
my wife is unfortunately
the sister of this person who...
Please, if you want to fight
you will have all the time,
since miss
will be an adult in 4 years.
I like to appoint
tutors and substitutes
who hate each other.
It makes excellent guardianship.
Here there is no justice of the peace!
Yes, but there is the shadow
of the justice of the peace!
Ah, and then
there is this beautiful little one
who will tell us the truth
about the 30 million.
If there is someone
she should tell the truth to
- it's me!
- And to me!
- To all of us!
- Us! We are all interested!
Interested?
Interested in you, my daughter.
Fight the demon in you!
- Oh, don't overdo it, huh!
- In any case, there is one thing for sure
that's what the
family council decided.
Oh oh, without me?
- Yes, without you while you were peeing!
- Oh, dad!
And what I, the substitute guardian,
am telling you.
This girl, our ward,
we will all take care of her.
She will stay 3 months in one house,
3 months in the other.
We are 4 families,
that makes it a year.
- And every year the same!
- No!
Otherwise, every 8 days,
Mérindol, Château-Arnoux and I,
under my direction,
we will come to your house to check.
Count handkerchiefs,
sheets, pillow cases.
Oh my god what a disaster!
Do you like it?
Me?
Yes.
So we draw lots to find out
where she goes first.
- Yes, dear!
- Well.
Say, that sweater is great.
Oh,
there's nothing to shout about.
Do you know what she looks like,
your cousin?
- Our butcher's shop!
- A butcher shop
A pretty butcher, yes!
You don't have enough of butchers,
right?
I especially need one who understands.
Who understands what?
Everything! The calf's head
you don't like, for example
not to mention progress.
You don't understand
anything about progress!
- I do not understand anything.
- No you don't.
And who made you
buy the helical chopper?
Oh that, it was you.
It does not work.
It eats so many kilowatts
we have to block up
all the windows!
The nonsense you talk
is fatter than you!
Nonsense!
She has a brain as big
as a 10 franc piece!
You give her 20 francs of ideas,
and she explodes!
Listen,
tell me what you think.
There will be a lake
that will be full in August.
Tourists are crazy about lakes.
If she listened to me,
she would get cabins
around the lake,
umbrellas,
pedal boats,
and water skis...
Yeah.
Well your water skiing,
you can do it with your own money
if you want, but not with mine.
In my family we are in
the meat from father to son.
I married him for meat,
not water skiing.
And I warn you my dear
don't let him do it
if he asks you for money.
The pennies of a minor?
The Durance and its
torrent let off steam.
They go on a binge, eat the land,
We must defend ourselves.
This is what they do in Rochebrune.
It closes for an hour.
And this one,
who comes to work and is hungry.
He earns his living!
Me too.
You too?
Ha! Doing what?
By staying here.
Well here we are sick and tired of you.
Like with everything.
Do you hear what's going on outside?
Ah, it would make you
laugh if this flood came here
to take our home and our land.
My lands. They are mine.
Nothing is yours
until your majority.
It’s like that one.
He would not make an effort
to help his father strengthen the dike.
Monsieur is tired of
sitting all day in his car.
It's not an car,
it's a bulldozer.
Well, what about you?
Is it also a bulldozer over there
in your canteen with the men?
You like it, huh, men!
When you were staying at home
you didn't have all
this paint on your face!
Ah,
when we all went to the vineyard together,
everything worked well!
You wish,
we were shouting all the time!
Our beautiful vines...
My vines.
My vines.
My vines...
44...
45...
46...
47...
Now that the Durance is dry,
we can see what the flood
took from us: at least one hectare!
Still 3 years,
and the Durance will not go up any more.
Why, aunt?
Because it will sink into a channel.
We have implored the Lord,
and the Lord heard us.
The lands that the Durance
had taken from us,
the Durance will return them to us.
And we will no longer do the packaging
of asparagus from Cavaillon.
It’s the people from Cavaillon
who will do the packaging
for Mérindol asparagus!
This is exactly what I don't understand.
Uncle from Cavaillon is going
to be ruined by the new Durance,
and yet he goes to mass every Sunday!
Because his eyes
have never seen the true God!
But you Hortense,
you can see it if you want!
- Where?
- Market days in Pertuis.
What is he doing in Pertuis,
the good Lord?
He runs a business.
Yes, but his right hand does not
know what his left hand is doing!
And what is His name?
Jehovah of Pertuis.
And you will be presented to him.
He will lay hands on you.
I don't like being imposed on.
So you see!
It's not difficult to learn!
And yes it comes!
And say, let go of me, I wanna get down.
I don't want to.
- To get down?
- No, want to let go!
But we can't stay like this 107 years,
it's too windy!
- And elsewhere?
- Elsewhere either.
And then first,
I do think you're going a bit fast.
With the scooter?
With your hands.
Let's go back.
So, little one,
are you getting good with the scooter?
Oh she's starting to!
She seems to be happy!
Oh yes aunt, it's a nice gift.
Oh it's very natural
after the help your dad
has given to us!
You didn't go out
without a hat, at least?
Yes I did, aunt.
In the heat, like that?
But you'll catch sunstroke!
Look at us!
But on the scooter, there is air!
Air? Do you call it air?
The air is like an oven,
burns everything!
We went to the bridge,
it's pretty, the Durance was smoking.
Oh it's drought!
And still,
there is a little water in the Durance!
But when the works come,
they will take it away
down to the last drop!
But why don't you move elsewhere?
It is not easy!
It would take money
and we can't sell here!
Nobody wants to buy!
And on top of that,
I have debts.
It is not the little one
who will put your knife to your throat!
Sit down!
Don't stay up like that!
No no no no! Not on these armchairs,
it's too hot!
Put yourself on the couch.
Oh! See how pretty they are!
You will see that she will marry us!
How many crates were shipped yesterday
to Paris?
- 3,000.
- And to Edinburgh?
16,000 this week.
Oh that's good!
You said it!
It would be nice if it lasted!
Oh... you always think of your Durance!
You better thank your son!
He has the little one in his pocket,
she only has eyes for him!
Oh, but it's true!
And then, we will build!
You do not want to?
Dad said that new houses
are cold everywhere.
And then I want to live in the countryside.
Ah! And here, what is it?
- There are too many people...
- Oh, it depends on the season!
No, all the time.
With us in Ubaye, it's full of corners
but nobody was there.
Here everyone is everywhere,
it is never quiet.
And then the grape
is not real grape,
we don't make wine with it.
At your home it's the mountain,
and here it's the plain, that's all!
But why don't you want to see anyone,
why?
- I dunno.
- Lots of people, it's much better!
No, it's not better.
Too many people, that's nobody.
It's annoying.
Did your father teach you all of this?
Yes.
Father was a bear.
I love bears.
Maybe if I had a father like that,
me...
What do you mean?
Oh, nothing, nothing.
It's nice to say that about my father.
Oh, come on!
No no no!
Before, I want you to
promise me something.
Oh well always say, yes?
If we decide to get married,
I would like it to be in Ubaye
- before it gets demolished.
- Sold!
Sold?
Hmm, what a funny word...
Oh, I have never seen such a thing!
I have!
In pictures!
What is that?
- Panties.
- Not possible!
And who could have
given her a thing like this?
Aunt Cavaillon,
there is no need to look elsewhere.
She knows the score...
What score?
She is preparing her son for him.
Well, what about this?
Red is her butcher.
Black is Mérindol.
They're all after her, like...
And what do you want us to do,
what do you want us to give?
Give...
This is not how we will win her.
How?
Do you know?
Perhaps...
Come.
Is this where you're
going to find me gas?
Do you mind being alone with me?
Why are you being so polite with me?
I dunno...
- I do know.
- Ah, you know?
I'm coming!
Are you coming to get her now?
Well, you see.
She has to take the bus!
We changed our minds!
Who are we?
The Higher Council of the Republic!
I've spent enough
money for today,
I'm going back home!
If you see little Hortense,
kiss her for me!
Hortense...
When I think that she
and Victor in Cavaillon,
they may already be married!
They can't without the father!
He's the tutor anyway!
And she is a minor!
What is needed is that Georges
pulls himself up by his bootstraps
- when she comes back.
- Your brother is not capable.
He is capable. But he is afraid.
Because she has money.
If it was a girl like me...
- But he won't want to marry
- It's not about getting married.
What do you want him to do then?
Give her a taste...
Hi Louis!
[Singing 'La digue Du cul']
So?
Good for the armed services,
Long live France!
A country that sacrifices the
export of asparagus and melon
for vacuum cleaners
is a lost country.
Daddy you are bugging us, give over!
Victor!
I don't like drunkards.
And I don't like girls,
who don't like drunkards.
You see it is timely!
- Go to bed!
- With you?
Victor!
Respect your fiancée a little!
And why would I?
I don't need money anymore!
In the army I will have 300 francs a month,
I will send you money orders!
And if I go to the Navy,
I will send you water for the melons!
So I say, no more fiancée!
Victor!
Why are you talking about money?
Can't you see he's
had a donkey-full?
Barrel,
the phrase is had a barrel-full!
Victor!
Why are you talking about money?
Because we can never talk about
you without talking about money!
- Ask him!
- Victor!
Ah, Victor...
In the difficult circumstances
we are going through,
with all that I spent
on your education...
You don't know what you're talking about!
Oh, shut up!
I'm good for the armed services,
right?
Victor...
4 million we owe him,
plus 30 million, so a good marriage!
You can get stuffed!
Oh froggy, did you find me?
It was not difficult!
Even when I was a little girl,
you left your net here
before going to the mountains!
Hush, don't talk about a net,
it's poaching!
Had you come tomorrow
you couldn't have found me,
I'm going to look for the herd.
Take me uncle.
You don't want your family council
to get the gendarmes on my ass!
No of course, uncle.
I came to say hello to you
on the way to Château-Arnoux.
The butcher, already?
They don't want you anymore in Cavaillon?
Oh yes... Too much.
But it's me who doesn't want them.
And, like every year,
with the seasons,
the herd goes up
in June in the mountains,
spends the summer on the summits,
descends to Crau in October.
But, for 2 years since her father died,
Hortense will no
longer live free up there
with this shepherd uncle
that the rest of the family doesn't like.
Now that she’s here
let us take this opportunity to
present her to Jehovah of Pertuis!
You know, Élie...
have you spoken to him, to Jehovah,
about the tractor?
You shouldn't have, it's still too early!
Élie, you have no faith.
Jehovah said
I was right to tell him.
- But you shouldn't have!
- He will probe her innermost being.
But it's too early,
she hasn't got her money yet!
If she decides to buy
a tractor from Jehovah,
Jehovah will pray for her
to find her money!
The sooner he prays, the better.
The Lord often takes
a long time to decide...
In his eyes, woman,
1000 years goes by like a day.
Yes.
But our land, we won't wait 1000
years to get it back!
Bring her just now,
at the end of the service.
The 110th service of the
restricted church is completed.
Hey!
Sir.
Come to me without fear! Come on,
come on.
To do what?
I'm going to probe you,
poor little one.
- Why poor little one?
- I said poor little one,
because I know you
will be rich one day.
What will you do with all this money?
Will you be stingy, or not?
Yes, in truth,
what will you do with all this money?
Oh, I still have time to think about it!
Poor soul! Trumpets of judgment
could burst forth at any moment!
What can it do?
I haven't got my money yet!
Do you at least have good intentions?
- I dunno!
- Ha, you have to know!
Look at them.
You are not blushing?
But why should I blush?
Because the rich must
always blush in front of the poor.
They are not that poor!
The Durance will give
them back all their land!
The Durance will not give
them the tools of plowing.
Master, it may be too early...
I said I probe, and I probe.
Élie, let him probe the lamb.
Yes, in truth,
who will give these poor people
the pickaxe and the shovel of plowing?
Oh, you know,
my tutor will give me enough to pay them
the pickaxe and the shovel
of plowing as you say!
Why did you doubt?
Her heart is pure!
Come.
Look.
It's not a shovel and a pickaxe,
it's tractors!
The tractor is the pick
of this day and age.
There are 3 models: 600,000,
800,000, 1 million 200,000 francs.
As with all members
of the restricted church,
I would make you 10%.
Ah,
because it is you who sell the tractors?
The Lord has given your uncle
a mission to till the land.
The Lord has given me the
mission to sell the plowing tools!
It's there, it's there!
Here, look!
They are doing it to me,
my lake!
Come on, work there! Lazy!
You'll see, at Château-Arnoux,
it will be like this.
But much bigger.
It will be great!
Because next to here,
Château-Arnoux
will be the Mediterranean!
It will have people from all countries!
Americans, English,
and even Parisians!
Thousands of hunks with legs!
The best!
Bare feet, tanned beefsteak!
There will be 6-story diving boards!
Cabins with bathrooms!
And there will be music?
Music...
Large philharmonic orchestras, yes!
And they will play night and day.
What will they play?
Tangos and swaying waltzes!
Oh yes...
And then at night,
you will put lanterns on the boats,
and we will walk around
the lake listening to music...
You and me?
What? You're too fat!
And while we're slaving around here,
Miss Hortense is out!
She could still have helped me!
I was the one who didn't want her to.
That's what I blame you for!
Since her father died,
you've been on your knees before her!
But this time it goes beyond the limits!
10 times a day,
I find you together in the cold room!
Oh, how could we be getting heated
in the cold room?
Watch this...
Say, then, won't you
give me a kiss?
It's not the moment!
Can't you wait your
turn like everyone else?
We have news.
Today Hortense will be back.
So what?
Is it difficult to
operate a bulldozer?
No.
When you know how, you go for it,
that's all it takes!
Well Hortense, is the same.
Since you know how,
go for it!
Hortense?
She is a young lady...
30 million...
She never talks about it,
she must know where it is!
All the more reason!
If my brother was doing a
little better with her...
Ah, I don't see your brother
having any part of this!
It's because you let
her live like a young lady!
Make her wash the dishes, like me!
When her hands are all wrinkled
and she smells of bleach,
she will be less reticent, you'll see!
So...
Did they get you to work?
I always do what they tell me to.
I can do that as well!
Like many other things...
What else, huh?
Dare you say it?
- I would even dare to do it.
- Ah?
However...
Not with you!
Get away!
Go!
Go to your room.
Why?
You will be better!
But I'm fine here!
And plus I have
to do the dishes!
For once I will do them myself,
the dishes.
Go up to your room, you'll be better.
And you too!
You?
What do you want?
To see your cousin?
He is not here.
I'll wait for him!
So it's in the street that
you're going to wait for him!
Because little girls
who have fun diverting
married men from their conjugal duty,
I don't want them
hanging round my place.
Safe trip, little one!
Do you need anything?
I'm looking for my uncle.
Who is your uncle?
He'll be fishing.
Ah, the shepherd? Oh,
he can't be far!
You're not afraid?
We're not afraid, but we tremble!
Overnight, the Durance took 4 hectares
of ours and the house!
When I woke up the little ones
it was in the vineyard
and by evening,
it was in the kitchen!
I was going to have this one.
I had him in the sheepfold.
We are still there,
in the sheepfold.
But come in! Enter a moment!
No, no thanks,
I'm going to find my uncle.
Oh he must not be far away,
he went that way.
It had to happen...
I know them! I always said,
it’s a pain in the ass family.
Do you want me with you, uncle?
But yes my dear, I want you.
Stay with me, you'll see,
we're going to fish for sardines!
Here we can breathe.
Come on, watch out, I have a nice one.
Hop! And there you go!
Get up, froggy!
- Ah!
- Hold on.
Give me your hand, look!
It's gold!
Oh, not a lot, but in the past
people were happy with it!
I don't like gold.
Well, you are the only one.
It sparkles, and it's
not the ugliest thing!
One day I found an
old man in the Durance!
What was he doing?
He was dead!
And a real gentleman,
with a beard and a bowler hat!
The bowler hat was much lower down,
it had floated.
The gentleman hadn't.
He had a broken heart.
I don't have any more.
What the hell are you doing here?
You're not there anymore, right?
We're going to the gendarmerie!
We need to know where she is,
I'm the guardian anyway, right?
And the others? And
Cavaillon, is he not a guardian too?
He is responsible.
Just put him in the loop.
Yes, we will write to him.
No, we're going to phone
him. And the others as well.
There's someone there.
Go see the scooter quickly,
maybe it's her!
Yes yes, I'm going!
Oh god be praised, there she is,
there she is! She returns to the fold.
6 months since the child disappeared.
And during this time,
the dike which bars the Durance rises.
This upheaval upsets moral habits.
Normally, they wouldn't even have
thought of searching the Ubaye house.
Still nothing!
Oh, it makes no sense!
Félix must have hidden it somewhere
that will not be submerged!
I will not be moved from the idea
that he hid it here, at home,
for Hortense to find.
There is still the attic that
we haven't looked at again!
We have already searched it twice!
This will be once more!
Let's take advantage
while Hortense is gone!
Everyone is looking for it.
Unfortunately, if she comes back
and someone finds the money
it won't go to us.
The dirty little bitch!
What's wrong with you,
did you find something?
I found the treasure...
The treasure of Miss Hortense Favre,
daughter of the owner Félix Favre.
When I think the two of us
used to play with corks
and barrel hoops...
And that I see this...
Little doll...
The doll's house...
The doll's room...
The doll's grocery...
It sickens my stomach!
This is what I found!
What is that?
A star.
What are you going to do with it?
Mystery!
I don't like mysteries!
Never mind.
The stars are always mysteries.
They are Saint-Vincent stones,
like the ones you wear!
The jewelers work with them,
but it is us who find them!
But what are you going to do with it?
Well I polish them by rubbing
them between my fingers.
And after?
Curious!
No, tell me uncle!
Yes, say it!
Too bad for the surprise,
I'm going to make you a necklace!
Oh but not for now!
For your birthday next spring!
Because you are a little frog...
I counted!
The 20 are there!
As much as you gave me!
Do you think I can't count?
- Hey, Simon!
- What?
Aren't they your friends?
Look...
The blessed family!
And watch out!
Don't hurt him!
You mustn't hurt her,
but you must take her!
You have to take her,
even if it hurts a little!
Here she is!
- Yeah, with these people!
- Here she is!
Oh, are you so hungry that
now you are hunting thrushes?
Simon!
You have no shame?
You should hide yourself away!
But I was hiding! It was
you who came to find me!
Don't be so bold!
I have a justice of the peace with me!
- I'll fix everything!
- Ha ha ha ha ha...
Wait, wait!
God is with us.
Oh it's not God who is with you,
it's the gendarmes!
Hey there, in the name of the law!
What does your law want now!
This girl is a minor.
She must return to her guardian.
Try to touch her!
- Do you want to take another 6 months?
- I don't care about your prison!
You're not touching the girl!
Rebellion?
I like it!
- We're going to give you a kicking.
- Come tell me that here!
You don't have the guts
to enter the water, you fraud!
You couldn't bear wet feet like mine!
Catch her, go ahead!
But hurry up!
Oh, if I don't go...
Oh, froggy!
They are getting away!
Oh, I'm going!
Oh no no, not you with your rheumatism!
Come, come over here,
there must be a passage.
Yes, over there!
Stop, in the name of the law!
Stay there, stay with me froggy!
They won't touch you!
No uncle, leave me,
it's up to me!
You don't want me to be unhappy!
Without that, I don't love you anymore.
Oh, it's slippery!
Come on, come over there!
- Come on, come on!
- Oh, I'm good!
Come on!
Come on, come here!
Come on, come down!
Let's go!
Come on, let's go!
My brother's daughter
between 2 gendarmes...
Yes, well there is room for
others between 2 gendarmes!
But this little one is crazy!
She's crazy,
but she's forgotten how to be stupid!
That does not prevent you
from being ungrateful!
Why?
Because I kept the scooter,
or because I gave your son back to you!
After all we did for you...
What did you do?
You led me to Jehovah of Pertuis!
But what is he selling,
your Jehovah of Pertuis,
places in paradise or tractors?
But I was nice!
You yes, if you were alone.
But you have your wife.
I'm cold.
My policeman is cold.
And besides what are we discussing,
this girl is a minor, it's the law,
she only has to shut up.
Precisely, I don't want to shut up!
I want to tell you all about it.
There are some who would be better
than me between 2 gendarmes.
I'm not forcing you to return
to Rochebrune, what we want...
I don't want to go
to one or the other.
So where will you go?
To my father's place.
But he is dead, your father.
Never mind.
And Ubaye, it will be demolished.
Never mind!
I was fine with Simon...
But you have come!
So I'm going to my father's house.
Home.
Oh, it doesn't cut...
Here!
You understand,
if the little one is in debt,
my husband is a guardian,
he will have to pay!
We give her a little bit of money,
but not much!
I don't know what you gave her,
but she paid me with a
brand new 10,000 franc note.
And look what she got installed!
It is a machine that costs
more than 100,000 francs!
It was the guy from Gap
who installed it who told me.
But what keeps you from asking?
I don't want to answer you.
And that?
And that?
What did you buy it with?
With my money.
Ah, you admit that you found it!
I admit that I found pennies from heaven,
as uncle Mérindol would say.
I said a prayer to Jehovah of Pertuis,
and this set fell from the sky
with an electrician from Gap!
And it doesn't work.
All the lamps have burned out.
Lend me 30,000 francs uncle,
and I will have them replaced!
Are you done kidding me?
Speak, or I'll make you talk to me!
Well, I'll tell you everything!
The money is there.
In the drawer, under the post.
Ah, it's not the 30 million!
Shall we take her?
Well where?
With us?
There will never
be a better opportunity!
She won't start yelling!
We wrap her, and we lock her up.
- And over there, we'll make her talk.
- And this way,
if she has something broken,
it will not be known!
You can go, I'll stay.
Haha, nothing doing,
everyone stays put!
We will search,
but not one without the other!
Trust reigns!
You want my foot in the ass?
They pilfered her too,
and took her to Rochebrune,
as she carried the rabbits.
But she only has 40 pounds of anger,
while the Rochebrune family
has 4 large bodies,
weighed down with ancestral terrors,
and modern fears.
By what night work
are we going to raise walls,
close doors, block windows
around this little girl,
to make her spill the beans.
No no, not these two,
I'm keeping them with me.
Our land is here
as soon as we remove
the stones, it is below,
we will find all of it!
How far did it go, our field?
I no longer recognize it,
we will bring in the land registry clerk!
- We will plant cypresses.
- We will grow asparagus!
We will be as big as Cavaillon!
Cavaillon now is the Sahara!
Oh, you always exaggerate!
But there isn't a drop of water left!
We will die with our mouths open!
The apocalypse!
But you're not going to talk like
the Mérindol cousins now, are you?
I will speak as I want.
And what does apocalypse mean?
It's when they take the
water from under your feet,
let the trees dry like matches,
grow melons are like marbles,
when you have to put bacon
with strawberries to have juice,
the apocalypse...
it's when we are reduced to pigs,
like this.
How will you pay
off the 4 million
that you owe to little Hortense?
Well, we will go bankrupt, we will
go to prison, we will go to the hospice.
Oh, you're talking nonsense, we don't
hear about this little girl these days.
Ah,
you'll hear about her when she turns 18!
You just have to wait,
you will see the bailiff coming...
In 15 days, she will be an adult.
What will we do?
Shall we open the door for her?
What do you want us to do?
Had we found the money,
we could have opened the door for her,
we would have seen it coming.
But here,
all that we've done is for nothing.
Cavaillon and the whole
clique will arrive in 15 days.
- If they hear all this noise...
- We have to put her somewhere else.
And where?
In Ubaye?
Everything will be demolished in Ubaye!
There are still cellars under the stones...
It's tomorrow.
Yes, they will all come.
What are we going to
do with the little one?
It's not difficult to find!
What have you found this time?
It is you who put
us in this mess!
I put you where you stand when
you wanted to get out of this hole!
Did you find life beautiful?
3 vines, 2 meadows,
not even enough
to afford a luxury!
Your whole life within these walls.
And then what,
you chicken out at the end!
Well, the little one,
we can say that she is gone.
Wasn't everyone okay
with her going to Ubaye?
Well, she went.
We even cared about her,
since the mother went to see the grocer
and that the grocer can certify
that the little one didn't need us.
She paid for television...
There are engineers who
do not have television...
What did she do afterwards
when she had to move?
Do we know?
Oh yes, we know...
We know it. And we
have our lives to live.
There is me,
there is you,
in a few years,
these two will have to rest.
The hospice is not beautiful either.
The water rises...
The water rises.
We are not the ones raising the water...
In principle you did not have to alert me,
no legal text requires you to do so.
She was also on the
eve of her majority.
When did you notice
her disappearance?
- Well, a while ago.
- We noticed
the day Ubaye moved,
she was not there.
And you consoled
yourself with the furniture!
- Hey, I say!
- Let it go!
You really don't
know where she is?
Well no!
What about you?
No no!
Unless there is a liar!
- A liar?
- Yes,
what you can't see has you befuddled!
If you mean the 30 million,
we just told you that
we haven't found it.
We were there when
they demolished the house.
- We looked...
- First you didn't have the right!
- You would have preferred it to be lost!
- Yes!
Don't get mad.
What are you looking for,
the 30 million or your niece?
- Both.
- Who do you suspect?
That one!
- Me?
- Yes!
- What did I do?
- Everything!
- Everything what?
- Always the loverboy,
but especially since
your wife is gone!
Ah, notary,
I accuse him of embezzlement.
And I know what I'm saying!
But let's see,
embezzlement, it seems strange to me...
You understand well, notary,
if I use the exact word in front of women,
that means that I have proof!
He turned her head, this little girl!
He found his wife,
and he is able to divorce her
and to marry our poor niece!
You call that embezzlement!
Naturally.
We did not come here
to hear nasty words.
We believed that a family council,
especially the day when we have
to proclaim the majority of the ward,
was to be a sincere and moral meeting.
Sir, I don't have infinite time,
you will settle your lesser affairs
between yourselves.
In the absence of the ward,
we could even say heiress,
I will register your
guardianship accounts.
What if she doesn't come back?
Who would inherit?
No one!
The State!
The deposit and consignment office.
A missing person is not
presumed dead until after 30 years.
Or,
we must discover the corpse.
You cannot settle an estate
without a corpse.
- But the lawyer said...
- Your lawyer is gone!
So I, as a guardian, I tell you...
Where are you coming from?
You're all wet!
Oh my God!
And here I am.
I was afraid of arriving late.
You were languishing...
So talk!
I'm listening to you!
And where were you?
And where were you guys?
We were at home!
With your Bible?
Yes, with our Bible.
And you, with your big ledger!
Oh, it's not that big!
And since you were at home,
you never wondered where I was?
Fundamentally, you were right.
I was where my guardian had put me.
It wasn't us, it was the water.
But yes, of course, it was the water.
It was the water that locked
me in the room up there!
And then it was still the water that
barricaded me into the Ubaye cellar!
Here.
It's the water.
- Do I understand correctly...
- Yes, you understand!
They did what you did!
They were at home, very quiet!
It was the water, not them!
It goes up,
but it's not them who make it go up!
The water drowns me but it
is not them who drown me!
Oh,
but is it a family of murderers?
Oh you, immediately the big words!
We are not going
to give them a medal!
No...
Because they failed in their plan.
They even missed it right
in front of them!
- She found the nest egg!
- Yes
I found the nest egg.
You found it,
but if you hid it in Ubaye,
now it's at the bottom of the water!
I had hidden it in Ubaye.
But someone saved it.
- Who?
- Him.
Oh leave him,
he's as stupid as you are!
He hugged the
nest egg like that.
He came to carry it
in the cart like that!
And then he came to
place it here like this!
And now I'm going to take it,
and like that!
Pass me a knife.
- Lord!
- The set!
- TV!
- Oh!
- Thunder of Zeus!
- Come...
Come and all see! The more you are,
the less I have to fear.
Well, the money, there it is.
The millions are here!
And take a good look,
because it doesn't happen every day
to see 30 at once.
- May the will of God be done.
- Ah yes, but quickly!
And you.
You also want God to
take care of you quickly?
Quickly or not quickly,
we are settled.
I don't think so, uncle.
You're not going to kick us
out the door?
Harm the family? No.
I'm in it.
You will remain what you are.
- It is enough for us
- It is enough for us too.
You worked at the dam,
you will surely go to a factory...
You will remain single...
And here I am!
You?
Marseilles...
Why Marseilles?
The sidewalk, maybe.
Where did she learn all these
horrors? Not at my house!
There are times, woman, when
you have to know how to tell the truth.
That's a good word, uncle.
So good that it will
bring you something.
- This famous tractor...
- You'll give it to us?
Oh no! no!
Our Cavaillon uncle
will give it to you.
- Why me?
- Yes, why us?
Because you owe me 4 million.
Still, a bill of over a million?
Just the day I lose my water?
But nothing's been taken from you!
And you know that if it was taken from you,
you would've been paid!
Myself, I've paid.
My god it's true,
I never thought about it myself!
I did!
But then why do you
always cry like a calf?
But you always have
to shout for money!
Okay, in the street it's okay,
but why at home?
Well because you have to shout
all the time, if you want to be sincere.
- And you.
- Oh, I have everything I need.
- You kept your butcher's shop?
- Oh, vaguely...
I open on Monday when the others close.
- And your wife?
- I have my lake.
Pack your little bundle
and take it to the notary.
The notary can go to blazes!
You're not going to hide it!
Yes!
I will conceal it!
I'm family, right?
But what are you going
to do with all this money?
Make it take the air,
it needs it.
- Goodbye Hortense!
- Goodbye!
Froggy! My little froggy!
You cry!
- I'm an old ass!
- Oh me too!
Ah no, you are not an old ass.
So, have you reached the age of majority?
You left, you came back,
how beautiful you are!
But where are you going?
I knew you were out of prison,
and...
I've come to stay with you.
With me!
Doesn't it make you happy?
Oh yes,
but I have never regretted my life so much!
Why?
My time wasted, right and left,
if I had a house,
if I was established,
if I could give you things!
I have a boss, I rent,
I have nothing of my own
- where I can keep you!
- I have it.
I have a house, I am established,
I can give to you, I have all that!
But where do you have everything?
- There!
- There?
- Money!
- But what money?
But the ones we were looking for!
Can it really be?!
Have you found it?
Well done froggy!
I will explain it to you.
It's here!
Yes,
but I have nothing to do with it.
You have everything to do with it.
- Who cried when he saw me again?
- Oh but that was easy!
Well, the others didn't manage it.
No.
These pennies are yours, you will
have to get married, and you will see.
So it's you who's leaving me?
I will have to marry
like an orphan!
I will never leave you.
So, isn't it easier?
But what did you have in mind?
A herd,
you or the two of us if you want,
I know your boss wants
to sell his sheepfold...
Yes.
He told me about it.
- Where is it?
- There!
If you got your million,
it's yours.
- I have 30!
- 30! Bugger!
So you can also buy the land!
The Durance will water this country.
And the land she took from you,
up in the mountain,
the Durance will return them to you here,
in this plain.
My sweetheart is like the water,
She is like the running water
She runs like a stream,
that the children follow
Run, run
as fast as you can
Never, never
can you catch her
When the shepherd plays his pipe,
when the water dances
She leads my flock,
among the olives prances
Come now, come now,
my kids, my lambkins away
In the laurel,
the thyme and the serpolet
One day, under the reeds,
slept my running water
Came the lads of the hamlet
for to take her captive
To close, to close
your double-locked cage
Between your fingers,
running water will slip away
JUst like the small boats
carried away by the running water
In her eyes the youthful lads
drift away on the shoreline
Sail now, sail now
for tomorrow you'll come into quay
Running water is not yet
in the marrying way
Yet one fine morning at dawn,
my running water
will laundry her trousseau,
like any dutiful daughter
Cry now, cry now,
if alone I stay
the little streamlet
into the sea goes away.
the Durance never sleeps in its bed.
She is beautiful,
but her angers devour fortunes.
She is now struggling
with people who speak
an apocalypse language.
It is no longer a question of
being subjected to her fancies
but to bring her to the factory.
Demanding from her
not her beauty but her work.
All along this Durance
live human families.
For these families,
the company poses and will pose
many problems.
Where some only see
material to be worked,
the others represent the
river as it is in allegories,
similar to a young girl.
Look at the water,
I'm damming the Durance!
Here it is, it is dammed!
You aren't damming anything!
Come on, wipe yourself!
Don't you know that you
should never wash your feet?
Especially when we
have a long way to go?
I don't want to carry you on my back,
neither do men.
Come on, we're not laughing today!
I still have 300 kilometers to go before
being in Crau, me with the animals.
I'm only going to Ubaye, I have time!
That's it, arrive with a cold in Ubaye,
you'll see how your father reacts!
He is already as happy
as a lark, the Félix!
Go ahead!
Same grace, same youth
as the young Durance!
And probably the same whims.
The comparison is
within everyone's reach
if it is only a matter
of rejoicing the heart.
She is not quite
a mountain girl.
After her mother died,
her father sent her to a boarding school.
She was left to her own devices,
devices that can often
lead to surprises.
What is at the bottom of her heart?
The young prepare their
loves and anger in secret.
This village
is going to be buried under water.
These are not just houses
grouped around a bell tower,
it is a capital of money and feelings.
There, one has the joy of one's habits.
Sometimes it's the quality of the air,
or a special way
for the night to fall.
- You're not too tired?
- No.
You said it too quickly.
I've made your bed,
if you're sleepy, snooze.
Simon, Simon!
- Who's there!
- It's me, Josephine.
Ah, it's you, dear!
Come!
I heard the herd earlier,
I said to my neighbors:
"It must be my brother-in-law!"
- You weren't mistaken.
- I said to myself,
who knows if he wouldn't know something
in the country below.
- Something, why?
- Well, to settle down!
We're all going to have to move.
The village is going to be drowned,
you know that.
And I wanted to tell you,
that one of these days,
we're going to exhume my husband,
Arthur, your brother.
And Paul, my son,
who already came from Verdun.
And I'm going to have to
take coffins under my arm,
- I'll have to get away!
- Oh, under the arm,
we'll give you a helping hand!
Anyway, it's not for tomorrow!
Not for tomorrow...
By dint of saying it's not for tomorrow,
it's today!
And you, in Ubaye,
What about your father?
Oh, at home,
it's going to be drowned too.
My father is looking for a house near Aix,
He came, someone offered us one.
Oh, to offer, people come,
but what do you
want them to offer us?
We're used to these mountains.
You, maybe,
but your father, he coughs, he spits.
Oh well they'll be happy
near Aix!
When they see him.
Go to bed,
I'm going to drive Josephine back.
Oh, I understand you,
I understand the others,
I understand everyone.
You have habits,
and one can't put a figure
on habits.
You,
you're going to knit every
afternoon at Céline's.
Will you always knit
in the afternoon at Céline's?
- Where do you want me to go?
- Well!
Well me, for example,
I would sit on this
bench to smoke my pipe.
This is precisely what
can't have a figure put on.
How much is it worth?
10 cents, or 10 million?
For my pleasure, it's worth 10 billion.
But at my age,
I can't change my habits!
I would be bored everywhere!
We have little pleasures Joséphine,
and we are not alone!
When you read your magazine stories,
and you see kings, emperors
who go to the theater,
who go to China,
well it's not true!
They go there because it looks good
but what they don't tell you,
is that when they
really want to have fun,
they go to a corner to smoke a pipe,
like me!
I suppose they smoke a cigar,
being that they are emperors!
And the empress
she knits a sweater, like you.
- Yes, but those people don't have
their house sunk into a lake! - Oh no!
But sometimes they burn it.
Hey, it's progress, poor thing.
I don't really care about their progress,
if that's it!
It’s always been the same!
If the brother-in-law
from Mérindol was here,
he who's always joking,
he would give us a sermon on the Flood!
Huh, sermons are only good
for swallowing purges!
Come on, good evening Simon!
Good evening, Joséphine!
Flooding,
engulfment,
hmm, it's coming!
I will go no further!
- Come on!
- No.
Come on,
you are preventing the sheep from passing!
They'll crush them!
But we don't crush sheep,
we eat them!
They will brake, you will see!
Come on!
No, I'm going back to Ubaye.
Oh, come and see for yourself,
this is what concerns you in Ubaye!
This is where the dam is made.
This is where the lake will start.
Here we are already at
the bottom of the water!
Go ahead!
Come!
I'm afraid!
Of what?
Of everything!
You lived with me on the summits
and now we're in the depths.
- Walk, froggy! - No!
But we are still dry!
Here, look!
When you see the water rising
to the height of the
little red things up there,
then I'll understand
that you're go away!
Farewell uncle.
Are you saying farewell to me?
Weren't you happy with me?
So tell me goodbye!
You saw, I'm not mean, huh!
You are the nicest of all!
Tell your father.
He won't hurt you!
I know,
it's the others!
Go get your backpack.
Oh, boss!
- I stop for 5 minutes!
- It's always the same ones that stop,
- I buy tobacco!
- It's always the same ones that work!
Get on with you!
Oh Casimir!
Here! Uncle Simon!
And the herd will be stopping below,
in the square.
Are you making me dinner?
Gladly!
But it will not be happy, eh!
Why won't it be?
- Well, don't you know the news?
- No?
Uncle Félix is dead.
My brother from Ubaye?
Shit!
Hortense came back just in time
to see her father die!
- But what did he have?
- Oh nothing!
Well, that's good news you bring me!
And what to do,
leave the herd? It's not possible!
What would you do? He is dead.
He no longer needs anything.
But it's not for him,
it's for the little one!
But! We are all going
up to Ubaye tomorrow!
You indeed! But you, that's not me.
Come on, let's go back.
Hello Hortense.
Hello, uncle.
So there you are all alone.
It didn't drag on, did it?
You saw him die?
No.
It's a beautiful end.
Maybe for him.
I'm the oldest now
that your father is dead.
I may have had too much water,
but I shouldn't have had any at all.
- I don't care!
- Oh!
- Look at your son!
- What my son?
At his uncle's funeral!
Here!
And then you believe that the new Durance
will take my land
to give it to you?
It's been 100 years since the Durance
took my land from me to give it to you!
100 years, what am I saying,
a 1000 years, an eternity!
When President Loubet
received the Tsar of Russia,
he gave him a dinner.
And on the menu there was:
Asparagus from Mérindol.
Mine, 5,000 kilos.
Megalomania!
And do you think the Tsar of Russia
ate 5,000 kilos of asparagus?
Harvested 5,000 kilos!
But now that the Durance
will pass away from my land...
She may pass far from your land,
but she will not expend it all
at my place, in Cavaillon!
And what will I water with?
With your tears, with your tears!
The lake will stop there.
My lands are above.
Three more meters, I would have
hit the jackpot like Josephine!
We at Rochebrune,
we are at the foot of the dam.
We were told to get lost for compensation.
But you don't care,
because your village and your vines
will not be affected by
the construction of the dam!
But what am I going
to do with my land
which will be at the edge of a lake?
At our place too,
they are going to make a lake.
So you are plundering
this whole river!
What will you do with a lake?
Magic...
I sum up.
She has a million.
She has a million,
and as you owe her four more, following
the acknowledgment of the IOU
signed to the deceased,
and that you will have to pay her
when she reaches the age of majority,
she has 5 million.
- Yes, but I thought...
- Oh it counts like the rest.
She also owns the Rochebrune house
that you live in
and the lands of Rochebrune,
which you exploit!
Oh, exploit...
This is the term!
Let us not delay the justice of the peace.
But I have something to ask for.
My brother had land,
farms and his house in Ubaye...
You mean the land and the
buildings that are to be submerged.
Yes, drowned.
These lands and this house
were expropriated by the state.
The Félix received the indemnity.
And where is this compensation?
Ah, that my friend...
Your father never told
you about this allowance?
No.
You know if he did,
you have to say it!
This compensation
is part of the estate
and you have to pay the fees.
And on a sum of this importance...
How much was this allowance?
I'm not talking about it at random,
I saw the check.
This compensation was 30 million.
What are you saying?
I don't even know!
He got that check.
A check for 30 million?
Here.
Here...
Well.
Under article 415 of the Civil Code,
I agreed to hold this meeting
at your notary's
to appoint the family council.
It will consist of uncles,
and aunts here present
and... present (feminine form)...
Okay.
One is missing,
Simon Saber, shepherd...
A criminal record, poaching,
assault and battery on two gendarmes.
Really?
The guardian is already designated,
it is you.
Me?
Uh, no, sir.
Since the deceased departed,
- have you become the older brother?
- Yes.
- So the guardian... - Yes.
Why? Me, I...
- My husband has always been very
honorable! - Hush! Silence! Silence!
- And what about me?
- No, no, no, silence!
If there is an objection,
I will appoint a guardian
from outside the family.
Well.
Let's move on to the substitute guardian.
- What?
- How?
Subrogated, that is,
who supervises the guardian,
- who assists him, who watches him...
- But I have...
- What?
- Nothing.
Good.
The subrogated legal guardian
must be a family member
from the mother of the orphan.
Sir, I believe...
Me?
Élie, the Lord.
I cannot accept, Your Honor.
My wife and I have, for 20 years,
always refused Artaxerxes presents.
So, the subrogated...
Subrogated? You?
- You do accept?
- Yes, Judge, yes.
- Very good - There is no
risk that he says no, come on!
He's thinking about that 4 million!
Who are you,
to this charming child?
His uncle by marriage,
my wife is unfortunately
the sister of this person who...
Please, if you want to fight
you will have all the time,
since miss
will be an adult in 4 years.
I like to appoint
tutors and substitutes
who hate each other.
It makes excellent guardianship.
Here there is no justice of the peace!
Yes, but there is the shadow
of the justice of the peace!
Ah, and then
there is this beautiful little one
who will tell us the truth
about the 30 million.
If there is someone
she should tell the truth to
- it's me!
- And to me!
- To all of us!
- Us! We are all interested!
Interested?
Interested in you, my daughter.
Fight the demon in you!
- Oh, don't overdo it, huh!
- In any case, there is one thing for sure
that's what the
family council decided.
Oh oh, without me?
- Yes, without you while you were peeing!
- Oh, dad!
And what I, the substitute guardian,
am telling you.
This girl, our ward,
we will all take care of her.
She will stay 3 months in one house,
3 months in the other.
We are 4 families,
that makes it a year.
- And every year the same!
- No!
Otherwise, every 8 days,
Mérindol, Château-Arnoux and I,
under my direction,
we will come to your house to check.
Count handkerchiefs,
sheets, pillow cases.
Oh my god what a disaster!
Do you like it?
Me?
Yes.
So we draw lots to find out
where she goes first.
- Yes, dear!
- Well.
Say, that sweater is great.
Oh,
there's nothing to shout about.
Do you know what she looks like,
your cousin?
- Our butcher's shop!
- A butcher shop
A pretty butcher, yes!
You don't have enough of butchers,
right?
I especially need one who understands.
Who understands what?
Everything! The calf's head
you don't like, for example
not to mention progress.
You don't understand
anything about progress!
- I do not understand anything.
- No you don't.
And who made you
buy the helical chopper?
Oh that, it was you.
It does not work.
It eats so many kilowatts
we have to block up
all the windows!
The nonsense you talk
is fatter than you!
Nonsense!
She has a brain as big
as a 10 franc piece!
You give her 20 francs of ideas,
and she explodes!
Listen,
tell me what you think.
There will be a lake
that will be full in August.
Tourists are crazy about lakes.
If she listened to me,
she would get cabins
around the lake,
umbrellas,
pedal boats,
and water skis...
Yeah.
Well your water skiing,
you can do it with your own money
if you want, but not with mine.
In my family we are in
the meat from father to son.
I married him for meat,
not water skiing.
And I warn you my dear
don't let him do it
if he asks you for money.
The pennies of a minor?
The Durance and its
torrent let off steam.
They go on a binge, eat the land,
We must defend ourselves.
This is what they do in Rochebrune.
It closes for an hour.
And this one,
who comes to work and is hungry.
He earns his living!
Me too.
You too?
Ha! Doing what?
By staying here.
Well here we are sick and tired of you.
Like with everything.
Do you hear what's going on outside?
Ah, it would make you
laugh if this flood came here
to take our home and our land.
My lands. They are mine.
Nothing is yours
until your majority.
It’s like that one.
He would not make an effort
to help his father strengthen the dike.
Monsieur is tired of
sitting all day in his car.
It's not an car,
it's a bulldozer.
Well, what about you?
Is it also a bulldozer over there
in your canteen with the men?
You like it, huh, men!
When you were staying at home
you didn't have all
this paint on your face!
Ah,
when we all went to the vineyard together,
everything worked well!
You wish,
we were shouting all the time!
Our beautiful vines...
My vines.
My vines.
My vines...
44...
45...
46...
47...
Now that the Durance is dry,
we can see what the flood
took from us: at least one hectare!
Still 3 years,
and the Durance will not go up any more.
Why, aunt?
Because it will sink into a channel.
We have implored the Lord,
and the Lord heard us.
The lands that the Durance
had taken from us,
the Durance will return them to us.
And we will no longer do the packaging
of asparagus from Cavaillon.
It’s the people from Cavaillon
who will do the packaging
for Mérindol asparagus!
This is exactly what I don't understand.
Uncle from Cavaillon is going
to be ruined by the new Durance,
and yet he goes to mass every Sunday!
Because his eyes
have never seen the true God!
But you Hortense,
you can see it if you want!
- Where?
- Market days in Pertuis.
What is he doing in Pertuis,
the good Lord?
He runs a business.
Yes, but his right hand does not
know what his left hand is doing!
And what is His name?
Jehovah of Pertuis.
And you will be presented to him.
He will lay hands on you.
I don't like being imposed on.
So you see!
It's not difficult to learn!
And yes it comes!
And say, let go of me, I wanna get down.
I don't want to.
- To get down?
- No, want to let go!
But we can't stay like this 107 years,
it's too windy!
- And elsewhere?
- Elsewhere either.
And then first,
I do think you're going a bit fast.
With the scooter?
With your hands.
Let's go back.
So, little one,
are you getting good with the scooter?
Oh she's starting to!
She seems to be happy!
Oh yes aunt, it's a nice gift.
Oh it's very natural
after the help your dad
has given to us!
You didn't go out
without a hat, at least?
Yes I did, aunt.
In the heat, like that?
But you'll catch sunstroke!
Look at us!
But on the scooter, there is air!
Air? Do you call it air?
The air is like an oven,
burns everything!
We went to the bridge,
it's pretty, the Durance was smoking.
Oh it's drought!
And still,
there is a little water in the Durance!
But when the works come,
they will take it away
down to the last drop!
But why don't you move elsewhere?
It is not easy!
It would take money
and we can't sell here!
Nobody wants to buy!
And on top of that,
I have debts.
It is not the little one
who will put your knife to your throat!
Sit down!
Don't stay up like that!
No no no no! Not on these armchairs,
it's too hot!
Put yourself on the couch.
Oh! See how pretty they are!
You will see that she will marry us!
How many crates were shipped yesterday
to Paris?
- 3,000.
- And to Edinburgh?
16,000 this week.
Oh that's good!
You said it!
It would be nice if it lasted!
Oh... you always think of your Durance!
You better thank your son!
He has the little one in his pocket,
she only has eyes for him!
Oh, but it's true!
And then, we will build!
You do not want to?
Dad said that new houses
are cold everywhere.
And then I want to live in the countryside.
Ah! And here, what is it?
- There are too many people...
- Oh, it depends on the season!
No, all the time.
With us in Ubaye, it's full of corners
but nobody was there.
Here everyone is everywhere,
it is never quiet.
And then the grape
is not real grape,
we don't make wine with it.
At your home it's the mountain,
and here it's the plain, that's all!
But why don't you want to see anyone,
why?
- I dunno.
- Lots of people, it's much better!
No, it's not better.
Too many people, that's nobody.
It's annoying.
Did your father teach you all of this?
Yes.
Father was a bear.
I love bears.
Maybe if I had a father like that,
me...
What do you mean?
Oh, nothing, nothing.
It's nice to say that about my father.
Oh, come on!
No no no!
Before, I want you to
promise me something.
Oh well always say, yes?
If we decide to get married,
I would like it to be in Ubaye
- before it gets demolished.
- Sold!
Sold?
Hmm, what a funny word...
Oh, I have never seen such a thing!
I have!
In pictures!
What is that?
- Panties.
- Not possible!
And who could have
given her a thing like this?
Aunt Cavaillon,
there is no need to look elsewhere.
She knows the score...
What score?
She is preparing her son for him.
Well, what about this?
Red is her butcher.
Black is Mérindol.
They're all after her, like...
And what do you want us to do,
what do you want us to give?
Give...
This is not how we will win her.
How?
Do you know?
Perhaps...
Come.
Is this where you're
going to find me gas?
Do you mind being alone with me?
Why are you being so polite with me?
I dunno...
- I do know.
- Ah, you know?
I'm coming!
Are you coming to get her now?
Well, you see.
She has to take the bus!
We changed our minds!
Who are we?
The Higher Council of the Republic!
I've spent enough
money for today,
I'm going back home!
If you see little Hortense,
kiss her for me!
Hortense...
When I think that she
and Victor in Cavaillon,
they may already be married!
They can't without the father!
He's the tutor anyway!
And she is a minor!
What is needed is that Georges
pulls himself up by his bootstraps
- when she comes back.
- Your brother is not capable.
He is capable. But he is afraid.
Because she has money.
If it was a girl like me...
- But he won't want to marry
- It's not about getting married.
What do you want him to do then?
Give her a taste...
Hi Louis!
[Singing 'La digue Du cul']
So?
Good for the armed services,
Long live France!
A country that sacrifices the
export of asparagus and melon
for vacuum cleaners
is a lost country.
Daddy you are bugging us, give over!
Victor!
I don't like drunkards.
And I don't like girls,
who don't like drunkards.
You see it is timely!
- Go to bed!
- With you?
Victor!
Respect your fiancée a little!
And why would I?
I don't need money anymore!
In the army I will have 300 francs a month,
I will send you money orders!
And if I go to the Navy,
I will send you water for the melons!
So I say, no more fiancée!
Victor!
Why are you talking about money?
Can't you see he's
had a donkey-full?
Barrel,
the phrase is had a barrel-full!
Victor!
Why are you talking about money?
Because we can never talk about
you without talking about money!
- Ask him!
- Victor!
Ah, Victor...
In the difficult circumstances
we are going through,
with all that I spent
on your education...
You don't know what you're talking about!
Oh, shut up!
I'm good for the armed services,
right?
Victor...
4 million we owe him,
plus 30 million, so a good marriage!
You can get stuffed!
Oh froggy, did you find me?
It was not difficult!
Even when I was a little girl,
you left your net here
before going to the mountains!
Hush, don't talk about a net,
it's poaching!
Had you come tomorrow
you couldn't have found me,
I'm going to look for the herd.
Take me uncle.
You don't want your family council
to get the gendarmes on my ass!
No of course, uncle.
I came to say hello to you
on the way to Château-Arnoux.
The butcher, already?
They don't want you anymore in Cavaillon?
Oh yes... Too much.
But it's me who doesn't want them.
And, like every year,
with the seasons,
the herd goes up
in June in the mountains,
spends the summer on the summits,
descends to Crau in October.
But, for 2 years since her father died,
Hortense will no
longer live free up there
with this shepherd uncle
that the rest of the family doesn't like.
Now that she’s here
let us take this opportunity to
present her to Jehovah of Pertuis!
You know, Élie...
have you spoken to him, to Jehovah,
about the tractor?
You shouldn't have, it's still too early!
Élie, you have no faith.
Jehovah said
I was right to tell him.
- But you shouldn't have!
- He will probe her innermost being.
But it's too early,
she hasn't got her money yet!
If she decides to buy
a tractor from Jehovah,
Jehovah will pray for her
to find her money!
The sooner he prays, the better.
The Lord often takes
a long time to decide...
In his eyes, woman,
1000 years goes by like a day.
Yes.
But our land, we won't wait 1000
years to get it back!
Bring her just now,
at the end of the service.
The 110th service of the
restricted church is completed.
Hey!
Sir.
Come to me without fear! Come on,
come on.
To do what?
I'm going to probe you,
poor little one.
- Why poor little one?
- I said poor little one,
because I know you
will be rich one day.
What will you do with all this money?
Will you be stingy, or not?
Yes, in truth,
what will you do with all this money?
Oh, I still have time to think about it!
Poor soul! Trumpets of judgment
could burst forth at any moment!
What can it do?
I haven't got my money yet!
Do you at least have good intentions?
- I dunno!
- Ha, you have to know!
Look at them.
You are not blushing?
But why should I blush?
Because the rich must
always blush in front of the poor.
They are not that poor!
The Durance will give
them back all their land!
The Durance will not give
them the tools of plowing.
Master, it may be too early...
I said I probe, and I probe.
Élie, let him probe the lamb.
Yes, in truth,
who will give these poor people
the pickaxe and the shovel of plowing?
Oh, you know,
my tutor will give me enough to pay them
the pickaxe and the shovel
of plowing as you say!
Why did you doubt?
Her heart is pure!
Come.
Look.
It's not a shovel and a pickaxe,
it's tractors!
The tractor is the pick
of this day and age.
There are 3 models: 600,000,
800,000, 1 million 200,000 francs.
As with all members
of the restricted church,
I would make you 10%.
Ah,
because it is you who sell the tractors?
The Lord has given your uncle
a mission to till the land.
The Lord has given me the
mission to sell the plowing tools!
It's there, it's there!
Here, look!
They are doing it to me,
my lake!
Come on, work there! Lazy!
You'll see, at Château-Arnoux,
it will be like this.
But much bigger.
It will be great!
Because next to here,
Château-Arnoux
will be the Mediterranean!
It will have people from all countries!
Americans, English,
and even Parisians!
Thousands of hunks with legs!
The best!
Bare feet, tanned beefsteak!
There will be 6-story diving boards!
Cabins with bathrooms!
And there will be music?
Music...
Large philharmonic orchestras, yes!
And they will play night and day.
What will they play?
Tangos and swaying waltzes!
Oh yes...
And then at night,
you will put lanterns on the boats,
and we will walk around
the lake listening to music...
You and me?
What? You're too fat!
And while we're slaving around here,
Miss Hortense is out!
She could still have helped me!
I was the one who didn't want her to.
That's what I blame you for!
Since her father died,
you've been on your knees before her!
But this time it goes beyond the limits!
10 times a day,
I find you together in the cold room!
Oh, how could we be getting heated
in the cold room?
Watch this...
Say, then, won't you
give me a kiss?
It's not the moment!
Can't you wait your
turn like everyone else?
We have news.
Today Hortense will be back.
So what?
Is it difficult to
operate a bulldozer?
No.
When you know how, you go for it,
that's all it takes!
Well Hortense, is the same.
Since you know how,
go for it!
Hortense?
She is a young lady...
30 million...
She never talks about it,
she must know where it is!
All the more reason!
If my brother was doing a
little better with her...
Ah, I don't see your brother
having any part of this!
It's because you let
her live like a young lady!
Make her wash the dishes, like me!
When her hands are all wrinkled
and she smells of bleach,
she will be less reticent, you'll see!
So...
Did they get you to work?
I always do what they tell me to.
I can do that as well!
Like many other things...
What else, huh?
Dare you say it?
- I would even dare to do it.
- Ah?
However...
Not with you!
Get away!
Go!
Go to your room.
Why?
You will be better!
But I'm fine here!
And plus I have
to do the dishes!
For once I will do them myself,
the dishes.
Go up to your room, you'll be better.
And you too!
You?
What do you want?
To see your cousin?
He is not here.
I'll wait for him!
So it's in the street that
you're going to wait for him!
Because little girls
who have fun diverting
married men from their conjugal duty,
I don't want them
hanging round my place.
Safe trip, little one!
Do you need anything?
I'm looking for my uncle.
Who is your uncle?
He'll be fishing.
Ah, the shepherd? Oh,
he can't be far!
You're not afraid?
We're not afraid, but we tremble!
Overnight, the Durance took 4 hectares
of ours and the house!
When I woke up the little ones
it was in the vineyard
and by evening,
it was in the kitchen!
I was going to have this one.
I had him in the sheepfold.
We are still there,
in the sheepfold.
But come in! Enter a moment!
No, no thanks,
I'm going to find my uncle.
Oh he must not be far away,
he went that way.
It had to happen...
I know them! I always said,
it’s a pain in the ass family.
Do you want me with you, uncle?
But yes my dear, I want you.
Stay with me, you'll see,
we're going to fish for sardines!
Here we can breathe.
Come on, watch out, I have a nice one.
Hop! And there you go!
Get up, froggy!
- Ah!
- Hold on.
Give me your hand, look!
It's gold!
Oh, not a lot, but in the past
people were happy with it!
I don't like gold.
Well, you are the only one.
It sparkles, and it's
not the ugliest thing!
One day I found an
old man in the Durance!
What was he doing?
He was dead!
And a real gentleman,
with a beard and a bowler hat!
The bowler hat was much lower down,
it had floated.
The gentleman hadn't.
He had a broken heart.
I don't have any more.
What the hell are you doing here?
You're not there anymore, right?
We're going to the gendarmerie!
We need to know where she is,
I'm the guardian anyway, right?
And the others? And
Cavaillon, is he not a guardian too?
He is responsible.
Just put him in the loop.
Yes, we will write to him.
No, we're going to phone
him. And the others as well.
There's someone there.
Go see the scooter quickly,
maybe it's her!
Yes yes, I'm going!
Oh god be praised, there she is,
there she is! She returns to the fold.
6 months since the child disappeared.
And during this time,
the dike which bars the Durance rises.
This upheaval upsets moral habits.
Normally, they wouldn't even have
thought of searching the Ubaye house.
Still nothing!
Oh, it makes no sense!
Félix must have hidden it somewhere
that will not be submerged!
I will not be moved from the idea
that he hid it here, at home,
for Hortense to find.
There is still the attic that
we haven't looked at again!
We have already searched it twice!
This will be once more!
Let's take advantage
while Hortense is gone!
Everyone is looking for it.
Unfortunately, if she comes back
and someone finds the money
it won't go to us.
The dirty little bitch!
What's wrong with you,
did you find something?
I found the treasure...
The treasure of Miss Hortense Favre,
daughter of the owner Félix Favre.
When I think the two of us
used to play with corks
and barrel hoops...
And that I see this...
Little doll...
The doll's house...
The doll's room...
The doll's grocery...
It sickens my stomach!
This is what I found!
What is that?
A star.
What are you going to do with it?
Mystery!
I don't like mysteries!
Never mind.
The stars are always mysteries.
They are Saint-Vincent stones,
like the ones you wear!
The jewelers work with them,
but it is us who find them!
But what are you going to do with it?
Well I polish them by rubbing
them between my fingers.
And after?
Curious!
No, tell me uncle!
Yes, say it!
Too bad for the surprise,
I'm going to make you a necklace!
Oh but not for now!
For your birthday next spring!
Because you are a little frog...
I counted!
The 20 are there!
As much as you gave me!
Do you think I can't count?
- Hey, Simon!
- What?
Aren't they your friends?
Look...
The blessed family!
And watch out!
Don't hurt him!
You mustn't hurt her,
but you must take her!
You have to take her,
even if it hurts a little!
Here she is!
- Yeah, with these people!
- Here she is!
Oh, are you so hungry that
now you are hunting thrushes?
Simon!
You have no shame?
You should hide yourself away!
But I was hiding! It was
you who came to find me!
Don't be so bold!
I have a justice of the peace with me!
- I'll fix everything!
- Ha ha ha ha ha...
Wait, wait!
God is with us.
Oh it's not God who is with you,
it's the gendarmes!
Hey there, in the name of the law!
What does your law want now!
This girl is a minor.
She must return to her guardian.
Try to touch her!
- Do you want to take another 6 months?
- I don't care about your prison!
You're not touching the girl!
Rebellion?
I like it!
- We're going to give you a kicking.
- Come tell me that here!
You don't have the guts
to enter the water, you fraud!
You couldn't bear wet feet like mine!
Catch her, go ahead!
But hurry up!
Oh, if I don't go...
Oh, froggy!
They are getting away!
Oh, I'm going!
Oh no no, not you with your rheumatism!
Come, come over here,
there must be a passage.
Yes, over there!
Stop, in the name of the law!
Stay there, stay with me froggy!
They won't touch you!
No uncle, leave me,
it's up to me!
You don't want me to be unhappy!
Without that, I don't love you anymore.
Oh, it's slippery!
Come on, come over there!
- Come on, come on!
- Oh, I'm good!
Come on!
Come on, come here!
Come on, come down!
Let's go!
Come on, let's go!
My brother's daughter
between 2 gendarmes...
Yes, well there is room for
others between 2 gendarmes!
But this little one is crazy!
She's crazy,
but she's forgotten how to be stupid!
That does not prevent you
from being ungrateful!
Why?
Because I kept the scooter,
or because I gave your son back to you!
After all we did for you...
What did you do?
You led me to Jehovah of Pertuis!
But what is he selling,
your Jehovah of Pertuis,
places in paradise or tractors?
But I was nice!
You yes, if you were alone.
But you have your wife.
I'm cold.
My policeman is cold.
And besides what are we discussing,
this girl is a minor, it's the law,
she only has to shut up.
Precisely, I don't want to shut up!
I want to tell you all about it.
There are some who would be better
than me between 2 gendarmes.
I'm not forcing you to return
to Rochebrune, what we want...
I don't want to go
to one or the other.
So where will you go?
To my father's place.
But he is dead, your father.
Never mind.
And Ubaye, it will be demolished.
Never mind!
I was fine with Simon...
But you have come!
So I'm going to my father's house.
Home.
Oh, it doesn't cut...
Here!
You understand,
if the little one is in debt,
my husband is a guardian,
he will have to pay!
We give her a little bit of money,
but not much!
I don't know what you gave her,
but she paid me with a
brand new 10,000 franc note.
And look what she got installed!
It is a machine that costs
more than 100,000 francs!
It was the guy from Gap
who installed it who told me.
But what keeps you from asking?
I don't want to answer you.
And that?
And that?
What did you buy it with?
With my money.
Ah, you admit that you found it!
I admit that I found pennies from heaven,
as uncle Mérindol would say.
I said a prayer to Jehovah of Pertuis,
and this set fell from the sky
with an electrician from Gap!
And it doesn't work.
All the lamps have burned out.
Lend me 30,000 francs uncle,
and I will have them replaced!
Are you done kidding me?
Speak, or I'll make you talk to me!
Well, I'll tell you everything!
The money is there.
In the drawer, under the post.
Ah, it's not the 30 million!
Shall we take her?
Well where?
With us?
There will never
be a better opportunity!
She won't start yelling!
We wrap her, and we lock her up.
- And over there, we'll make her talk.
- And this way,
if she has something broken,
it will not be known!
You can go, I'll stay.
Haha, nothing doing,
everyone stays put!
We will search,
but not one without the other!
Trust reigns!
You want my foot in the ass?
They pilfered her too,
and took her to Rochebrune,
as she carried the rabbits.
But she only has 40 pounds of anger,
while the Rochebrune family
has 4 large bodies,
weighed down with ancestral terrors,
and modern fears.
By what night work
are we going to raise walls,
close doors, block windows
around this little girl,
to make her spill the beans.
No no, not these two,
I'm keeping them with me.
Our land is here
as soon as we remove
the stones, it is below,
we will find all of it!
How far did it go, our field?
I no longer recognize it,
we will bring in the land registry clerk!
- We will plant cypresses.
- We will grow asparagus!
We will be as big as Cavaillon!
Cavaillon now is the Sahara!
Oh, you always exaggerate!
But there isn't a drop of water left!
We will die with our mouths open!
The apocalypse!
But you're not going to talk like
the Mérindol cousins now, are you?
I will speak as I want.
And what does apocalypse mean?
It's when they take the
water from under your feet,
let the trees dry like matches,
grow melons are like marbles,
when you have to put bacon
with strawberries to have juice,
the apocalypse...
it's when we are reduced to pigs,
like this.
How will you pay
off the 4 million
that you owe to little Hortense?
Well, we will go bankrupt, we will
go to prison, we will go to the hospice.
Oh, you're talking nonsense, we don't
hear about this little girl these days.
Ah,
you'll hear about her when she turns 18!
You just have to wait,
you will see the bailiff coming...
In 15 days, she will be an adult.
What will we do?
Shall we open the door for her?
What do you want us to do?
Had we found the money,
we could have opened the door for her,
we would have seen it coming.
But here,
all that we've done is for nothing.
Cavaillon and the whole
clique will arrive in 15 days.
- If they hear all this noise...
- We have to put her somewhere else.
And where?
In Ubaye?
Everything will be demolished in Ubaye!
There are still cellars under the stones...
It's tomorrow.
Yes, they will all come.
What are we going to
do with the little one?
It's not difficult to find!
What have you found this time?
It is you who put
us in this mess!
I put you where you stand when
you wanted to get out of this hole!
Did you find life beautiful?
3 vines, 2 meadows,
not even enough
to afford a luxury!
Your whole life within these walls.
And then what,
you chicken out at the end!
Well, the little one,
we can say that she is gone.
Wasn't everyone okay
with her going to Ubaye?
Well, she went.
We even cared about her,
since the mother went to see the grocer
and that the grocer can certify
that the little one didn't need us.
She paid for television...
There are engineers who
do not have television...
What did she do afterwards
when she had to move?
Do we know?
Oh yes, we know...
We know it. And we
have our lives to live.
There is me,
there is you,
in a few years,
these two will have to rest.
The hospice is not beautiful either.
The water rises...
The water rises.
We are not the ones raising the water...
In principle you did not have to alert me,
no legal text requires you to do so.
She was also on the
eve of her majority.
When did you notice
her disappearance?
- Well, a while ago.
- We noticed
the day Ubaye moved,
she was not there.
And you consoled
yourself with the furniture!
- Hey, I say!
- Let it go!
You really don't
know where she is?
Well no!
What about you?
No no!
Unless there is a liar!
- A liar?
- Yes,
what you can't see has you befuddled!
If you mean the 30 million,
we just told you that
we haven't found it.
We were there when
they demolished the house.
- We looked...
- First you didn't have the right!
- You would have preferred it to be lost!
- Yes!
Don't get mad.
What are you looking for,
the 30 million or your niece?
- Both.
- Who do you suspect?
That one!
- Me?
- Yes!
- What did I do?
- Everything!
- Everything what?
- Always the loverboy,
but especially since
your wife is gone!
Ah, notary,
I accuse him of embezzlement.
And I know what I'm saying!
But let's see,
embezzlement, it seems strange to me...
You understand well, notary,
if I use the exact word in front of women,
that means that I have proof!
He turned her head, this little girl!
He found his wife,
and he is able to divorce her
and to marry our poor niece!
You call that embezzlement!
Naturally.
We did not come here
to hear nasty words.
We believed that a family council,
especially the day when we have
to proclaim the majority of the ward,
was to be a sincere and moral meeting.
Sir, I don't have infinite time,
you will settle your lesser affairs
between yourselves.
In the absence of the ward,
we could even say heiress,
I will register your
guardianship accounts.
What if she doesn't come back?
Who would inherit?
No one!
The State!
The deposit and consignment office.
A missing person is not
presumed dead until after 30 years.
Or,
we must discover the corpse.
You cannot settle an estate
without a corpse.
- But the lawyer said...
- Your lawyer is gone!
So I, as a guardian, I tell you...
Where are you coming from?
You're all wet!
Oh my God!
And here I am.
I was afraid of arriving late.
You were languishing...
So talk!
I'm listening to you!
And where were you?
And where were you guys?
We were at home!
With your Bible?
Yes, with our Bible.
And you, with your big ledger!
Oh, it's not that big!
And since you were at home,
you never wondered where I was?
Fundamentally, you were right.
I was where my guardian had put me.
It wasn't us, it was the water.
But yes, of course, it was the water.
It was the water that locked
me in the room up there!
And then it was still the water that
barricaded me into the Ubaye cellar!
Here.
It's the water.
- Do I understand correctly...
- Yes, you understand!
They did what you did!
They were at home, very quiet!
It was the water, not them!
It goes up,
but it's not them who make it go up!
The water drowns me but it
is not them who drown me!
Oh,
but is it a family of murderers?
Oh you, immediately the big words!
We are not going
to give them a medal!
No...
Because they failed in their plan.
They even missed it right
in front of them!
- She found the nest egg!
- Yes
I found the nest egg.
You found it,
but if you hid it in Ubaye,
now it's at the bottom of the water!
I had hidden it in Ubaye.
But someone saved it.
- Who?
- Him.
Oh leave him,
he's as stupid as you are!
He hugged the
nest egg like that.
He came to carry it
in the cart like that!
And then he came to
place it here like this!
And now I'm going to take it,
and like that!
Pass me a knife.
- Lord!
- The set!
- TV!
- Oh!
- Thunder of Zeus!
- Come...
Come and all see! The more you are,
the less I have to fear.
Well, the money, there it is.
The millions are here!
And take a good look,
because it doesn't happen every day
to see 30 at once.
- May the will of God be done.
- Ah yes, but quickly!
And you.
You also want God to
take care of you quickly?
Quickly or not quickly,
we are settled.
I don't think so, uncle.
You're not going to kick us
out the door?
Harm the family? No.
I'm in it.
You will remain what you are.
- It is enough for us
- It is enough for us too.
You worked at the dam,
you will surely go to a factory...
You will remain single...
And here I am!
You?
Marseilles...
Why Marseilles?
The sidewalk, maybe.
Where did she learn all these
horrors? Not at my house!
There are times, woman, when
you have to know how to tell the truth.
That's a good word, uncle.
So good that it will
bring you something.
- This famous tractor...
- You'll give it to us?
Oh no! no!
Our Cavaillon uncle
will give it to you.
- Why me?
- Yes, why us?
Because you owe me 4 million.
Still, a bill of over a million?
Just the day I lose my water?
But nothing's been taken from you!
And you know that if it was taken from you,
you would've been paid!
Myself, I've paid.
My god it's true,
I never thought about it myself!
I did!
But then why do you
always cry like a calf?
But you always have
to shout for money!
Okay, in the street it's okay,
but why at home?
Well because you have to shout
all the time, if you want to be sincere.
- And you.
- Oh, I have everything I need.
- You kept your butcher's shop?
- Oh, vaguely...
I open on Monday when the others close.
- And your wife?
- I have my lake.
Pack your little bundle
and take it to the notary.
The notary can go to blazes!
You're not going to hide it!
Yes!
I will conceal it!
I'm family, right?
But what are you going
to do with all this money?
Make it take the air,
it needs it.
- Goodbye Hortense!
- Goodbye!
Froggy! My little froggy!
You cry!
- I'm an old ass!
- Oh me too!
Ah no, you are not an old ass.
So, have you reached the age of majority?
You left, you came back,
how beautiful you are!
But where are you going?
I knew you were out of prison,
and...
I've come to stay with you.
With me!
Doesn't it make you happy?
Oh yes,
but I have never regretted my life so much!
Why?
My time wasted, right and left,
if I had a house,
if I was established,
if I could give you things!
I have a boss, I rent,
I have nothing of my own
- where I can keep you!
- I have it.
I have a house, I am established,
I can give to you, I have all that!
But where do you have everything?
- There!
- There?
- Money!
- But what money?
But the ones we were looking for!
Can it really be?!
Have you found it?
Well done froggy!
I will explain it to you.
It's here!
Yes,
but I have nothing to do with it.
You have everything to do with it.
- Who cried when he saw me again?
- Oh but that was easy!
Well, the others didn't manage it.
No.
These pennies are yours, you will
have to get married, and you will see.
So it's you who's leaving me?
I will have to marry
like an orphan!
I will never leave you.
So, isn't it easier?
But what did you have in mind?
A herd,
you or the two of us if you want,
I know your boss wants
to sell his sheepfold...
Yes.
He told me about it.
- Where is it?
- There!
If you got your million,
it's yours.
- I have 30!
- 30! Bugger!
So you can also buy the land!
The Durance will water this country.
And the land she took from you,
up in the mountain,
the Durance will return them to you here,
in this plain.
My sweetheart is like the water,
She is like the running water
She runs like a stream,
that the children follow
Run, run
as fast as you can
Never, never
can you catch her
When the shepherd plays his pipe,
when the water dances
She leads my flock,
among the olives prances
Come now, come now,
my kids, my lambkins away
In the laurel,
the thyme and the serpolet
One day, under the reeds,
slept my running water
Came the lads of the hamlet
for to take her captive
To close, to close
your double-locked cage
Between your fingers,
running water will slip away
JUst like the small boats
carried away by the running water
In her eyes the youthful lads
drift away on the shoreline
Sail now, sail now
for tomorrow you'll come into quay
Running water is not yet
in the marrying way
Yet one fine morning at dawn,
my running water
will laundry her trousseau,
like any dutiful daughter
Cry now, cry now,
if alone I stay
the little streamlet
into the sea goes away.