Gervaise

This is a beautifully made, but terribly sad film, based on one of Emile Zola's most depressing stories of French life in the 1800s.

Gervaise is a poor woman with a poorer choice of men. She is loving, smart, and industrious, but falls for superficial, lazy drunks who take advantage of her. While she tries to provide for her family by following her dream of owning her own shop, her husband drinks away the profits and complicates her life by inviting her former lover to live in their house.

I can't say enough good things about Maria Schell's glowing performance as a tragic heroine. Her beautiful, expressive face is impossible to forget, and her emotional range is impressive. The rest of the cast is also pitch-perfect, from her various neighbors and clients, down to the lovely little girl who plays daughter Nana with touching sadness.

Surgeon general's warning: don't watch this film while under the influence of alcohol or mood- depressing drugs. It might push you over your limit.

"Gervaise" is a film based on the story "L'Assommoir" by Emile Zola. It had been filmed several times before (these were mostly silent versions) and this is the most recent version of his story. It's all about a rather pathetic poor lady (Gervaise--Maria Schell) and her horrible choices of men. It is very well made but not exactly a pleasant film. In fact, at times, it's a bit painful to watch.

When the film begins, Auguste leaves Gervaise for another woman-- leaving her with children to raise. Eventually she marries Coupeau and their life seems to be going well. However, when the husband gets injured on the job, he degenerates to alcoholism and makes Gervaise's life completely miserable. The husband even knowingly brings his new friend, Auguste, home to live with them---knowing that long ago he was his wife's lover! At the same time, Gervaise has fallen for the only decent man in her life, the blacksmith. What's next in this tale of misery? See the film...if you dare.

This story is both about the wretched lives of the urban poor, as they are exploited, and about the disintegration of the morals of this class as well. It's not exactly pleasant viewing and is also clearly a lesson about the ills of drink--a very popular message when the film was made and remade several times during the silent era. Nearly everyone in this film is nasty and selfish and despite all this is IS well made. The acting, sets and direction by René Clément are all quite good...but you have to be willing to sit through nearly two hours of wretchedness and who wants to do that?!

Against every preconception I could think of, I loved this film. Gervaise is not only an interesting parable which rightly exposes the us to the dangers of drink, but making Maria Schell the protagonist casts the light of feminism into the equation. There is no way to ignore this interpretation either given Schell's brilliantly righteous performance as Gervaise.

Her husband is a drunken fool, no longer able to bring in money to support his family following an accident François Perier plays a drunk worryingly convincingly, but Gervaise is far from helpless. She puts up with the incessant tirade of abuse, womanising and eventually the violence. She is vulnerable yet forceful, respected but never entirely respectful. Nonetheless she is a protagonist and she isn't without her flaws. Her forgiveness of her husband cannot be criticised; we mustn't forget that we're watching a film about the second empire. The issues however are increasingly relevant. Both to Clement as a director in the 1950's and to anyone who decides that picking up a bottle can only harm the consumer.

François Perier as the alcoholic Henri Coupeau is unsurpassed as sick man having his overdose and delirium by alcohol. Maria Shell as Gervaise is convincing as the poor woman working day and night for the drunken men she is having in her home and her little daughter! This movie should be shown to all people having drinking problems. As it is set in a different period (the end of the second Emperor Napoleon's reign) is has something universal. The general atmosphere of this epoch is however very accurate.

Why Maria Schell?If you have read Zola's masterpiece -"l'assommoir" the seventh of the Rougon Macquart saga,and one of the finest, surpassed only by "Germinal"- ,you wonder why Clement chose her when the part was tailor made for Simone Signoret.On the other hand ,Suzy Delair was the ideal Virginie Poisson,hypocrite venomous and vile .They say her buttocks were "dubbed" (by Liliane Montevecchi's) during the famous scene of the spanking ! René Clément did a good job even if his adaptation seemed sometimes tame and timid .Zola's depictions are so intense that it's hard to transfer them to the screen.But the " fête de Gervaise " ,with the gargantuan meal comes close to fully recreate it,and it was not easy since in the book it spreads over about twenty pages.

Despise some reservations,this is an unqualified must for good cinema lovers.