jean giono: the man who planted trees

hey it's saturday morning. the rain has been merrily bucketing down all night and doesn't look set to stop very soon so i think a movie would be just the ticket!

jean giono was born in the south of france in the beautiful town of manosque. astonishingly, he did not become a full-time writer until the age of thirty five after having worked in a bank and served time as a soldier. the man who planted trees was first published in 1953.
the story takes place in 1910 and features the narration of a twenty year-old man undertaking a hiking trip through the wilderness of provence and the alps. he eventually runs out of water at which point he meets a middle-aged shepherd named elzéard bouffier. the narrator decides to stay with bouffier and learn all that he can about his life. among the many observations he makes is the one that sustains the story and that is that as bouffier follows his sheep, he makes holes in the ground with his curling pole and drops into the holes acorns that he has collected from many miles away.
the narrator eventually leaves bouffier to fight in the first world war. he returns after the war to discover that a forest has taken root in the previously desolate valley, replete with streams, and birds and animals. and so the story unfolds of one man’s incredible gift to the world. . .

the man who planted trees part one . . .
if your interest is piqued through having seen part one, then perhaps you should nip over to google video who have very generously hosted the film in its entirety . . .

a big thanks to goldenrod for pointing out the glitch with parts two and three of the man who planted trees over at youtube . . . .

similar stories - true stories - have taken place around the world through the efforts of an organization called trees for the future. here is a promotional video made available through trees for the future . . .


if you would like to read the story, there are many many versions available in all the usual places.

while you are here, i would also recommend giono’s brilliant and lovely “joy of man’s desiring”. here’s a sample of the writing you will find inside this wonder: “it was an extraordinary night. the wind had been blowing: it had ceased, and the stars had sprouted like weeds. they were in tufts with roots of gold, full-blown sunk into the darkness and raising shining masses of night.

jourdan could not sleep. he turned and tossed.
“the night is wonderfully bright,” he said to himself.
he had never seen the like before.
the sky was vibrating like a sheet of metal. you could not tell what made it do so because all was still, even the tiniest willow twig. it was not the wind. it was simply that the sky came down and touched the earth, raked the plains, struck the mountains, and made the corridors of the forests ring. then it rose once more to the far heights.”

i managed to spread the reading of the four hundred and seventy two pages of this book over three years, reading it in spoonfuls, so rich and gorgeous was the text.